Today there is a great need for education on the effectiveness and sustainability of print. There are many common misconceptions to counteract, but it takes more than one voice to spread the message. Together Printing Industries of America and our Affiliates have developed distinct, dedicated pro-print campaigns, Value of Print, Choose Print, and Print Grows Trees. They share one core mission—to educate and increase awareness of print’s vitality using the latest facts and statistics from the most reliable sources. Industry members look to these resources for collated information and tools to promote the vitality of print. In this three-part blog series, we will look at each of these campaigns. You will hear directly from the campaign leaders about the effects these campaigns are having on the industry and examine how they are fighting to help educate print buyers. Lisa Rawa understands how important print is in multi-media marketing. As Vice President of Marketing for Printing Industries of America, she has been at the forefront of the Value of Print campaign that’s combined print, Web, and mobile to communicate the vitality of print since 2009. Thanks to great publicity opportunities, you can say this campaign is “breaking new ground” for the print and graphic arts industry. 1. To complement the Value of Print Flip-Book, you’ve incorporated a dedicated webpage and mobile app. In what ways have you seen people use these online and offline tools to defend the value of print? LR: The Flip-Book has been a huge success. Our users tell me how pleased they are to have this resource to display on their desk and even in their company lobbies for clients to read. As a multi-media campaign, the Value of Print was designed to allow the print and graphic arts community access to important information anytime, anywhere. To do that we knew we wanted a digital complement to our printed Flip-Book. Our website not only allows you to view facts, articles, and other resources, and you can also download a PDF of the Flip-Book to distribute to clients. With the app, they can just use their smartphone or tablet to get Value of Print facts. There’s also a searchable Print Market Atlas that lets you find national, state, and regional print statistics. Print professionals tell me that they use the Value of Print app during client meetings or at conferences and tradeshows like GRAPH EXPO to educate their customers. Teachers are some of our most enthusiastic supports who not only use the tools but also encourage their students to use them as well. 2. The Value of Print campaign has even crossed boundaries into public television. In 2013 it was featured in the public television produced In...

Today there is a great need for education on the effectiveness and sustainability of print. There are many common misconceptions to counteract, but it takes more than one voice to spread the message. Together Printing Industries of America and our Affiliates have developed distinct, dedicated pro-print campaigns, Value of Print, Choose Print, and Print Grows Trees. They share one core mission—to educate and increase awareness of print’s vitality using the latest facts and statistics from the most reliable sources. Industry members look to these resources for collated information and tools to promote the vitality of print. In this three-part blog series, we will look at each of these campaigns. You will hear directly from the campaign leaders about the effects these campaigns are having on the industry and examine how they are fighting to help educate print buyers. Lisa Rawa understands how important print is in multi-media marketing. As Vice President of Marketing for Printing Industries of America, she has been at the forefront of the Value of Print campaign that’s combined print, Web, and mobile to communicate the vitality of print since 2009. Thanks to great publicity opportunities, you can say this campaign is “breaking new ground” for the print and graphic arts industry. 1. To complement the Value of Print Flip-Book, you’ve incorporated a dedicated webpage and mobile app. In what ways have you seen people use these online and offline tools to defend the value of print? LR: The Flip-Book has been a huge success. Our users tell me how pleased they are to have this resource to display on their desk and even in their company lobbies for clients to read. As a multi-media campaign, the Value of Print was designed to allow the print and graphic arts community access to important information anytime, anywhere. To do that we knew we wanted a digital complement to our printed Flip-Book. Our website not only allows you to view facts, articles, and other resources, and you can also download a PDF of the Flip-Book to distribute to clients. With the app, they can just use their smartphone or tablet to get Value of Print facts. There’s also a searchable Print Market Atlas that lets you find national, state, and regional print statistics. Print professionals tell me that they use the Value of Print app during client meetings or at conferences and tradeshows like GRAPH EXPO to educate their customers. Teachers are some of our most enthusiastic supports who not only use the tools but also encourage their students to use them as well. 2. The Value of Print campaign has even crossed boundaries into public television. In 2013 it was featured in the public television produced In...

Stop trying to retain your employees! That’s right. It’s no longer enough to retain your top employees. Today firms need to focus on creating engaged, satisfied employees. They are more productive and stay with the same company longer than a disengaged employee. As of April 2013, the printing industry employed around 443,000 people—up by 1,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s right, the industry is growing. Companies typically invest a lot of money in new employees, so it’s important that they stick around for a while. According to a recent study, one of the main factors in job satisfaction is beneficial employee training. According to the National Research Business Institute, 23% of employees leave their current job due to lack of development and training opportunities. But managers know that training can also be expensive, and time consuming. What’s the best way to satisfy the need for added training while eliminating most of the downside?  Well, for more than 41% of Fortune 500 companies, the solution has become e-learning. Training New Hires If you want to develop loyal, long-term employees, start from the very beginning. Printing Industries of America’s new virtual workshop portal, the Integrated Learning Center, offers a course developed specifically to educate employees new to the industry. You may remember the Orientation to the Graphic Arts workshop. As one of the most popular instructor-led workshops, it’s now offered as a virtual course. With 24/7 access, this class provides comprehensive industry information for everyone from press professionals to sales developers. Learn about: Print production workflow Digital prepress Offset and digital printing Color theory and reproduction Bindery And much more Currently Orientation to the Graphic Arts is available to members through Printing Industries of America affiliates as part of a subscription package granting access to all courses in the Integrated Learning Center. You can take advantage of this limited-time offer of 25% off the subscription package until June 6, 2014. Get started today. Visit...

Stop trying to retain your employees! That’s right. It’s no longer enough to retain your top employees. Today firms need to focus on creating engaged, satisfied employees. They are more productive and stay with the same company longer than a disengaged employee. As of April 2013, the printing industry employed around 443,000 people—up by 1,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s right, the industry is growing. Companies typically invest a lot of money in new employees, so it’s important that they stick around for a while. According to a recent study, one of the main factors in job satisfaction is beneficial employee training. According to the National Research Business Institute, 23% of employees leave their current job due to lack of development and training opportunities. But managers know that training can also be expensive, and time consuming. What’s the best way to satisfy the need for added training while eliminating most of the downside?  Well, for more than 41% of Fortune 500 companies, the solution has become e-learning. Training New Hires If you want to develop loyal, long-term employees, start from the very beginning. Printing Industries of America’s new virtual workshop portal, the Integrated Learning Center, offers a course developed specifically to educate employees new to the industry. You may remember the Orientation to the Graphic Arts workshop. As one of the most popular instructor-led workshops, it’s now offered as a virtual course. With 24/7 access, this class provides comprehensive industry information for everyone from press professionals to sales developers. Learn about: Print production workflow Digital prepress Offset and digital printing Color theory and reproduction Bindery And much more Currently Orientation to the Graphic Arts is available to members through Printing Industries of America affiliates as part of a subscription package granting access to all courses in the Integrated Learning Center. You can take advantage of this limited-time offer of 25% off the subscription package until June 6, 2014. Get started today. Visit...

Stop trying to retain your employees! That’s right. It’s no longer enough to retain your top employees. Today firms need to focus on creating engaged, satisfied employees. They are more productive and stay with the same company longer than a disengaged employee. As of April 2013, the printing industry employed around 443,000 people—up by 1,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s right, the industry is growing. Companies typically invest a lot of money in new employees, so it’s important that they stick around for a while. According to a recent study, one of the main factors in job satisfaction is beneficial employee training. According to the National Research Business Institute, 23% of employees leave their current job due to lack of development and training opportunities. But managers know that training can also be expensive, and time consuming. What’s the best way to satisfy the need for added training while eliminating most of the downside?  Well, for more than 41% of Fortune 500 companies, the solution has become e-learning. Training New Hires If you want to develop loyal, long-term employees, start from the very beginning. Printing Industries of America’s new virtual workshop portal, the Integrated Learning Center, offers a course developed specifically to educate employees new to the industry. You may remember the Orientation to the Graphic Arts workshop. As one of the most popular instructor-led workshops, it’s now offered as a virtual course. With 24/7 access, this class provides comprehensive industry information for everyone from press professionals to sales developers. Learn about: Print production workflow Digital prepress Offset and digital printing Color theory and reproduction Bindery And much more Currently Orientation to the Graphic Arts is available to members through Printing Industries of America affiliates as part of a subscription package granting access to all courses in the Integrated Learning Center. You can take advantage of this limited-time offer of 25% off the subscription package until June 6, 2014. Get started today. Visit...

  No one ever said change was easy. But that’s never stopped you in the past, has it? Those of us in the printing industry have always had to learn new technologies, incorporate new equipment, and provide new services to our clients. Change and learning are part of our DNA! Another industry experiencing major change is education, where there is a significant growth trend in online learning. You may have heard about more and more college students taking virtual classes, while some are even earning their degrees entirely online—amazing! This trend is also very evident in employee education. Today, eLearning is a $56.2 billion business and is expected to grow to over $100 billion by 2015. In fact 40% of Fortune 500 companies are turning away from traditional instruction-based learning and investing in online learning (ELearning Magazine, 2013). But it’s not just the huge corporations that are benefitting from virtual education. Printing Industries of America is set to launch a variety of Web-based, industry-focused workshops via a brand new online platform, the Integrated Learning Center. Whether you call all it eLearning, Web-based training, or virtual education, the Integrated Learning Center platform is developed to provide a one-stop-shopping solution to your training needs. This platform raises an exciting opportunity for progressive print and graphic arts companies that view online learning as a competitive weapon, rather than merely an added cost. High-quality employee performance, a key to business success, relies significantly on high-quality training. Online learning, as evidenced in the statistics below, can prove to be more efficient and effective than traditional learning methods and results in greater productivity and competitive gains. Need more convincing that virtual training is right for educating your staff? We’ve highlighted five of the most valuable benefits for our industry members as they apply to both managers and employees. 1.     Quality education on demand Managers: One of the biggest differentiators between online and instructor-based learning is that you can access it virtually any time, anywhere. Since most eLearning programs allow unlimited access, managers have greater flexibility in scheduling training time for employees. Employees: Education is a valuable career asset. eLearning is proven to increase knowledge retention by 25% to 60% over traditional learning methods. (Corporate eLearning Exploring a New Frontier, WR Hambrecht) And since eLearning is self-paced, employees can learn at rates appropriate to their individual knowledge level. 2.     Less time and expense compared to off-site learning Managers: Time and money—two resources most managers wouldn’t mind saving. Recent research shows businesses save at least 50% by replacing traditional instructor-based training with eLearning. Additionally eLearning cuts instruction time by up to 60%. Employees: Those who have online training are more valuable employees. According to a new report...