January 2009
Greetings!
We sent out a survey last month to document center
managers. My thanks to you if you were able to
respond to the survey. Your time is greatly
appreciated. If you didn't get a chance to do the survey,
your views are still important. There is a link at the
bottom of this newsletter that you can use to do this
quick 2-minute questionnaire.
We wanted to find out how print and mail managers
and their staff went about acquiring the knowledge
that is required to do their jobs well. This seems like
an opportune time to be talking about this subject.
The economic recession is certainly going to cause
some staff reductions in both service bureaus and
inhouse print/mail departments. These operations are
under pressure to trim costs at a time when materials,
spare parts, service, and postage expenditures are
rising. For
some, a reduction in force will be the only alternative.
As a result, some knowledge is going to walk out the
door.
It's a Critical Time in the Document Industry
It is important that the remaining staff be well-trained
and able to pick up the slack. This is especially critical
now. The document industry is going through some
major changes. The financial and technological
barriers to producing highly personalized and
impactful documents have been disappearing at the
same time that software and data sources have
improved. As a result documents, and the way we
create and distribute them, are becoming more
complex. More relevant and personal approaches are
expected by customers and will be required in order to
generate satisfactory results.
Add in the conversion to a whole new postal
barcoding technology, mail preparation and reporting
requirements, and new postage rates - along with an
emphasis on green initiatives - and the document
center managers have a lot on their plates this year.
This isn't the time when you'd want to be unsure
about the level of skill and knowledge of your staff.
And the survey said...
According to the responses we got in our survey, four
of the top sources of training for document center
managers and their staff are:
- Knowledge transfer from co-workers
- Attendance at training sessions offered at trade
shows
- Off-site single-day seminars
- On-site single-day seminars
Does your organization rely upon training sources
such as these? Given the economic climate today and
the foreseeable
future, all these sources may be difficult to utilize in the
near future. As we noted, some of the knowledge
required for on-the-job mentoring is going to be
affected by layoffs. Even if the most knowledgeable
workers are retained, there is going to be less time
available for training as shops struggle to get the work
out with skeleton crews.
And getting budget approval for sending your staff
traveling to a trade show or paying for trainers to come
to you is
probably going to be challenging for a while.
This fact is supported by the survey results. Fewer
than 20% of the managers who responded said that
their companies regularly pay for onsite or offsite
training for their staff. And over 50% of them said that
there is no money allocated for their own training!
But There Is a Need
Curiously, the managers seem to recognize that they
have a substantial need for more training. Far
outdistancing all other training topics on the list was a
desire to increase training about environmental
sustainability. This makes sense, since the statement
in the survey question about green initiatives that
elicited the greatest agreement was:
"The focus of our
company's environmental efforts regarding
documents is primarily limited to using recycled paper
and recycling our own waste paper."
Clearly, document operations managers recognize
there is a need to build on their current environmental
efforts, but they don't feel they or their staff have the
knowledge necessary to identify green opportunities
and act upon them.
Between a rock and a hard place
This puts document operations in a tough spot. It's
going to be a difficult year.
Simultaneously, managers are being asked to cut
costs (probably affecting headcount), implement new
highly-complex documents, deal with new postal
regulations, and help their company achieve their
environmental goals.
And, they are apparently being asked to do so with no
funds for helping their crew or themselves increase
their knowledge or learn new processes. This sounds
like a formula for disaster.
At a time when individual operations and the industry
as a whole cannot afford to make mistakes, it seems
that there is a great potential for highly-visible
errors to be made. Just think about the
complexities of implementing multi-channel,
response-driven customer communications. Or in
modifying document formats or delivery methods to
lessen the environmental impact. Can we expect
shops that are running on a shoestring budget and
have no time or money for upgrading their skills to
accomplish such ambitious goals?
You don't want this to be you
Did you read about the letters the US Army sent out
recently to families of soldiers killed overseas that
featured a salutation of "Dear John Doe,"? I cringed
when I heard about it, because I knew what probably
happened; someone put "John Doe" as a place
holder into a mail merge letter, intending to replace it
with a merge field and then never did it.
But why did it not get caught? Didn't anyone notice that
all the letters had the same salutation? Was it
because the shop doing the work was rushed due to
being short-staffed? Or did the shop not have a quality-
control person who knew what to look for? Or was the
QC person off running some production
equipment and never had the chance to check before
the mailing went out? We may never know.
The end result? This error got picked up by the
national news organizations and big newspapers like
the LA Times. The shop was named in the articles.
The price they charged the Army was published. And
an Army official was quoted as saying the Army was
contemplating "appropriate action against the
contractor." Ouch!
Oh, and a General (the Army Chief of Staff, no less)
had to hand-sign 7,000 apology letters. I wouldn't
want to be the shop that made this unfortunate
mistake, and I feel for them. But it is a good example
of what can happen when processes are not followed
or things get rushed. This particular error may not be
attributed solely to a training issue, but inadequate
training could certainly have played a part.
What to do?
Based on the information we gathered from our survey
and conversations with clients and others in the
document business, Print/Mail Consultants has
decided to create some training courses specifically
developed for document operations. We're working on
the mechanics of how to deliver this valuable content
to you at an affordable price and in a manner in which
you can actually manage to use it.
The first course will be available soon. As a newsletter
subscriber, you'll be notified of the details as soon as
the program is ready. If you know of someone else
that may be interested in such a training program, just
use the forwarding link at the bottom of this page to
send this newsletter to them. Once they subscribe to
our list they will get all the information as well.
Even if you choose not to take advantage of our
training offerings, I urge you to take a close look at
your operations now. Document all your processes, re-
emphasize control procedures, and cross-train
wherever you can. This may not expose you to
innovative new
approaches you can introduce into your shop, but it
can be a preventative measure that might keep you
from having an experience like the mailer of the John
Doe letters.
If you didn't get a chance to participate in the survey,
click HERE and you'll be
taken right to it.
And don't forget about the PMC Green
Assessment. This is an inexpensive program that
provides a fantastic starting point for implementing
environmental initiatives in your shop. We analyze,
measure, and score dozens of areas of your workflow
and then provide you with a complete report. Just visit
our website for more information.
Sincerely,
Mike Porter
Print/Mail Consultants
