Many printing company leaders say hiring new employees is their toughest challenge. I recently visited a printing company with about 100 employees. Almost everybody in the building was in their late 50s or early 60s. Multiple workers mentioned to me that they were considering retiring. As we were hearing those retirement comments, the firm’s leader said, “And we are not getting any applications for our open positions.”
From a big-picture view, at least two factors prompt today’s challenging employee retention and hiring environment. First, the labor force participation rate has continuously declined since 2000. Why is labor participation going down? As baby boomers retire, a growing proportion of our population has withdrawn from work. Interestingly, one of our recent surveys suggests that 18% of printing industry employees are 60 or older. Second, birth rates have not increased in recent decades. Therefore, we don’t have a growing “inventory” of workers to fill the openings baby boomer retirements cause. Indeed, there are indicators of lower birth rates in our country over recent years.
We must see this environment as a “labor market” where supply is not keeping pace with demand. We see these labor market challenges in other industries, not just printing. For instance, we have graduate students who work in the healthcare industry. Those students share that to meet needs, hospitals are hiring nurses as sub-contractors because they can’t find enough candidates to fill open positions.
This environment prompted us to explore effective ways to address hiring needs in our October 2023 – Printing Industry Performance & Insights study. We released a report from that study in late 2023. To reinforce key points from our study, we share them again here. Next, we will explain employee value proposition and employer branding. Last, we share how those concepts are related to enhanced employer recruiting satisfaction.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
An EVP states the value, rewards, benefits, and gains employees receive from their commitment to serve the company…both monetary and nonmonetary items. Note the word “states” in the previous sentence. An EVP is a written document. An EVP may include many different elements. Here are a few possibilities:
Printing company leaders must choose what EVP elements to include. “What value do we provide our employees?” However, this is not a one-time event. Leaders should continue to evaluate and adjust their EVP regularly, perhaps annually. They might ask, “How do we differentiate our firm from other companies seeking to poach our employees or hire the same ones we seek?” We propose that brainstorming – considering multiple EVP possibilities – may prompt strategic thinking, innovation, and commitment among a leadership team.
A company’s leadership team must communicate their EVP to both current employees and potential applicants. More importantly, they must stand behind their EVP… “practice what they preach!” If an EVP is not actually reflected in a firm, that EVP may do more harm than good.
A printing firm needs an EVP to differentiate itself from other firms seeking to hire the same employee candidates. Also, an EVP is needed to differentiate a firm from other employers seeking to “steal” its current employees. When I led printing companies, we focused much on our strategic mission rather than an EVP. Times have changed. More than ever, hiring is a competition! Today, an EVP is as important as a strategic mission.
How does a firm communicate its EVP? That happens through employer branding.