Dan Miller07.15.16
Now that we’re halfway through 2016, it’s a good time to look at the state of the talent market for the Label & Narrow Web industry. As an executive recruiter, I have noticed a continuation of some talent and hiring trends as well as a couple new ones taking shape.
On a daily basis, I speak with hiring managers who share everything from what keeps them up at night to what’s new and on the horizon. For quite a while, the conversation has been about the industry talent shortage as well as how their Baby Boomers are planning to retire in the next few years, which will widen their talent gap. There’s no doubt that we’re currently experiencing a tight labor market and this trend is expected to continue.
But what else is going on in the Label & Narrow Web job market? There are five additional trends that we should take a look at:
1. Failure to Attract Millennials. It’s been a challenge for the label industry to attract a large number of Millennials thus far. Unless this turns around soon, we could experience a workforce crisis – missing out on younger workers and future leaders interested in pursuing a career in the labels industry. More has to be done for companies to market themselves to this younger generation, including touting great career opportunities, higher income, excellent benefits, flexible work schedules and other perks Millennials deem attractive.
2. Mergers & Acquisitions Continue. The years 2014 and 2015 were banner years for M&A in the packaging industry. In 2016, the trend is expected to continue and remain robust, especially in flexible packaging. But what about key talent during an M&A? The most important step a company can take before considering how to retain key employees surrounding M&A transactions is to define precisely which employees are critical to the success of the transaction and the future of the company. However, keep all your communication about these employees confidential. If key players catch wind of M&A deals, they’ve been known to jump ship.
3. Bilingual Talent on the Rise. We’re seeing the need to hire Spanish speaking professionals especially in individual states and regions. Greatest demand has been in Arizona, Texas, Southern California, New Mexico and Florida. These bilingual candidates can serve as liaisons for companies and ultimately grow territories or open new markets.
4. Shrink Label Specialists in High Demand. Solid growth in the dominant shrink label segment has resulted in the need for more shrink label specialists. We are experiencing an uptick in the amount of talent searches for product engineers, production managers, general managers, and sales representatives who have years of experience and in-depth knowledge of this particular segment.
5. Employee Background Checks Ease-up. Because of the tight labor market, we’re seeing more and more companies that are willing to overlook blemishes on a job candidate’s past record. That’s good news for job seekers who have huge resume gaps, non-related experience, been faced with financial issues such as a bankruptcy, or have had any minor brushes with the law such as a traffic offense.
Of all these talent trends, the challenge of attracting Millennials to the label printing industry requires the most attention. The fact is, Millennials have surpassed Gen Xers and Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the workforce. By 2020, they will make up half of the global workforce. Therefore, think about how the sheer number of Millennials create an opportunity to be leveraged. It’s time to attract them to your company and retain them once there. After all, they are your future leaders.
Label printing and converting companies that implement strategies to attract and retain Millennials will be the most successful. As the generation that grew up with technology, Millennials know how to stay hyperconnected with people and information. This capacity, combined with young people’s high energy and tendency to generate new ideas, can accelerate innovation and productivity.
I highly recommend that your organization take action now to engage Millennials and position itself as an attractive workplace or risk getting left behind.
About the Author: Dan Miller is the Director of Labels & Narrow Web and leads the expansion of DRI’s Labels and Labeling practice area. Dan can be contacted by phone at 440-996-0868 or email at dmiller@directrecruiters.com. The website is http://www.directrecruiters.com/practice-areas/labels-industry/
By Brian Gale
Let’s spend a moment in the land of make believe. Imagine this conversation:
Sales Manager: “What happened with the potential business with XYZ?”
Sales Person: “They decided to go with a competitor. I didn’t prove to them our company and me could provide them enough value versus what our competitor said he could provide. I need to get better.”
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, here’s the real conversation:
Sales Manager: “What happened with the potential business with XYZ?”
Sales Person: “We got beat by a competitor. Our prices are always high. What are you going to do about that? I need to sell more so I can pay for (a new car, my beach house, my kids’ college, insert want here). We’re just not competitive and it’s not my fault.” (This situation never happens at I.D. Images! In all seriousness, we’ve got a great sales team who uses price only occasionally as a reason for lost business. They know better!)
Yes, we all deal with price competition and it’s not going away. We’ve allowed price to become the canned answer to every piece of business we don’t win. Sure, it happens but probably not as much as our salespeople lead us to believe. It’s easy for a customer/prospect to say price is the reason they went somewhere else and it’s even easier for a sales person to not follow up and blame price for not winning the order. It’s even easier for a sales manager/owner to accept price as the reason for lost business. Who likes confrontation? A wise mentor of mine would tell me constantly, “In management, you get what you accept.” If we accept price as the catch-all for lost business, that’s what we’ll be told.
We really become what we believe. If our sales team thinks we’re not competitive, we become noncompetitive. We start to play the price game. Remember, you can only play the price game if you know you are the cost leader. We all like to think we’re the low cost producers. There’s only one. It’s probably not you. As I wrote in a recent blog post, if you can’t sell value, you’ll be automated. If you’re losing business truly because of price, your company has no choice but to cut costs.
Side note: watch what happens in California with its new minimum wage law and required family leave requirements. The cost of labor went up. Therefore, the cost of automation went down. This is what happens when politics are controlled by lawyers. Many lawyers have told me they went to law school because they hated math. The talking points of a higher minimum wage sound great – the math is a problem.
About the author: Brian Gale is president and CEO of ID Images, a label manufacturer headquartered in Brunswick, Ohio. ID Images has additional locations in Ohio, Illinois, California, Tennessee and North Carolina.
On a daily basis, I speak with hiring managers who share everything from what keeps them up at night to what’s new and on the horizon. For quite a while, the conversation has been about the industry talent shortage as well as how their Baby Boomers are planning to retire in the next few years, which will widen their talent gap. There’s no doubt that we’re currently experiencing a tight labor market and this trend is expected to continue.
But what else is going on in the Label & Narrow Web job market? There are five additional trends that we should take a look at:
1. Failure to Attract Millennials. It’s been a challenge for the label industry to attract a large number of Millennials thus far. Unless this turns around soon, we could experience a workforce crisis – missing out on younger workers and future leaders interested in pursuing a career in the labels industry. More has to be done for companies to market themselves to this younger generation, including touting great career opportunities, higher income, excellent benefits, flexible work schedules and other perks Millennials deem attractive.
2. Mergers & Acquisitions Continue. The years 2014 and 2015 were banner years for M&A in the packaging industry. In 2016, the trend is expected to continue and remain robust, especially in flexible packaging. But what about key talent during an M&A? The most important step a company can take before considering how to retain key employees surrounding M&A transactions is to define precisely which employees are critical to the success of the transaction and the future of the company. However, keep all your communication about these employees confidential. If key players catch wind of M&A deals, they’ve been known to jump ship.
3. Bilingual Talent on the Rise. We’re seeing the need to hire Spanish speaking professionals especially in individual states and regions. Greatest demand has been in Arizona, Texas, Southern California, New Mexico and Florida. These bilingual candidates can serve as liaisons for companies and ultimately grow territories or open new markets.
4. Shrink Label Specialists in High Demand. Solid growth in the dominant shrink label segment has resulted in the need for more shrink label specialists. We are experiencing an uptick in the amount of talent searches for product engineers, production managers, general managers, and sales representatives who have years of experience and in-depth knowledge of this particular segment.
5. Employee Background Checks Ease-up. Because of the tight labor market, we’re seeing more and more companies that are willing to overlook blemishes on a job candidate’s past record. That’s good news for job seekers who have huge resume gaps, non-related experience, been faced with financial issues such as a bankruptcy, or have had any minor brushes with the law such as a traffic offense.
Of all these talent trends, the challenge of attracting Millennials to the label printing industry requires the most attention. The fact is, Millennials have surpassed Gen Xers and Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the workforce. By 2020, they will make up half of the global workforce. Therefore, think about how the sheer number of Millennials create an opportunity to be leveraged. It’s time to attract them to your company and retain them once there. After all, they are your future leaders.
Label printing and converting companies that implement strategies to attract and retain Millennials will be the most successful. As the generation that grew up with technology, Millennials know how to stay hyperconnected with people and information. This capacity, combined with young people’s high energy and tendency to generate new ideas, can accelerate innovation and productivity.
I highly recommend that your organization take action now to engage Millennials and position itself as an attractive workplace or risk getting left behind.
About the Author: Dan Miller is the Director of Labels & Narrow Web and leads the expansion of DRI’s Labels and Labeling practice area. Dan can be contacted by phone at 440-996-0868 or email at dmiller@directrecruiters.com. The website is http://www.directrecruiters.com/practice-areas/labels-industry/
By Brian Gale
Let’s spend a moment in the land of make believe. Imagine this conversation:
Sales Manager: “What happened with the potential business with XYZ?”
Sales Person: “They decided to go with a competitor. I didn’t prove to them our company and me could provide them enough value versus what our competitor said he could provide. I need to get better.”
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, here’s the real conversation:
Sales Manager: “What happened with the potential business with XYZ?”
Sales Person: “We got beat by a competitor. Our prices are always high. What are you going to do about that? I need to sell more so I can pay for (a new car, my beach house, my kids’ college, insert want here). We’re just not competitive and it’s not my fault.” (This situation never happens at I.D. Images! In all seriousness, we’ve got a great sales team who uses price only occasionally as a reason for lost business. They know better!)
Yes, we all deal with price competition and it’s not going away. We’ve allowed price to become the canned answer to every piece of business we don’t win. Sure, it happens but probably not as much as our salespeople lead us to believe. It’s easy for a customer/prospect to say price is the reason they went somewhere else and it’s even easier for a sales person to not follow up and blame price for not winning the order. It’s even easier for a sales manager/owner to accept price as the reason for lost business. Who likes confrontation? A wise mentor of mine would tell me constantly, “In management, you get what you accept.” If we accept price as the catch-all for lost business, that’s what we’ll be told.
We really become what we believe. If our sales team thinks we’re not competitive, we become noncompetitive. We start to play the price game. Remember, you can only play the price game if you know you are the cost leader. We all like to think we’re the low cost producers. There’s only one. It’s probably not you. As I wrote in a recent blog post, if you can’t sell value, you’ll be automated. If you’re losing business truly because of price, your company has no choice but to cut costs.
Side note: watch what happens in California with its new minimum wage law and required family leave requirements. The cost of labor went up. Therefore, the cost of automation went down. This is what happens when politics are controlled by lawyers. Many lawyers have told me they went to law school because they hated math. The talking points of a higher minimum wage sound great – the math is a problem.
About the author: Brian Gale is president and CEO of ID Images, a label manufacturer headquartered in Brunswick, Ohio. ID Images has additional locations in Ohio, Illinois, California, Tennessee and North Carolina.