Engaging Workplaces Drive Culture in Today’s Print Shops

It’s proven – employees who are excited about the work they do, and like their co-workers, are loyal to the company they work for and tend to be more engaged in their jobs. Establishing and maintaining an exceptional company culture can be an effective means of engaging your workforce – creating an environment that attracts and retains employees. However, defining company culture and implementing it to drive engagement can be difficult, as demonstrated in a Deloitte survey where 87% of organizations list culture and employee engagement as their top challenges. By understanding what these terms mean and how to implement best practices within your printing company, you can build a culture of engagement for your employees.

Employee Engagement

Often correlated to KPIs such as revenue and customer satisfaction, this term relates to a worker’s commitment and feelings of ownership towards their job.

Workplace Culture

These are shared values, belief systems, traditions, behaviors, office rituals, attitudes, language and a set of assumptions that individuals in a workplace share – determining how and why things are done within the environment.

The following are specific ways that apparel, screen printing and embroidery shops can improve workplace culture and increase employee engagement levels to the betterment of the organization:

Implement Efficient Internal Tools and Processes 

Today’s workforce embraces cutting-edge technology. Supporting a tech-savvy crew with apparel decorating software helps to engage these employees with the right technological tools to automate processes. Handheld/mobile tablets utilizing Warehouse Management System (WMS) software empowers warehouse workers by streamlining day-to-day activities and maximizing the productivity of both warehouse and picking staff. Production Center capabilities provide real-time visibility into production status, order information and artwork approval giving employees the ability to head off issues before they become problems – improving efficiency and providing a sense of teamwork. 

Support Professional Development 

The best employees in your print shop are those that continue to learn and improve, so your workplace should foster opportunities for continued development. This not only keeps your employees from seeking jobs elsewhere but will help them grow within the company. Offering workshops in-house or training courses online can help facilitate this growth and develop career paths. Staying abreast of where apparel decorating trends are heading is not only good for an employee’s personal development but allows the company to remain at the forefront of industry changes as well, encouraging a progressive work culture.  

Create a Shop-Wide Content Portal 

When workers have everything they need to do their jobs effectively, they are more engaged in their tasks. If information is accessible in one easy-to-find location – including training materials for print shop software, human resources information, and marketing and sales materials, employees have all the resources they need to be successful. Increasing the opportunity for success in your shop correlates to satisfied employees. 

Establish Workplace Connections 

Develop and strengthen day-to-day relationships within your workspace utilizing celebrations, social gathering opportunities, team-building activities and technology platforms. Providing regular recognition and feedback to employees also helps to build trust and open communication across your print shop, while also further engaging employees into the workplace culture.

By utilizing several of the above best practices, print shops can go about creating and maintaining a great company culture to help improve employee engagement.

Our print shop management solution, Aptean Impress ERP, is printing business software designed to engage today’s workforce with features to maximize productivity, integrate cross-functional teams and open up communication – contact us today for a personalized demonstration.