But times have changed – print is a service industry, the roles in management have become more complex and the laws around employment and finance require a wealth of contextual knowledge. Without the proper training, management in print companies is now very tough indeed. 

“Traditionally print businesses have always promoted from within,” says Ursula Daly, programme director of training at the BPIF. “This has worked well while the industry was just about lots of machines producing lots of print output. Margins were reasonable and could support this approach.

“But now the industry is more service oriented, margins are very tight, all managers need to be fully up to speed on legal responsibilities, commercially aware, people managers and have good client relationships.”

You may say that if it really is that tough to step up, then you’ll just go out and hire a manager if you need one. But that may be shortsighted – not developing your own staff for management roles can be costly in both economic and practical terms. Firstly, if you don’t put the time in to develop staff, they may seek opportunities elsewhere; and secondly, if nobody trains managers, where are you going to find one when you need them? 

This is before you take into consideration the benefits of having a person in a management role that has been with the company for the long term and knows every nook and cranny of the business. 

Tara Pickles, marketing manager at GI Solutions, explains: “We believe strongly in developing and promoting talent through in-house and external training, as companies are only as good as the people that work for them.

“A number of the team at GI have progressed either to management level or roles in different departments through career development. For example, staff from the shop floor now work in sales and client services and staff who joined as more junior staff as developers, sales and marketers or machine overseers are now on the management team.”

So whichever way you look at it, providing the right management training to staff is essential. But how should you go about it? Here are eight ways to ensure you get training right.

1. Be in it for the long term 

The first thing to remember, says Dani Novick, managing director of Mercury Search & Selection, is that creating  managers of the future will not be a quick process. 

“Taking shop floor staff into management or sales roles is rarely a quick process so employers must look long term,” she advises. 

That means not sticking your staff on an intensive HR and finance course for a week then throwing them into the top job. Professional development has to be an ongoing process, that builds skills at a pace that enables genuine learning and understanding of new skills and knowledge. This could take months, or even years. 

2. Give staff a taster of responsibility 

“Usually the route to management will involve some kind of shop floor supervisory role prior to the first foray into management and so opportunities for this should be considered,” says Novick. 

“Ideally preparation for management should include practical experience and informal training. 

“This can be facilitated by providing training and secondments in different departments. Another option is project work where the individual works in a project team with people from different departments.”

3. Mentoring

“In these days of constrained budgets I think for smaller companies like ours we have to train people through a combination of personal mentoring, on the job peer to peer and through apprenticeships,” explains Gurdev Singh, owner of Northwolds Print Works. 

“Some larger companies have great internal programmes but the biggest issue is letting people have the time off so that they can concentrate and focus on the training being provided. 

“Just learning and developing disciplines to use the right tools will improve performance in the field.”

Mentoring is a common strategy, ‘buddying up’ a trainee with an experienced manager, who can explain the details of the role and advise on training or career opportunities, has proved successful for many firms. This one to one relationship can be invaluable to give employees confidence and a designated person for support. 

4. Spread the knowledge about the company

Novick says that it is important to make the business as transparent as possible so employees get a better understanding of the company; this will prove invaluable if they do step up. 

“Internally there is a need for managers to have an understanding of the business, priorities and challenges for each aspect of the operation,” she says. “As they rise and grow the employer should start exposing the individual to departmental issues, such as budget and staffing.”

Some companies do this through regular business update emails, others by simply calling regular team meetings, but formal tutorials can be useful. 

5. Buy in formal training

Singh is a fan of external training schemes, explaining that the training he received via Vision in Print was invaluable, and Novick agrees that formal training can have a big impact. 

“The value of formal training should not be overlooked,” says Novick. “Often, employers focus on the cost and time out of work required for formal training; perhaps also worrying that courses may be too general and not specific or relevant to print.  

“Actually this is often a benefit for the business – exposure to how things are done in other sectors can help break blinkered mindsets and the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ mentality that inevitably come with internal training.

“In addition, going on formal training can help to strip things back to basics in terms of techniques and processes, whereas internal training often passes on other people’s bad habits, mistakes or limits of existing staff.  

“Of course, there needs to be a balance, as more experienced staff will be able to assist others in applying theoretical knowledge. In terms of access to formal training the most common routes would be via local colleges or BPIF training.”

Terrye Teverson, managing director at KCS Print, is a fan of the latter. 

“We use the BPIF schemes and train apprentices, and then we train management as well,” she says. 

Singh also uses the BPIF for training his staff. Daly points out that the offer is very structured. 

“BPIF provide apprenticeships – team leader at Level 2, management at Levels 3, 4 and 5,” she says. “Earlier this summer we launched a masters in management. The first intake will be starting this month, with some entrants from our Level 5 programme and some who have come through an alternative route.”

She explains that the programmes cover a wide variety of areas: finance, HR, health & safety, legal, purchasing, sales, marketing, personal development, critical thinking and so on. 

Of course, many manufacturers will offer training schemes, too, and there are plenty of general management courses for the essentials of law and HR – shop around using the internet and see what options are out there. 

6. Assist your staff in networking

Daly explains that having the opportunity to talk to peers, particularly those outside your firm and even outside your industry, is increasingly important. 

“We see the networking element as a key part of the development of the new managers as it gives them the opportunity to explore, understand and discuss experiences with their counterparts in other businesses,” she says. “A recent government document suggested that 95.5% of companies in the UK employ fewer than 10 people; this is a very good reason for ensuring that the managers of the future have a strong network of colleagues both inside and outside the industry.”

7. Cultivate the right mindset  among staff

“I think you have to expect staff to step up – it’s not always about training it’s about mindset,” says Teverson. 

Singh agrees: “After all these years, one thing I have noticed is that overwhelmingly training is concentrated in the skills and knowledge development areas. But interestingly when you ask people the difference between successful and unsuccessful people you always hear about things like drive, ambition, tenacity, which are all attitudinal.”

Developing these traits is not easy. For the most part, it is about providing opportunities for growth, offering encouragement and tailoring the way you interact with employees. A good source of information for the latter is Carol Dweck’s book Mindset. 

8. Stop worrying that investment in staff will be wasted as they will move on 

What’s the point in training staff if they are going to move on and use the skills you paid for at another firm? It’s an issue many printers raise. But Novick says there are ways of ensuring your investment in staff skills is secure. 

“Most employers write clauses into contracts that allow them to recover training costs from departing employees for a period of time after the training is conducted,” she says. “However, the best way to hold onto staff you have invested in is to continue to invest in them and provide them with rewarding and challenging careers, if they feel valued they will usually stay. Ultimately though some staff will outgrow an employer and move on. In this case a degree of pragmatism is useful; it is better to have a really good, well trained employee who makes a valuable contribution for a few years than have poorly trained people making up the numbers.”