Staffing Challenges a Major Focus of Program At Epicomm 2016 Annual Conference

General Sessions and Panel Discussions Cover Wide Range

Of Hiring/Development Issues at May 16-18 Event in Savannah. 

(Alexandria, Va., February 9, 2016)—Staffing challenges will be a major focus of the educational program at The Epicomm Experience, the 2016 Annual Conference of Epicomm, the Association for Leaders in Print, Mail, Fulfillment, and Marketing Services. The conference will be held May 16-18 at the Hyatt Regency Savannah in Savannah, Ga.

“Our new conference has been built by members for members, and feedback we receive from our members continues to underscore the difficulties they are facing in finding qualified employees to meet the new requirements of our rapidly changing industry,” says Epicomm President and Chief Executive officer Ken Garner.

“Across the entire employee spectrum—whether they need skilled workers for today’s new equipment and processes, salespeople who can respond to new customer demands, or management personnel who can lead them as they transform their businesses into new services and markets—companies are struggling to find the best people for critical positions,” he continues.

“Added to this are the problems of managing multi-generational workforces, experienced Baby Boomers retiring, and Millennials entering the work world with different ideas and demands,” says Garner, “so it’s no wonder that staffing is top of mind among our members—and that’s why we are providing advice and input from a number of experts and frontline industry leaders on staffing issues at our annual conference. And we have a very special bonus offer for the first 100 registrants, who will receive a customized “Greatest Strengths” report to introduce them to online assessment tools available to help with hiring and employee evaluation.”

The conference staffing discussion will comprise a two-part general session, “Solving the Sales Crisis.” In  part one, “Finding the Right People to Change Your Business: How to Identify, Attract, Recruit, and Hire Top Talent for Sales Developers and Key Managers in a Multi-Generational Workforce,” Tom Bush of Successful Business Strategies be the presenter and lead a panel discussion.

The panel will present ideas to create a checklist for acquiring talent and Bush will discuss how progressive companies are reassessing industry sales types and management teams, how to market and attract talent outside the industry, and how to learn the key differences in unique behavior traits that will distinguish top performers likely to succeed in transactional sales, business development roles, and as managers.

Attendees will also learn where to search for candidates, how to spur their interest, and how to onboard employees and formalize a training program to integrate new talent into existing sales and management teams.

Epicomm Vice President Bill Farquharson will lead a panel in part two of the session,  “Dealing With What You’ve Got,” which will cover how to assess an existing sales force on everything from motivation to skills, work to maximize their abilities, and wring every possible dollar of sales volume from them.

Farquharson and the panel will shift the focus inward, look at ideas for adding structure and discipline to the sales process, and talk about the challenges of managing a legacy sales force, introducing new options to the product line, compensation, and creating a sales system that will work today, tomorrow, and for years to come.

A second general session will focus on how to manage a multi-generational workforce. In “Us vs. Them,” keynote speaker and trainer Jeff Havens will offer insights into the differences between older, more experienced workers and their younger counterparts, help attendees understand the key cultural, technological, and social changes that have created a disconnect between the two groups, and provide immediately applicable strategies to address and eliminate problems caused by this disconnect and build a cohesive, goals-driven workforce.

Special Bonus Offer: Conference attendees who register by May 5 will receive a special bonus: a free, customized assessment of their greatest strengths by global talent testing, acquisition, and development firm Harrison Assessments. Each company will simply fill in an online questionnaire and receive a personal report emailed to them prior to the live conference sessions. The report shows a sample of how assessments provide invaluable human traits information to use in the hiring process or when working with current employees who have challenges. Reports are completely confidential.

The Epicomm Experience brings together representatives of every industry segment—printing, mailing, fulfillment, and marketing—to learn from management experts, share frontline ideas with colleagues from every part of the country and every size company, and network with their peers. Created through the merger of the Association of Marketing Service Providers, National Association for Printing Leadership, and National Association of Quick Printers, Epicomm is uniquely positioned to understand the interaction of all industry disciplines.

For more information about the 2016 Epicomm Experience Annual Conference or to register, go to http://www.epicommexperience.org or call (703) 333-6272. To become an event sponsor or partner participant, please contact Dean D’Ambrosi at (201) 523-6314 or ddambrosi@epicomm.org.

About Epicomm:

Epicomm, the Association for Leaders in Print, Mail, Fulfillment, and Marketing Services, is a not-for-profit business management association representing companies in the $80+ billion graphic communications industry in North America. It provides industry advocacy, management training, and a comprehensive slate of business-building solutions for companies in an evolving market environment. It was created in 2014 through the merger of the Association of Marketing Service Providers (AMSP) and the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL)/National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP). Its founding associations have some 200 years of combined experience serving graphic communications companies of every size and specialty. Epicomm headquarters is at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 320, Alexandria, Va., 22314. For more information, visit www.epicomm.org or call (800) 333-6272.