The Semper International Blog

First, Thank You all for the huge number of responses. 

We honestly use this survey as a benefit for the industry in general 

and not for commercial reasons.

I think we all can be glad the first quarter is over; except for the fact that the 

second quarter, so far, seems to be even worse then the first. The last 2 

months have seen a severe contraction in most areas of the economy and 

in all geographic areas. The Fed’s actions last Summer came several sessions 

too late to avoid this contraction. The relentless negativity from the media over 

the last two years reached a crescendo of hysteria in August that has scarcely 

abated till just recently. We all are grateful for the news media’s recent more 

positive bias!!

A Big question now is have the stock markets hit bottom? If so, then the 

recovery will be approximately six months from that bottom. If you look at the 

current stock charts for Apple, the Dow and the NASDAQ over the last two 

years, It appears that we have hit the bottom and are on the upturn (barring 

another terrorist shock). If the charts are correct, then we should start to see 

improvements as early as September - October. Flex Staffing tends to be a 

leading indicator, like the stock market, so we at Semper should see improvement 

three to four months after the bottom. We will let you know. 

Another BIG change in the Industry this year was the demise of Annual report 

printing. One manager I spoke to, mentioned that last year they printed 100 Annual 

reports- this season only four. The result of the SEC allowing companies to post 

the reports “online.” This single change has had a huge negative impact in that 

segment of the industry. I think of what will happen to Blockbuster and the movie 

theatre chains once the movie studios release first run movies directly online. It 

will likely be a similar issue- MAYBE I should sell any holdings.

Now to the survey results:

As you recall, the results are in the new easier to read and understand format 

which reduces the need for commentary.

The question on profitability I am sure is high on everyone’s list. The trend line is 

clearly indicative of the stress we would expect to see ; this is a MACRO issue 

not just your firm.

The question on profitability I am sure is high on everyone’s list. The trend line 

is clearly indicative of the stress we would expect to see ; this is a MACRO issue 

not just your firm.

The hiring question reinforces the above two responses. Hiring has dropped off, 

but it seems staying at the same staffing level is the course most firms are going 

with. Maybe others agree that things will improve sooner than later. (br>

Clearly, keeping expenses limited is on everyone’s mind, with base pay and benefit 

costs showing big jumps in concern from respondents. Supply costs in general are 

now the largest percent concern of firms as opposed to technology issues.

In closing, we see positive news here in the expectations of sales for this quarter. 

Take a close look at the actual results and feel free to ask questions or give 

feedback - daver@semperllc.com

Click here to view the Survey:

http://www.semperllc.com/printing_survey/Semper_Survey_2008_Q2.pdf

Thank You

Every quarter end we conduct a survey of our client database to get a feel fro what they are seeing in their business. Of the thousands of emails we send out we usually receive about 1-2% response. While this still numbers in the hundreds, I find it interesting that the participation is so low. The value of information like this is very important in steering ones business and often times can help in decision making.

It is our hope that anyone reading our blog will participate in this survey and help us all have a clearer picture of where things stand today and what the next quarter may hold.

A always, we will share the results after they are compiled.

Follow this link
 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kSd_2bnMKfYs9ODpLm6V13LQ_3d_3d
to go directly to the web version of the survey.

Recruiting in Second Life Part II: “Ghostown or Goldmine?”

Print CEO blog had an interesting piece on Reading in America. Please find the original post here: Click Here Below is my comments on this. Brian Regan Comments:

Interactive media is here to stay. I was just having a discussion with my wife over the holiday weekend. We were at her parents home and I was silently watching their habits. My take was that their generation use media differently.

First off they watch TV, this medium tells them the story or information and they sit and watch it, not much interaction between them and the TV, although my Father in-law was not very happy about the Giants losing. During these times I would be online working on Second Life projects or posting on various forums about topics that interested me and I wanted to debate upon or on LinkedIN and networking.

The next was reading the newspaper. They spend Sunday morning reading a few different newspapers. At the same time I spent time reading my news online and using Google searches to dig deeper into things I found interesting and finding different things to read that spread out from there.

In both cases my in-laws sat back and read or watched what they were told to watch or read. Were as I spent time digging into things I wanted to learn more about and interacting with my media. We had some discussions at dinner and bother my in-laws and I knew about the latest news and various significant issues locally, nationally and globally.

In regards to reading less, I feel that I read quite a lot and find many things that interest me. From there I will tend to purchase access to sites with good material, buy books on the subjects and subscribe to magazines.

Interactive media is changing many things. Virtual Worlds like Second Life are drastically changing how our higher education schools are teaching future generations. No longer do they sit in classrooms and lecture, but use 3D worlds to explain their topics, allow students to interact with them with the environments. 

We have reorganized the survey for this quarter. The new format makes it easier for you to track the changes historically, allowing you to spot trends. It also reduces the need for our commentary.

This survey has a few notable items: This is the second quarter in a row with a significant drop in companies reporting profitability. Keep in mind our industry is not alone so watch your AR closely.

The question relating to labor costs again highlights base pay increases causing concern. This type of pricing pressure is significant for its inflationary implications.

Many respondents indicated they expect business to decrease or stay the same, with a full 19% indicating they did not expect increases. The last quarter of the year traditionally is a busy time. We noticed last year for the first time in many years, that the busy-time failed to occur. We wonder if others noticed and suspect a trend?

If you have questions or would like us to add a question or topic please feel free to contact me directly - daver@semperllc.com

Click here to view the Survey, PDF Format

This is a piece that I wrote for the PIA/GATF World magazine. Along with this piece I had an opportunity to speak about this subject matter at both the PGSF Educational Summit held at GraphExpo and the Atlanta PIA/GATF Workflow Conference. The facts are clear that the print inndustry has some serious challenges facing it in regards to the future work force. Reaching in and connecting with a new generation of people used to the Internat as their primary communication tool presents unique challenges. These challenges can be over come.

Brian Regan

Where do I find the new breed of employees?
Brian Regan, President, Semper International

We all know that the industry has changed and many of the skills associated with printing have changed, too. None of these is more evident than in prepress. The new workflow solutions are often daunting to a company not versed in them—database management, mailing, digital asset management and fulfillment to name a few. Where does a printer who for years knew how to reproduce the best color work now find the new breed of employee?

What used to require a knowledge base of a very specific and talented craft has become a requirement of the new age and computer skills.

Who am I looking for?

Of course, the first requirement is for anyone to be able to handle prepress skills. (Even press operators have to be computer literate. All you have to do is look at recently introduced presses.) There are a lot of prepress skills that can either be taught as long as a person is comfortable behind a computer, or already exist in today’s job bank (in no particular order):

1) Color management: Someone who can learn how to calibrate and monitor soft and hard proofing using color management solutions.
2) Design skills: Whether a printer provides a design department for true creative work, or if the skills are required to fix existing files, it is always helpful to have a resource of people who can work their way around the Adobe Creative Suite or QuarkXPress.
3) Communications experts: IT departments need people who can work their way around the ‘pipes’ of the company: The Internet, browser, the web site, the internal network, firewall/security, and the other ancillary services.
4) Workflow experts: These are the true, trained prepress workflow experts, who have both computer and prepress knowledge and skills. These are the architects and administrators of a prepress department.
5) Premedia: As we all know, many printers don’t focus on just print, any more. There’s broadband and the Web, Web 2.0, and personalization that requires database expertise.
6) Programming: C++, PERL, HTML, JAVA, PHP and others. If you expect to build a competency, you likely will require some customization.

A state of mind

What my company has also learned is that skills are just one piece of the puzzle. The other is, for lack of a better word, behavioral. Unless someone has been formally trained in a printing school or environment, you have to acquire someone who can do well with the correct skill set or training in the graphic arts.

What do we usually look for? Well, it’s a wide set of traits. Someone who has good math skills is a start. An analytical problem solver is helpful. So is someone who can deal with multitasking. In positions requiring customer interaction, we search for people socially motivated. In fact, we use a behavioral test to hire all internal Semper personnel. It helps us staff our locations with people naturally inclined to work well with others.

Then there are the personal skills. How does the person deal with stress? If the prepress system is down due to a malfunction, you’d better have someone who steps up to the challenge. The same with the ability to work well with a lot of different people.

Where am I looking?

True fact. Our company looks for our own employees through the Internet, without any newspaper advertising (well, almost none). We believe that people who work in a sales office or are recruiters need to be able to use the Internet as a search tool. If they don’t have the computer searching skills that are good enough to find us, we figure they won’t be good candidates to look for high tech printers. This works for our inside positions as well.

The world—and not just the printing world—is a different place. The people who could be good fits for graphic arts/printing companies are not found just at printing schools or at other printing companies. A bit of creativity—and a sense of where prospects could be hanging out—can be helpful.

Remember, the printing industry is not the only place where technology has transformed the world.

So, where can I find these allusive people? There are a number of places:

1) Different colleges: I’m sure many printers have probably called or accessed schools like RIT or CalPoly for future candidates. A good suggestion would be to think out of the box, and it’s not only to find qualified candidates. It’s for ‘thought diversity’, too. I spoke with someone associated with a large investment/mutual fund firm, who said they always recruit from the same schools, with the same degrees, and the same GPA. What do you get? You can get ethnic diversity, but you also unfortunately get people who were educated in the same way, think the same, ‘look’ the same and act the same. You don’t get a variety of thought and new ideas about how to do things. Recruit from the same schools for printing, and the same thing happens. There are certainly engineering schools, design schools, and capable universities that churn out intelligent, computer-capable, ambitious candidates.

2) The Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) is a not-for-profit, private, industry-directed organization that provides undergraduate college scholarships and graduate fellowship assistance to talented students interested in graphic communications careers. Currently, more than 240 students are receiving financial assistance through PGSF, at colleges, universities, and technical schools across the country, including Rochester Institute of Technology, California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, Georgia Southern University and Western Michigan University, among others. Approximately 75 PGSF scholarship recipients graduated this past year. What a place to find outstanding talent. Resumes of the participating PGSF scholarship recipients can be found at www.gain.net on the GAIN job bank.

3) Web 2.0 presents both a challenge to the old ways of doing business and an opportunity to gain tremendous leverage. What is Web 2.0? They are untraditional, social web sites that involve the visitor and evolve with the visitor. There are many examples: Myspace, Jobster, Linkedin, flickr, Spoke, YouTube and others. And, there are the blogs, which cover every topic imaginable. To thrive, companies will have to figure out how to engage young people from all over the world. Companies can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit young employees from every part of the world.

Business Week recently published a web article, ‘Children of the Web: about how the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture–and what business can do to cash in.’ (see the video: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/06/0621_global_youth/index_01.htm.) How are younger people influenced? As the article remarks: “Consider Brazilian Fabricio Zuardi, 27. He grew up 180 miles from São Paulo and found a job via the Web with Silicon Valley tech startup Ning Inc. Zuardi now lives in Palo Alto, Calif., in an apartment he located on craigslist.org. He has no traditional phone, preferring Skype Internet-based service. He doesn’t own a TV. In his spare time he posts items on his blog or writes software that he contributes to open-source development projects.”

As noted, companies are using this technology to find new employees. Remember, if these people are using Web 2.0, they are already familiar with most of the skills you probably require in a prepress department.

It is essential to understand that social networks—as the name implies—are social networking sites. People who are savvy on the Internet, and who do not have inhibitions about using the Internet to develop relationships, are the ones who should manage or handle your social networks. I would go even further and suggest that depending on your company size, it is almost imperative to have one or more dedicated people handling this function. Like technology, keeping up with all these networks and keeping your firm’s message fresh, is a full time job.

4) Another form of Web 2.0 are Virtual Worlds which, described in Wikipedia, are fully immersive 3D virtual spaces; environments where humans interact with each other— socially and economically—using the metaphor of the real world, but without physical limitations. The most popular metaverse is Second Life.

Second Life is a user-created 3D virtual world that has many advantages over traditional websites. The power to incorporate people viewing the same content brings tremendous advantages to marketing and business applications—as does the opportunity to add a powerful collaborative tool for training, conferences and recruitment. Residents make up the population of Second Life; characters that you can meet and interact with.

Second Life is filled with creative people and many of them are graphic designers involved in real world design projects. Some are registered with Semper International, and we use them in the real world for graphic design and programming. Others are very tech savvy and work on large projects for real world companies, who are creating their own visions, using the built in scripting language (a poor ‘sister’ to java script). These people are approachable ‘socially’ and relationships can be developed. As discussed above, you must have someone who is able to develop relationships with these people; not just aggressively and latently attempting to get them to help you.

Some companies are already using Second Life to recruit people. Remember, this is a world of computer-savvy people. Semper is an active recruiting force in Second Life, as are TMP, IBM, Cisco, Verizon, Microsoft and others.

Social networks and the Metaverse are just beginning to be understood. However, the impact is quite powerful and worth reviewing and possibly using.

5) Go where techies visit on the Internet. My guess is that your prospective employees are not searching Monster.com. Just refer to the Web sites that would attract the people you are interested in. Follow blogs and other cyber links to find your most qualified candidates. Three print blogs (found with a very quick search) are printmode.net, printceoblog.com and prepressforum.com (printworkers.com has a link). However, not all candidates are reading print blogs, but perhaps they are visiting blogs and tech forums that are specific to their skills. Visit blogs from other industries with fundamentally similar skill sets. How different is an X-ray tech from a prepress tech? What are the primary skills sets a person must have for your position? Could you find those primary skill sets in people from other industries? Sometimes you’ll need a very wide net to capture the highest skilled talent.

6) Go to events and be seen where you share a similar vision of interests. These could be print trade shows, but perhaps there are other technology events that attract people with the skills you are looking for—or maybe there are just popular leisure time spots. People like to join firms with the same or similar vision of the world that they have. Get your company’s vision publicized for people to buy in to. Designate a charismatic person from your staff as an evangelist to talk at events and present a solid message that people will listen to. You goal is to get people in the crowd to subconsciously nod their heads up and down in agreement.

Start surfing
The technology world has opened up a wide variety of options to find and deliver messages to very competent technical help. The same creativity many printers have used to maintain their businesses will be required to find talented candidates. They aren’t visiting the old print haunts any more, but they’re out there—and you don’t even need to leave your office. Start surfing!

The goal of your business is to make money. You need to show a profit on your P & L or all other business goals are moot. One obvious action is to cut expenses. But, At some point you need sales as well. We all know what a P&L looks like pluses and minuses are simple: sales are a plus and expenses are a negative. The goal is to have sales higher than the expenses. At what point does cutting expenses start hurting or become ineffective? When does looking for the lowest price end up costing the most?

Basically the above questions are similar and I’m using them to help round out the discussion. Lets use this current mortgage mess as an example. A homeowner looks to get the lowest priced mortgage possible; they find a 7-year ARM they can switch into. Four years ago that would mean $850 a month on a $250,000 note, the deal is done. In hindsight, maybe not such a great move. Here is another example: a new home buyer purchases a house for $250,000 with no down payment, a fixed rate for 7 years and interest only payments. They get a great LOW monthly payment and one would expect a first time buyer to make the minimum payments allowed. This would also allow their standard of living to rise higher than it should. Both of these are examples of bad decisions. The impact will, of course, be felt by all of us since many people made these bad decisions- IE lowest cost per month. In printing this happens many times with our clients, they play us off each other price wise, and we let them. It seems to me, it is too easy to get caught in a downward spiral with printers always competing on price alone. One solution is to buy all your competition and then drive the rest of the printers out of business. This oligopoly type situation sounds familiar, no?

Printers themselves are forced to push costs down to survive. With labor costs, sometimes they push to the point that they cannot attract the skills they need. Check out this blog: CLICK

In the end we can never cut expenses as much as we need to increase sales. I am a strong advocate of running a lean operation, but sales are by far and away the more important part of that P and L equation. And sales, is about quality, reliability, relationship, trust, and value. The sooner we get our clients and ourselves to start weighing the whole picture the better.

Just some thoughts.

The PIA/GATF build was a fun one for us. We learned quite a lot in its development from a flow standpoint. How to make it work well for people as they enter through the use of the roof top football game. Getting our hands around building a site with an association that services the graphic industry was a critical accomplishment.

All and all we are happy with this build and look forward to other small projects. Our focus is still on growing our own talentpool of people skilled in developing in SL and deploying them to the various large SL development firms, however, these side projects assist us in our understanding and also the development of our SL talent. I suppose you can look at it as a testing process for our dev team.

Brian Regan
President
Semper International

Printing Industries of America, Inc.
Graphic Arts Technical Foundation
200 Deer Run Road
Sewickley, PA 15143
Phone: 412/741-6860
Fax: 412/741-2311

Web site: http://www.gain.net/

News Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: Tony Vinski
412/259-1805
tvinski@piagatf.org

PIA/GATF Announces the Grand Opening of its
New Virtual Building in Second Life

Pittsburgh, PA, September 10, 2007— PIA/GATF has entered the virtual world and is showing printers how they can benefit by doing the same. During Graph Expo in Chicago, IL September 9–12, PIA/GATF will introduce printers to its new virtual building within the realm of Second Life. Printers will be able to explore the PIA/GATF building and discover the opportunities available to them without having to make any commitments or financial investment.

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc., which gained international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. Within it, printers are able to hold meetings, train employees, interview job applicants, promote themselves to hundreds of thousands of potential customers, and even sell virtual products and services for real money in the Second Life marketplace, which generates over $1 Million per month. The possibilities are endless.

PIA/GATF is still exploring all of the possibilities that this new world has to offer the printing industry. The world of Second Life is still being defined. As it develops, PIA/GATF is taking a leadership role for its membership by offering hands-on access to its building, development assistance, and general information and guidance.

Those interested in learning more about this emerging technology and how their business can become involved are invited to visit the PIA/GATF booth at Graph Expo on September 12 at 2:00 p.m. for a 15 minute walk-through demonstration of the new PIA/GATF virtual building, including a virtual store, meeting space, and even a field goal kicking game on the roof. Our building was created by Semper International LLC. Semper International is the first staffing company to open a Second Life employment office and is currently assisting companies in many ways as it pertains to Second Life. PIA/GATF is working with Semper International LLC to offer assistance to member printers interested in pursuing their own virtual business.

###

About PIA/GATF: PIA/GATF is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association representing an industry with more than 1.2 million employees. It serves the interests of more than 12,000 member companies. PIA/GATF, along with its affiliates, delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency and profitability of its members and the industry through advocacy, education, research and technical information.

August 22, 2007 01:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Semper International Opens New Island, HumanResource Island in the Virtual World, Second Life

New location coincides with company’s new venture into virtual world consulting

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Semper International, the leading placement firm for skilled help in the graphic arts and printing industry, and a growing provider of trained, technical staffing in other high-tech areas, particularly video games, announces it has opened a new island location, HumanResource Island, in the Second Life® virtual world.

Second Life®, developed by Linden Labs®, is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Opening to the public in 2003, it is currently inhabited by over 4 million residents from around the globe. Second Life is an exciting new venue for collaboration, training, distance learning, new media studies and business.

HumanResource Island has been developed to allow Semper to augment its current capabilities in Second Life. With the additional land they will have a much larger location to handle their growing uses for Second Life. The collaborative nature of the virtual 3-D Second Life world makes it an exceptional resource for a recruiting company to interact with clients and talent.. They are already using it as a forum for seminars for clients. The company is also successfully inviting candidates to Second Life to listen to presentations offering job search advice while, concurrently, prescreening them for possible jobs.

With its knowledge and experience in virtual worlds, and its extensive list of programming resources, Semper International has also built a business around Second Life consulting. The company provides expert analysis of whether a client is prepared to build a Second Life location, rules of how to culturally engage with other ‘residents’, and programming resources to build an appropriate site. Companies interested in exploring more can visit http://www.semperllc.com/metaverse/.

“I think it is important to note that our continued use of Second Life is not specifically as a marketing platform. We’re not lining the streets with banners,” explains Brian Regan, Semper International president. “We continue to be impressed with the non-marketing utility of Second Life. For example, the introduction of voice in Second Life has allowed us to use the virtual world as a collaboration tool between Semper employees from different, real-world offices. They are able to meet in our Second Life office for conference meetings. New ideas of how to use it are generated almost on a weekly basis, which is why we were willing to invest in a complete island.”

Semper International’s HumanResource Island can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/196/112/27. A Semper International blog that further delves into their Second Life experiences can be found at http://semperllc.wordpress.com/

“Second Life” and “Linden Labs” are registered trademarks of Linden Research.

- end -

About Semper International

Headquartered in Boston with branch offices nationwide, Semper International is a temporary help placement firm founded and staffed by professionals who understand the positions, equipment, and software essential to their core business areas, assuring a perfect employee-employer match.

To provide career growth, Semper University is an online training program to help employees prepare for upcoming changes in the industry. Realizing how the Internet is revolutionizing the industry, Semper also works with the most talented web designers, graphic designers, desktop publishers and production managers.

For more information, visit Semper International at www.semperllc.com. Semper International’s Second Life office can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/196/112/27.