The human touch cannot be ignored in the search for real value

Just a few weeks ago the CEO of a print business explained that his plans for the immediate future focused on optimising his human capital. He did not mean stripping out staff to cut the overhead as much as possible; he did not mean a massive implementation of robotics and artificial intelligence, though these may be involved; he did not mean recruiting an army of youngsters will to work at lower rates just to have a job, while pushing experienced people into retirement. He meant investing in the people he has, upgrading their skills and really valuing their contribution to the success of the business.

That business is already well invested with conventional and digital printing, prepress and finishing. It has a loyal customer base. It is not in the UK but in Austria and close to the border with Switzerland. It is a naturally beautiful part of the world but also one where the pool of labour has choices of who to work for and where to work. By choosing to invest in the staff, the directors hope to keep hold of people and to give them skills that are less vulnerable to automation, robots and AI.

These three horsemen of the employment apocalypse will rapidly eliminate low value low skilled jobs. But not the sort of jobs that require problem solving, people facing skills and autonomous decision making. These are roles that will become more important as printers have to cope with an influx of short run jobs, with jobs submitted via portals and jobs that need to be delivered on the spin of a coin. The value comes before the job is submitted, in setting up the portals, understanding the client’s needs and training them to understand what is required on their part. It delivers too when the forces of production, marketing and sales combine to innovate, explain and implement better ways of working for all involved. That requires people and that is the role for valuable human capital.