Adding Value: Human Resources

Printers know how capital-intensive their businesses are. When most print firm owners think of capital investments, iron and tonnage come to mind—as in heavy, multi-million-dollar offset printing presses. But what about human capital? Management gurus argue that high tech also needs to be high touch.

Does your company have a human resources (HR) function? Every business with employees on its payroll technically has HR. Basically, the people within an organization are its human resources. HR is the portion of a firm that deals with hiring, firing, training and other personnel issues. From a business perspective, HR is not entirely focused on the individual’s growth and development. “Development occurs to enhance the organization’s value, not solely for individual improvement,” according to the Human Resources online blog. “Individual education and development is a tool and a means to an end, not the end goal itself.”

So, the objective of HR is to maximize the return on investment (ROI) from the organization’s human capital and to minimize financial risk. It is the responsibility of human resources managers to conduct these activities in an effective, legal, fair and consistent manner. If not HR, who within your organization deals with supervisors who don’t hold specific employees accountable or who request exceptions to standing rules? And who navigates government forms to ensure that organizational needs are met in compliance with employment law, executing hand books and policies, etc.?

Effective HR is more than merely paying lip service to the popular employees-are-our-greatest-asset mantra. “People need to know the company cares about them and what they think, … [that] somebody in management is listening,” says Patty Traynor, who grew up in her family’s full-service trade bindery (Graphic Crafts) in Lancaster, PA, in the shadow of RR Donnelley’s print operations there. She handled HR responsibilities for more than 10 years as VP/treasurer of the 30-employee firm. Among other advantages, having a formal HR function in place helps company’s to retain employees, which adds to the bottom line by enhancing ROI, notes Traynor, who has served on the board of PIA’s Binding Industries Association (BIA) for the past 18 months.

A firm’s commitment to HR also can help to develop highly engaged employees, which is a critical driver to fostering committed customers, says Carmen Allen, the newly appointed senior VP of human resources at printer/marketing services provider Vertis Communications in Baltimore. If the company cares about employees, employees will care about the company. And customers can always tell when people care. “Research from the Corporate Leadership Council shows that engaged employees put forth 57% more effort,” Allen says.

“The role of HR is essentially the same regardless of the company or even the industry,” adds Allen, who came to Vertis in June after 13 years at contact lens manufacturer Bausch & Lomb. Earlier in her career, she worked in HR at Kodak. Employee engagement can be facilitated by the simplest of actions, she points out, such as communicating regularly, sharing information, encouraging input and actually implementing ideas. Such proactive empowerment must be visible among managers, supervisors and other team leaders who need to walk the talk because the same research reveals that employees don’t leave jobs; they leave bosses. And in terms of ROI, “The cost to replace most employees is about two times their salary,” Allen cautions.

HR differences do come into play, she adds, depending on “company life cycles and business cycles.” In Vertis’ case, for example, the firm is in the midst of a financial turnaround following its 2006 acquisition of American Color Graphics and subsequent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Former Xerox executive Quincy Allen became CEO in April, replacing Mike DuBose, who resigned following a brief two-year stint. Ms. Allen was one of Mr. Allen’s first hires—and no, they’re not related.