I love to travel to different countries and cultures. I guess it is the psychologist in me that finds it so dang entertaining. There is another personally trait, however, that shows up long before the psychologist in me – the planner. Months before stepping foot on foreign soil, I exhaust every morsel of information about the area’s climate, the region’s activities, the lodging’s cleanliness, the airline’s travel deals, to a point somewhere past ad naseum. All of this drive’s my wife absolutely nuts with every additional detail driving her closer to putting me on the plane by myself! All of the madness does, indeed, have a purpose. Without a carefully drawn up plan, a trip that consumes a lot of resources (time and money) can be squandered away by the uncertainty of an idle mind.
Uptraining and empowering your print shop can be a similarly daunting task of information gathering. Where do I start? How do I identify the best candidates for moving up in the organization to more demanding positions? To begin, let’s focus on your most important asset in the print shop – your employees.
What makes you tick?
Get to know who works for you. Seemingly simple, most people have many layers of interests. These interests lead to passion and passion is what drives anyone to excel. Discover the passion of those around you by hosting creative workshops, external fun days, community service events, etc. Although a standard Q&A session or thoughtfully prepared questionnaire might suffice, those are painful and boring for those who complete them and also for those who have to administer them. Instead use the following activities to keep an ongoing mental (or written) record of those who exhibit skills and traits that could make an impact on another area of the business.
Workshops
For the workshops, ask everyone in your shop what are they most interested in learning within or outside of the print industry. A request might be for a personal finance workshop which could identify someone who might after training be interested in being an estimator or accountant. Someone else might want to know how to setup a home network eventually developing into an IT Administrator for the shop. Likewise the lead folder operator might be interested in a small format printing workshop. The list of requested workshops will only be limited by your workforce’s interests and imagination.
Activities and Community Service for Team building and Observation
Everyone enjoys a day out of the shop, so why not organize an event every month or quarter for team building. Organize activities that force the group to work together to solve challenges such as a ropes course or water rafting. For the less adventurous, schedule a little friendly competitive game at the local bowling alley or similar. Although loads of fun, these activities can provide loads of insight into the personal traits of the individuals while enabling everyone to connect outside of their work setting. Community service will also foster more interaction among the employee’s while also having the added benefit to the local area not to mention good public relations.
