Wide-Format Printers Are Split on Hiring Seasonal Help

QUESTION:

Does your company hire part-time help during busy seasons?

YES: 43%

• Yes, DCG ONE does hire temporary workers to help when we’re busy. It helps not overwork our full-time employees. — Morgen Masciana, DCG One
• We have a selection of specialists, painters, and others from our local area who will work with us when we are busy. — Kim Magraw, Vivid Sign
• We have brought on additional part-time help during summer seasons especially. This helps us out, of course, but by offering internships, etc., it helps the employee out as well. It’s a great way to eventually onboard a full-time staffer. — Derek Atchley, Atchley Graphics

• We use a couple of temporary agencies to supply overflow and scaleable labor for busier periods. Using temporary employees allows us to flex our production to meet customer demand. The majority of the time, we are able to call back temporary workers who have already worked for us, reducing the amount of training required before they become productive. — Brian Hite, Image Options

• Yes, we try to. We have a collective of people who are available part-time as needed. — Darren LoPrinzi, Color Reflections

• We get slammed a few times per year, and that cycle means hiring temp or part-time makes great sense. — Jared Smith, bluemedia

• We try to have a bullpen of college students we can call on. We don’t go through a service. — Rick Mandel, Mandel Graphic Solutions
• We don’t have busy seasons per se, but we do have larger revenue months than others. We have adopted a more flexible work schedule instead of trying to pigeonhole folks into first-, second-, or third-shift time slots. Full time or part time doesn’t matter. What hours can you work, and how many hours do you want to work per week? It’s harder to manage, but so is trying to get work out understaffed. — Elaine Scrima, GSP Companies
• We hire stay-at-home moms and bring the hand work to them. — David Kaiser, Digitype Design

NO: 57%

• Typically we’re hiring full-time and reallocating labor from other departments. — Kristi Duvall, The BoxMaker

• We hire to retain only. We may contract out some work but only rarely. — Carmen Rad, CR&A Custom
• There is no “seasonal” time. — Tim Roe, Outspoken Signs

• We haven’t but would consider it if the candidate already had experience. It’s too difficult to have someone in our center who isn’t already familiar with our processes. — Linda Fong, Fastsigns Oakland, Fastsigns Hayward

• While we do get busy in bursts, sometimes we try to maintain a constant full workload and be booked one to two weeks out at max. — Trey Matula, Picture This Wraps and Graphics

• I would if I could, but it’s been too hard to find good, consistent, and reliable workers. So unfortunately, it’s just not worth the hassle. — Jim White, Go Graphix

• …but I do offer apprenticeships to students in the area. — Britt Hoff, H n H Sign Company
• I don’t push my employees, even when we get busy. The crew is always on top of things even when the crazy starts. — Tommy Melendez, Master Graphics NYC
• The training curve is generally too high to make it worthwhile. We do occasionally hire temps for handwork and minimal labor. — Wade Neff, Strategic Factory