In part I of our series, we looked at how the digital world can aid labelling companies in maintaining relevance in a perpetually changing industry. Through attracting digital native consumers and remaining ahead of trends, it allows companies to maximise their part in the market.
We at Impress Printers has recently developed our label department, with high-quality roll labels and single labels. In this blog series, we will be exploring the future of the label industry.
In the second part of our series, we will exploring how companies need to be appealing/attractive as a workplace.
- Why digital natives?
- 2019: an expert the labelling industry (Marco Boer) explained that the average age of workers across all industries is 42, while in the print industry it is 48.
- Therefore, this is quite important as the people running brands and product design teams are ‘digital natives’.
- It is predicted that by 2025, 75% of the workforce will be made up of digital natives.
- Why do label converters need digital natives?
- They are the most beneficial source of employees to substitute an ageing workforce
- They play a vital role in ultimately transforming the realm of the print label industry.
- As label converters look to the future, the entire workflow is transitioning to digital.
- Digital tools are being introduced to manage the workflow as the speed and demand of jobs are increasing, which helps to drastically speed up turnover time: processing and streamlining jobs into the production facility.
- Getting digital natives on board
- Label converters currently have to explore relevance from two ways: companies must stake their claim as sellers of valuable products and services, and as interesting places to work.
- Young people tend to be drawn toward positions whereby their overall careers won’t stagnate, and, where they’ll have opportunities to amplify and grow their career in the long-run.
- Businesses should transform their structure from the traditional, corporate ladder to operating as a corporate lattice, embodying the multidirectional, flexible and expansive nature needed for a relevant and successful organisation today.
- A 2019 report found that more than half of digital natives surveyed reported they would prefer to work for a CEO that uses digital and social media as part of their work as opposed to one that does not.
Ultimately, bearing knowledge about the behaviourial patterns of digital natives i.e. prospective employees may aid label converters to meet their expectations, and maybe surpass them – resulting in more loyal and long-lasting employees. Essentially, the takeaway here is that digital natives care about is digital. And this means being forward- thinking and digitally-led is a key determiner in whether a company will be an attractive workplace or not., companies should appeal as a workplace too.
