In a post pandemic world, it has never been more important to retain the talent within your organisation, ensure that your teams are valued and to navigate the continually shifting sands of working from home or back to the office.
In 2019, Oleeo cited in their ‘See the Unseen’ research report that small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which are businesses employing up to 250 people, are losing 14% of their staff each year with 39% leaving within six months, which amounts to SMEs wasting an average of £125,347 a year on failed recruitment. There will be several reasons to drive these metrics but from our market experience, one of the key reasons is a lack of desire to invest in technology and make key changes to help drive growth, it all feeds employee frustration and the feeling of not being heard or valued.
There is a constant barrage of surveys on LinkedIn about how teams and individuals want to operate to gain the gold standard of a work life balance. It is true to say that there is not a one size fits all answer to this subject and there are key variables such as business type, role, culture etc. that impacts the approach but leveraging technology is a significant enabler to finding the right balance for your business and the individual roles.
Based upon our market experience, 2021 has seen a very noticeable shift in team frustration. We are all fatigued by Covid, the response process to the pandemic is under control and as a result businesses are increasingly acknowledging that ‘we just need to get on with it’. The enforced working from home has left many operations exposed, including those involved in product launches and has highlighted the challenges that teams face when working in a manual way (spreadsheets, emails, Teams threads etc.). Despite these challenges, many companies are continuing with the ‘business as usual’ mentality and not investing in technology that could address the issues these challenges throw up, which often lead to extended launch times, cost, and error. Businesses would be better placed if they authorised teams to find the best solutions to help them be more efficient and productive.
There is a huge amount of frustration across the product launch teams because senior leadership teams, and often the IT teams, don’t understand that to have the correct technology in place to manage artwork, product and packaging information is critical to success, will significantly reduce the time to market to enable faster launches with accuracy and ultimately drive more sales.
There are two key camps when it comes to the solution challenge and both create equal frustration in their measure, putting your business at risk. People are one of the key reasons for that risk, they are looking to leave due to the pressure that is being placed on them to perform without the right tools to deliver, which puts in to question how they are valued. A demotivated team is not a productive team and there is a risk that a significant knowledge base is lost because of this lack of understanding from key decision makers.
The businesses that were early adopters of technology became the market leaders within their verticals. However, technology has moved on at a significant pace, as well as how teams operate to optimise efficiency, so the existing technology cannot operate efficiently to manage new processes and therefore needs upgrading.
Historically, technology was sold in a very siloed or monolithic way so the ability to easily integrate across solutions and have visibility of the end-to-end process was (and still is) extremely difficult, costing businesses ££££s in consultancy fees just to connect the dots, not to mention the challenges of reporting!
Many of these solutions are also very rigid in their configuration and teams find that they are unable to manage their projects within these solutions because they do not flex to evolving ways of working. The main point of frustration for teams in these scenarios is the time (in many cases this is months) and cost associated with requesting even a small change to a system to make life easier. The result is that many projects are being managed offline (manually) to get the job done which is creating significant risk of error and delay.
The impact of legacy systems is pushing business teams to find more ‘fit for purpose and connected’ solutions that meet their immediate and evolving requirements. Many are looking for a software as a service (SaaS) solution to ease the pressure on the internal IT teams and work with specialist providers that deliver what they need when they need it.
We are seeing a trend where these highly experienced and valuable business teams are tired of not being heard and not getting approval to purchase the correct tools to do the job. There is a significant pressure for increased productivity, reporting and overall performance however this is expected to be delivered with the equivalent of their hands being tied behind their backs. Increasingly we are seeing organisations loose key people for this reason with the cost and talent impact being far greater than the solution investment would have been.
There is without doubt a growing unrest within this camp and as market confidence is returning, there is a real risk that your greatest assets will leave.
Attracting key talent into your operation is critical and that will be a mixture of very experienced individuals, who will drive the strategy and growth, with a blend of grads and ‘new to business’ people who are cutting their teeth and putting their skills into action.
As product complexity, people, and sales increase, so does the need to invest in technology that enable teams to get the job done efficiently. Importantly, these new solutions create a digital audit of actions that can be easily tracked should an individual leave the business, thus ensuring project knowledge and assets are retained. This is a critical point to consider because there is often a higher turnover of people when a large percentage of the business consists of grads in their ‘first foot on the ladder’ position. Whether the team is fresh or has long serving members with significant retained knowledge, it is critical that this information is captured and available to share.
Having a controlled and consistent way of working not only makes it easier to onboard new recruits but stands you apart from other brands. Having a robust business process and solution demonstrates your investment in driving a right first-time approach to product launches and instils confidence when retailers are conducting range reviews and new listings, setting yourself apart from the competition.
Attracting key talent, particularly in the specialist areas of artwork, packaging and NPD, is critical to your innovation process and business success. However, BE WARNED, this type of talent is accustomed to having digital solutions to manage processes and walking into a business that still works in a manual way is a genuine SHOCK! It is like stepping back 10+ years and there is only a very limited length of time that your new hire will put up with it, particularly if they experience investment in technology being refused.
It is like expecting the team to go back to working with a dial up internet connection again rather than broadband (never mind super-fast fibre!!). There will be an expectation that a level of technology already exists and for product launch teams, that will be at the very least starting with an artwork management solution.
Talent acquisition is a time consuming and costly exercise which places a significant burden on businesses to hire, retain and activate performance for success. Give your teams the right tools to get the job done, view the introduction of a new solution as an investment rather than cost. Listen to your teams.
4Pack is an artwork, product and packaging content management solution that works with CPG brands, manufacturers, and retailers to centralise, control, drive consistency and enable cross functional teams to collaborate to enable them to product launch faster and accurately. We provide the best value for money solution on the market and there is a 4Pack version to suit any size business.
No matter the camp you sit in, 4Pack has the solution for you.
Packaging & Product Management from end-to-end in one digital solution
Do you want to know more?
Request a Free Demo
or
Watch Our Video
Free ROI Report
