The Quality of our Employees – One of our Nahan Differentiators

Author: Melissa Fransen

Quality. We pride ourselves on the quality of our print. We pride ourselves on the quality of our customer service. We pride ourselves on the quality of delivering results. Ultimately, all of the quality we pride ourselves on comes down to one thing and that is the quality of our people. Expecting excellence from our employees requires a strong dedication and vision from our training team. Excellent employees are built with the support, encouragement, and knowledge of talented team leaders. When you become an employee of Nahan, you become a part of something bigger – an entire community of people who are invested in producing great results and in living our Nahan Values. No matter your position, whether you are a Production Assistant or a Leader in the company, everyone on our team plays an integral role at Nahan and every position matters.

“A fun fact about Nahan is that our average tenure is 12.2 years.”

Our Hiring Process

Finding quality employees starts with our hiring process. Great employees refer great employee so we offer an employee referral bonus program. Other than word of mouth for new recruits, we post open positions on our website, our social media pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter), on the radio, and through a variety of other advertising means. Our hiring process includes a series of interviews and if selected for a role, the new employee will be required to a complete a background check and a physical prior to starting with our team.

Starting a Job at Nahan – Orientation

Beginning a new role at Nahan starts with a day of orientation, which includes everything from basic safety to hearing protection to learning Nahan’s emergency action plans. We also invite a number of employees from across the company to a luncheon to welcome our new employees and to make them feel comfortable (Note: with COVID-19, this is temporarily suspended at the moment). At Nahan, safety is at the cornerstone of what we do, so we put a lot of emphasis on our safety programs right from day one. On the second day of employment at Nahan, we start training on manuals, processes, and procedures. For manufacturing positions, we also start to give new employees “a feel” of their new position with some very basic training on the production floor.

Setting our Employees Up for Success

After orientation, the employee starts to learn more about their new role each day. We get them comfortable with equipment, maintenance, trouble-shooting, basic procedures, and standard operating procedures (SOP’s). Our leaders also pair our new employees with a “buddy” so they will have a resource to learn from and a “go to person” with questions. Our leaders stay in close contact with new employees and they also move them to different equipment so they get cross-functional training on a variety of equipment. This provides an opportunity for our employees to gain experience and to find what they enjoy doing each day.

Mod Training

In addition to the above ways of setting our employees up for success, we also start doing “mod” training. There are four mods for each position. These mods provide “on-the-job training” for employees. Each mod takes up to twelve weeks. These mods give employees time to “practice” their new role. We track the progress of each new employee in their mods and each mod has a test at the end that will need to be completed and passed. If we see an opportunity that the employee should have further training, we will continue hands-on training with the employee to ensure they are successful in their role.

Certification Patches

Once an employee passes all four mods, they become “certified.” With the certification process, they receive a patch that they can put on the sleeve of their uniform to showcase their certification level.

Promoting Within

At Nahan, there is a lot of room for growth and for advancement opportunity. We prefer to promote within our walls for positions and post our available positions internally.

Jobs at Nahan

If you are interested in learning more about a career at Nahan, visit our careers page or contact us to learn more.

Bio: Melissa Fransen is our Marketing Manager. She started with Nahan in May of 2017. Melissa is responsible for Nahan’s marketing initiatives, which includes everything from conference planning to social media initiatives. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband and enjoying time in the outdoors with family and friends.

The Value of My Internship at Nahan

Author: Jayden Johnson, Marketing Intern (pictured on right)

Doing an internship was something I never thought I would do in college.

Being a full-time student with a heavy course load and working as a part-time server, I just did not see how I could fit an internship into my hectic schedule. However, I decided to apply anyways to the Marketing Internship position at Nahan. After an interview and a period of nervously waiting while consuming multiple bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and binge watching Netflix, I got the call saying that I got the job!

Little did I know that this experience was going to change me not only professionally, but personally as well.

When I first started my job as the Marketing Intern here, I didn’t know anything about printing other than that it exists. I thought my job would consist of me filing paperwork, running to get people lunch, making coffee, more paperwork, and other miscellaneous jobs. Surprisingly, I was wrong. In fact, my job is never the same.er

One day I could be handling customer surveys, internal communications, researching potential industries that we could help, write letters to prospects for the sales team, and creating sample packs for them. The next day calling trade shows and negotiate pricing on exhibition, conduct meetings about future trade shows to discuss the timeline leading up to the show, going through attendance lists to find prospects, create press releases for attendees of the conference to learn more about Nahan, and hearing from the sales team what they need to have a successful trade show.

Studying marketing in college is one thing. It’s totally different thing you actually get to see those concepts, theories, and examples being applied to real life situations.

Not only have I learned various skills that will help me enter the workforce with some experience under my belt, but I’ve also learned that internships help people like myself who are trying to figure out what they want to do professionally after college. The best part of an internship though, is that you meet amazing people who believe in you and push you to step out of your comfort zone.

Are you interested or looking for an exciting internship/career? Visit our website to learn more about our culture and apply to job openings today and you will see why Nahan Printing is the Employer of Choice!

Bio: Jayden Johnson is our Marketing Intern. He started working at Nahan in November 2018. Jayden is a student at St. Cloud State University and will graduate Magna Cum Laude with his B.S in Marketing, minors in Community Psychology and Management, and a certificate in Professional Sales Specialization. In his spare time, Jayden enjoys hanging out with family and friends, traveling, and bowling.