The BSGA Column The next generation


In this article, David Allen, president of the British Sign & Graphics Association, explores what can be done about attracting young talent and how to retain them for the long-term.


and succeed as an account managers and creatives and on to run their own company when I overlooked their potential.


What to do?


So, what do you do about it? How do you give your business the best shot at retaining that top talent?


I


recently visited a customer of ours who’s a coach operator to do some repairs.


I got chatting to one of the guys in garage about all usual stuff we do, but as neither he or I are big football fans the current state of the England team didn’t come up. But one thing that did was hiring drivers, ‘let’s face it’ he said, ‘what youngster wants to be a bus driver these days?’


A similar conversation came up again not long after at an engineering business. It struck me then how much the landscape has changed in the almost 40 years I’ve been in my business. I saw some stats recently that said 15% of students continued full-time education of any sort when I left school, compared to nearly 40% now. Add the fact that over 80% of people are employed in the service sector of the economy it’s not hard to see why certain sectors are having difficulties.


What does the sign industry have to offer?


But what about our own trade, how’s that doing, and what do we have to offer? When I look at my own small team, we age from 19 through to 64 with a spread across the ages but most no older than 40 and from what I’ve seen on my travels we’re not unique either.


| 44 | September/October 2024


Unlike many others we’ve embraced all that the digital age has to offer none more so than social media, we’ve used it more than many other trades to promote what we do and raise the profile of the trade among many younger people much more than any other generation that’s gone before.


It has given us a shop window to promote a career in the sign and graphics industry and one we should really embrace.


But once you’ve made the decision to recruit what’s next?


What next?


How do we train and retain? We’re still relatively small industry with few options, so for the most part it’s down to the business owner or other team members to do the training.


With the pressure to get jobs out of the door it’s easy to leave a recruit doing some tedious part of the job with little or no support and see them walk out the door and the trade when boredom sets in.


I’d argue though if you don’t support the training and development of your recruit you’re missing a trick. I’ve lost many people in my business only to see them thrive in a different business in a different role. I’ve experienced great workshop team members leave


You might have taken on a recruit for workshop duties, but taking on an apprentice offers much more. Just as it did back when every tradesman had to be ‘times-served’ it provides a framework that a new entrant can follow, taking in every aspect of a business, on the face of it you might say I don’t need then to do a survey or a quote but think of the opportunity another way, if that trainee has a thorough grasp of all the processes involved to get that job that they are on out of the door they may well appreciate the value of what they are doing more.


The next generation Today’s next generation look for career progression in a way we never did it’s all too easy to overlook this but to do so risks wasting the opportunities in front of you. During an apprenticeship candidates complete a project. They will have been guided through each stage of a typical job, the quote, the survey the design and the various other stages of bringing a job to life they’ll be seeing the potential of a career in the sign trade, and you’ll be showing there’s progression if they want it. For any trade to be sustainable, being able to attract and retain new recruits is essential. I think the sign and graphics trade has an edge on many others. We proved to be very resilient over the years and willing adopters of new technology, methods and materials. Many things we take for granted today weren’t even thought of 10 to 15 years ago. We’re lucky in our trade that we have a great mix of careers available, but we must embrace training and skills if we are to continue to thrive.


www.signupdate.co.uk


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