Labor a Hot Topic Across Industry Events

The packaging and printing communities seek to continue past success in growing the domestic printed packaging markets and look forward to the anticipated onshoring of manufacturing of packaged products and the associated demand for printed packaging to protect, market, and showcase those goods. It's not just talk. Current packaging and printing thought leaders as well as those emerging are showing up in quite a literal fashion.

Laurel Graefe, regional executive at the Nashville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, speaking to the audience on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the PPC Spring Outlook & Strategies Conference. As the senior officer leading the Federal Reserve in Nashville, Graefe is responsible for strategic direction, oversees economic research activities, and is a member of the core group of Atlanta Fed leaders advising on monetary policy. | Photo Credit: Linda Casey

Not content to wait until Monday to start the week, the greater flexographic printing community converged onto Ohio's capital city on Sunday, April 16, 2023, to kick off FTC's Forum 2023. With nought a day of rest from one conference to the next, the 2023 Paperboard Packaging Council Spring Outlook & Strategies Conference rolled in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, April 19. The PPC Spring Outlook & Strategies Conference, which continues until Friday, April 21, is currently experiencing its highest attendance ever.
The events might have been in disparate locations, but one topic came to the forefront at both events — how to hire, train, and retain employees.

Conversations across events were frank. Speakers did not allow hard truths to slink into the background, whether it was Laurel Graefe, regional executive of the Nashville Brand of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who told the PPC audience on the morning of Thursday, April 20, 2023, that the tight labor market is fueling the rising inflation the Fed is seeking to calm by raising interest rates, or Claudia St. John, president of Affinity HR Group, who pointed out to the FTA Forum audience on Monday, April 17, 2023, that millions of workers left the market because they have either died from or are disabled because of COVID.

Consistent across the conversations was the advice that it's sufficient to focus solely on bringing new employees into the package printing and converting industries. However, it is essential to secure your business' ability to execute and grow with fewer labor hours, whether the reduced hours are being generated from a smaller number of employees or by changing expectations from employees — both current and prospective — around time independence.