The psychological state of a person as expressed in self-confidence, enthusiasm, and/or loyalty to a cause or ideal is one great determinant of the overall success and growth of that cause or ideal. In today’s print business like any other business, morale flows from the employer and employees conviction about the vision, righteousness or worth of their cause which subsequently translates into quality output. For the printing industry, this quality output can be from concept, to good design and eventually quality print with great rewards (in terms of increased patronage and customers’ appreciation) in future.
However, this is not always the case as sometimes a person – especially in print business – can get demoralized by whatever means which (and if not controlled) could get out of hands and invariably affect the business. To remedy this anomaly, Chief Operating Officer of Ingram Press – Mr. Victor Agbro suggests printers’ morale can be boosted when print businesses enjoy patronage and clients appreciate quality print jobs.
In a chat with WHERE To Print in his Surulere office, Mr. Agbro extensively discussed what printers can do to boost their morale and productivity. “Morale is very important in business as it is the driving force that impedes or assists organizational growth. Morale in printing like every other business is boosted when you enjoy patronage and clients appreciate your print jobs. In the same vein, what kills a printers morale is after painstakingly planning and executing a job, something went wrong somewhere which is out of the printer’s control like colour variation, poor finishing of a well printed job, technical faults and we all know how complex printing is, once it goes wrong couple of times, you are demoralized. Incompetent staff, epileptic electricity supply, high cost of print machines, and lack of patronage are factors that reduce morale and low productivity” intoned Mr. Agbro who explained that when one bids for job with high quality machines, know-how and fast-turn around time, and he gets brushed aside due to ulterior motives and the contract is awarded to someone with less sophisticated equipment and substandard quality or your proposal is lowly priced; this can be one of the greatest killers of morale and productivity.
In addressing this issue, Mr. Agbro proffered; “follow the job from stage to stage and have a Do-It-Yourself policy. Never lose sight of the job process even when your staff are working – make sure you are supervising even up to delivery stage and only then do you stand a chance of ensuring the business success and thus mitigate low morale and productivity”, Ingram boss concluded.
