WORK FORCE 2002 -- Building Strength
BY CAROLINE MILLER
Building an ongoing training program, even in the best of times, tends to be at the bottom of a printer's to-do list. But, when businesses are faced with economic downturns, it often slides right off that list. However, ignoring employee development can be detrimental in the long run, stresses Greg Morrison, regional training manager for Cadmus Communications.
"Several years ago, we came to the realization that we wouldn't be successful in the long term without investing in our people. Our employees are our most critical resource," he reports.
So Cadmus designed a dynamic training program to address its workers' needs, according to Morrison. "We're not about 'token' training, where you schedule people in an hour-long seminar here and there. Last year, Cadmus employees logged 15,000 hours of training, all of which is designed to help them meet the skill requirements for their jobs."
The Cadmus training system is based on a simple concept. "Our training program is comprehensive, systematic and structured. It's not an arbitrary, skills-based program," he remarks.
Four Key Areas
The Cadmus initiative focuses on four areas: preparation, delivery, evaluation and maintenance. It addresses employee needs at every level—including on-the-job efforts, classroom and hands-on classes, to programs that help develop management and leadership skills, as well as improved customer service.
"So often programs focus on technical skills, but customer service and sales employees are often left behind. We're expanding our customer service training. We are working with them on their 'soft' skills, in addition to the technical training they need to be successful," states Morrison.
This targeted, comprehensive training program has reaped a wealth of benefits for Cadmus. "As people's skills increase, so does the quality of the work they produce. Training also helps address employee turnover because it gives workers a sense of opportunity within the company," Morrison adds. "It instills a sense of a career, not just a job, and promotes job security. They see us investing in the company and in them. It builds morale and, as a consequence, our business and revenues continue to grow."
Unfortunately, programs like Cadmus' are few and far between, contends Susan Reif, the National Association for Printing Leadership's (NAPL's) professional development coordinator.
"It's sad that not many printers are doing much training," she adds. "Unfortunately, when we see a downturn in the economy, training is often the first expense cut. It's the last thing you should eliminate when the economy slows."
NAPL Executive Vice President Joe Truncale agrees. "We know that every printer has access to the same equipment, so the only competitive advantage companies have today is the value of their people," he reports. "A comprehensive, well-thought-out training program is as important as any of the lengths printers go through to maintain their equipment."
To help printers begin to address their training needs, NAPL has designed a wide variety of programs that focus on five core areas: financial, operations, technology, sales and marketing, and human resources. "Right now our best-attended programs are related to sales. It's often an area that is neglected, but one that is incredibly important," reveals Reif.
NAPL's Center for Professional Development is an example of the association's commitment to on-going training. Opened in 1998, the center provides three training rooms and all of the equipment needed to help facilitate any type of seminar. NAPL is also beginning to investigate ways in which to develop seminars that can be accessed over the Web.
Other Associations
NAPL is not the only industry association that provides a wide variety of training programs and curriculums. The Printing Industries of America (PIA) and Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) also offer several conferences, seminars and workshops, as well as a train-the-trainer and a press operator simulation program, according to Christy Holstead, GATF's training curriculum coordinator.
"As competition has increased, we have seen a lot more people looking for information and developing training programs," remarks Holstead. "We've had inquiries from all kinds of companies. It generally tends to be the larger printers, but training is not restricted to big companies. And what's important to remember is that you do not need to have a professional trainer to do this," she explains.
One unique training opportunity available to printers through GATF is the SHOTS program. Developed by Sinapse Graphics International—a French software company specializing in training simulators—SHOTS is a highly integrated, interactive software package used as a training system for press operators. It re-creates the operational aspects of a sheetfed press, from the infeed through the printing and coating units, to the press delivery. With two modes of operation (perfect or problem mode), SHOTS can teach apprentices and new operators the proper skills and techniques of running a press, while allowing experienced operators to sharpen their skills and extend their knowledge.
Taking a SHOT
GATF distributes SHOTS and a similar heatset web press operation simulator to sheetfed and web offset offset printing companies. It conducts a two-day program on how to use SHOTS, and provides technical support for the system. The simulator enables printers to train apprentices without losing machinery production time and materials or jeopardizing plant safety.
For those who can't afford to fly to GATF's workshops in this economy, GATF has released PrintScape: A Crash Course in Graphic Communications. Ranging from $30 to $200, this fast-paced orientation to the practices, processes and terminology of printing can be used as an in-house training program or modified to a half-day course that covers the relevant essentials of any operation. As a self-study course, it can be completed in a few short sittings.
Another way that printers can ensure that their employees have the essential skills they need is to turn to the Graphic Arts Education and Resources Foundation's (GAERF) Carl Didde WorkPLACE (Work-related Print Learning and Career Enhancement) program. The program was developed by NAPL and maintained for 12 years before being turned over to GAERF. WorkPLACE provides students and existing employees with the skills necessary to succeed in the graphic communications field. It offers four fully developed and independent courses in math, critical thinking and problem solving, communications and the graphic arts process.
WorkPLACE prepares prospective employees, but also augments the skills of the current work force. Since the program's introduction in late 1990, more than 14,000 graphic arts employees and students have participated in it.
While there are a number of traditional ways to develop and train employees, there is an exciting new future in the world of online learning. Whether it's a distance learning program through a local vocational program or through a Webcast, the Internet offers the ability to offer on-going training without the burdens of travel budgets and lost productivity. The Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT's) Corporate Education and Training (CET) organization launched one such program at PRINT 01.
CET is a strategic partnership between RIT and IO Technologies, which developed and distributes a series of introductory and more advanced, competency-based, online training programs. Upon completion of the competency-based courses, participants are prepared to take a series of independently administered exams resulting in industry certification, explains Eric Kenly, CEO of IO Technologies.
Currently, CET offers several programs: becoming a print professional, introduction to document imaging workflows, introduction to digital asset management, profitable digital solutions, introduction to variable data imaging, introduction to getting it on the Web and practical color management. These self-paced programs require about eight hours each to complete, and learners can access them through their Internet browsers, says Kenly.
Taken separately or together, they offer organizations and individuals a comprehensive foundation in concepts vital to surviving in a rapidly changing business environment. The competency standards addressed in each module are based on learning objectives developed by a panel of industry experts.
Each objective is statistically verified by an independent research organization. He adds that this ensures that the program's content meets or exceeds the expectations of industry professionals, who have to apply the knowledge that they learn to practical applications in the field.
The programs use adaptive learning technology that allows users to select the specific objectives that they want to master at the beginning of each session. The system ensures that the content delivered to the participant is targeted and that ensuing quizzes and feedback—built into the modules to reinforce key concepts—test only the topics that the learner specifies in the beginning of the session.
"We've had a groundswell of people asking for online education in the graphic arts industry," Kenly concludes.
A Future Work Force
In 1995, the Milwaukee-area printing industry faced a very difficult challenge. They needed 400 graphic communications graduates to meet the current labor demand. Instead, they got just 24 graduates. Realizing that they needed help in finding new recruits to man their plants, the printing community turned to Waukesha County Technical College, in Pewaukee, WI, to help them find a solution to their dilemma.
What resulted was a unique industry, government and educational partnership that led to the development of a state-of-the-art, 50,000-square-foot graphic communications facility, says Dean Flowers, associate dean of the Graphic Communications Center at Waukesha County Technical College.
Understanding that the technical college was in a position to help find a solution for the community, the college decided to take on the challenge.
The college's short-term solution to the problem was the initial development of a part-time graphic communications printing and publishing program. But Flowers and others realized that a part-time program wasn't even going to begin to address the dwindling labor force that the community of 177 printers was staring into.
The college was cognizant that the only way to find new sources of labor for the local industry was to nurture them in a comprehensive program that began in high school and stretched through the state university system.
So Flowers began by interviewing graphic arts teachers, designers, facilities managers, as well as CEOs, presidents and key personnel among the major printing companies in the area, to find out what the ideal graphics laboratory would look like. Slowly, a more permanent solution began to take shape.
The task culminated two years later with the passage of a $25 million taxpayer referendum of which $5.4 million was slated for that ideal graphic center. An additional $1.8 million would come later in the form of private gifts and grants to ensure that the center got up and running.
Today, the facility—which opened in January—includes a Heidelberg Speedmaster 74-2PH; four Komori S2260 presses; five Heidelberg GTOs; a Mark Andy flexo press; full prepress capabilities, including computer-to-plate; and a complete finishing department. Three graphic arts teachers, all of whom bring an extensive, real-world experience to the classroom, administer the two-year program, according to Flowers.
The associates program is a combination of classroom work, hands-on laboratory work and internships, he adds.
Waukesha's program now offers a one-year technical diploma or a two-year associates degree in graphic communications, printing and publishing. The program also bridges to the University of Wisconsin at Stout's four-year graphic communications program.
The new graphic center program has also built a bridge in another direction, remarks Flowers. Thanks to the new program, the area's high school graphic communications programs have now re-written their curriculums so as to complement the college's program. Now, high school students can earn up to nine credits toward their associates degree even before they step onto the campus.
And the program has begun to address the labor shortage in the community. This fall, the college has 77 full-time students enrolled in the program. But Flowers is not done creating that ideal graphics classroom—just yet.
The program is looking to add a photography studio, as well as digital press capabilities. "I don't think there is another facility that can match ours right now," Flowers says with pride. "I slap myself every morning because I can't believe how nice it is. It's truly a remarkable place."
