Commentary: Welcome to a Better Printing Industry

One of the great things about my job is I get to spend time talking to people with strong insight about the printing industry. And from a couple of recent exchanges with a couple of the PRINTING United Alliance’s subject matter experts, I’ve concluded that printing is a better industry to work for than it previously has been.

Inherently Safer

A couple of months ago, I spoke with Gary Jones, the Alliance’s vice president, environmental, health, and safety affairs. In that discussion, Gary outlined some of the ways printing businesses often fall short of OSHA requirements, and how they can take steps to do what’s required and provide a safe workplace for their employees.

As the printing industry has become more digital, more automated, less assisted by the human touch of work in process, it has become inherently safer – to a point. While it is true that injuries do still happen, and machine guards are, at times, circumvented, there is less reason today to do so. There are fewer opportunities for a press operator, for instance, to make equipment adjustments “on-the-fly.”

This safety-contributing benefit does not stem from efforts to make the press safer. It is instead a side benefit of newer equipment that requires less human intervention to run and less operator experience to maintain. These changes bring to the fore an industry that is a bit farther from what most workers would consider “manufacturing,” and a bit closer to what they might refer to as “tech.”

More Attractive

Within a soon-to-be released article in Printing Impressions by Adriane Harrison, the Alliance’s vice president of human relations consulting, she says the generation of workers just now coming into our workforce – those known as Gen Z – are most interested in working for employers that care about their physical and mental well-being. This is according to a 2020 Gallup survey.

Managed well, printing operations can be quite safe, and in the time I’ve spent visiting print shops during the past 30 years, I’ve noticed they have become cleaner, brighter spaces filled with the hum of new technology, instead of the clatter of aging gears. Software and stronger workflow strategies have removed outdated, manual approaches to job tracking. Computer systems have brought digital integration across the companies and sometimes even extend out to customers. And, it’s been a while since I’ve been overwhelmed by the fumes of solvent-saturated shop rags. This all contributes to “better.”

Recently, I talked with several business owners who, amid a strong labor shortage, are seeking ways to reframe what printing is, and why a career in the printing industry might be a strong path for some Gen Z workers. While the printing industry is steeped in tradition, it should present itself as the forward-looking, efficiency-minded, diversity-friendly industry it is today, and not what it once was.

I, for one, am proud of the steps the industry has made, and I do believe it is better (as it should be). We have a strong employee-attracting story to tell. The challenge is in framing that story correctly.