by Jennifer Hart Yim | Sep 27, 2016 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
The supply chain talent deficit is real — but what about the experienced people who can’t find a job?
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
It’s no secret that we write a lot about the Supply Chain talent deficit — the growing industry consensus about a looming shortage of talent needed to fill Supply Chain, Procurement, and Logistics jobs as those roles grow in prominence and the baby boomers retire. It’s an important issue to the field that we recruit in, and we’re interested to see how companies, educational institutions and other industry players respond as it plays out. But today we wanted to comment on an interesting side note of the whole issue:
Every time we write about the Supply Chain talent deficit, on the Argentus blog or elsewhere, we see comments from experienced professionals in the field who aren’t able to find work. We’re always sure to say that the Supply Chain talent deficit is a big-picture trend, and doesn’t mean that everyone in the field is going to be able to get a job easily. But it’s interesting that we hear from quite a few people who are having difficulty finding work, despite the fact that companies are having more difficulty hiring in the field than perhaps ever before.
A comment by 3PL executive Valerie Kucherenko on one of our recent LinkedIn Publisher posts pointed out this disconnect, and got us thinking. First of all, here’s the relevant part of the comment:
“Frankly speaking there are so many articles, including the ones by Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, indicating a shortage of qualified candidates in the Supply Chain field that I am torn between this feeling of high demand for Supply Chain professionals and the fact that many experienced ones can not find a job. Where is the confusion coming from?”
Let’s try to answer this question.
If there is a Supply Chain talent deficit, why are so many people in the field having trouble finding work?
First of all, the talent deficit in Supply Chain isn’t just buzz. Experts throughout the industry are talking about it, but it’s also something we’re hearing about daily from our clients looking to hire in the field, and from executives we speak to. We’re on the front lines of the talent war in this industry, and we can observe it directly. So it’s not that the difficulty of hiring in Supply Chain is made up.
Of course, the trouble that certain experienced people are having looking for work isn’t made up either. So we started thinking about big-picture reasons for this disconnect, based on our experience as people who have been recruiting in Supply Chain for over a decade. Here they are:
A certain amount of churn in employment is inevitable, and even a productive fact of the economy. There’s a reason why under economists’ definitions of “full employment,” there’s still about 5% of the workforce that’s unemployed. Structural factors such as geographic shifts and technological change mean that there will always be a certain number of unemployed people, independent of other factors like economic downturns, etc. This means that no matter the demand for Supply Chain talent, there will always be a certain number of people in between jobs — people who haven’t yet found work because it takes some time to get the right opportunity in front of the right people.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The other thing that helps explain this disconnect is the fact that the deficit of talent isn’t, strictly speaking, a numbers game. What matters isn’t necessarily the raw number of experienced candidates vs. positions (e.g. 10,000 candidates and 50,000 positions) so much as the kind of experience companies are looking for. This is one of the things that comes up over and over again in our conversations with executives.
Supply Chain’s role in companies is expanding. Instead of just being about putting product in the right place at the right time, Supply Chain now uses data, innovation, and supplier relationships to provide companies with a strategic edge. It interfaces with sales to plan and predict demand, etc. And while the function’s scope is increasing, companies are becoming more specific in their experience requirements. For example, more companies are looking for specific category experience (like Real Estate or IT) in Procurement. It’s possible that certain experienced professionals don’t have the right experience in the most high-demand niches (such as Demand Planning, S&OP), making it harder for them to find work than if “Supply Chain” was a more monolithic category. The nature of the experience required is changing — for example companies requiring specific software experience — and much of the deficit of talent exists on this cutting edge of skills requirements, rather than for more general, classic Supply Chain roles.
The solution to this issue? We think it’s two-fold: companies need to be more open-minded in their hiring, recognizing that strong business acumen can be as important to Supply Chain success as niche experience. And on the other side, candidates need to constantly work to adapt and diversify their skillsets, expanding their knowledge to follow the niches that are in highest demand among companies.
Hopefully that sheds some light on why it can be tough for certain Supply Chain professionals to find work even though there’s a deficit of Supply Chain talent more broadly. As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
Which is true (in our experience), but we get that it doesn’t make it any easier for those Supply Chain workers who are having trouble finding that next role! Feel free to reach out to us for help.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 21, 2016 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
A veteran recruiter explains where the supply chain talent shortage is headed and how companies can overcome the challenges.
A recent report on the supply chain talent gap draws a sobering conclusion: The supply chain management profession finds itself in crisis. Unless you do it right, attracting and hiring skilled professionals can be challenging.
Deloitte’s third annual Supply Chain Survey, released last year, also states: “Many organizations are confronting critical shortfalls of talent. Years of headcount reduction, training-budget cuts, and the retirement of highly skilled individuals have hollowed out the ranks of veteran professionals.”
The Deloitte findings are echoed in another report by the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. While the driver shortage is well known, the report maintains the talent gap encompasses every level of supply chain management and is likely to grow worse as baby boomers retire.
So what is an organization to do? How can you become better prepared and make your search for talent more effective?
Few people are better positioned to answer these questions than Rodney Apple, founder and president of SCM Talent Group. With almost 20 years of experience as a supply chain recruiter, he has filled more than 1,000 supply chain positions ranging from executive-level at Fortune 500 companies to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within the United States.
We sat down with Apple to get his thoughts on the realities of the supply chain talent drought.
EBN: What is the status of the supply chain shortage from your perspective?
Apple: I work with a lot of companies in key industries across the supply chain, from junior to C-level positions. Here’s what I’m seeing: It’s not getting any better. If you break it up into job level, entry-level positions tend to be less challenging to fill since more universities are now offering supply chain degrees. Supply chain students at Michigan State University, which offers the top-rated program, can count on multiple offers and interviews before they even graduate. The same thing goes for Penn State, University of Tennessee, and other universities with top-tier supply chain programs.
Middle management, let’s call it junior to mid-level, that’s where companies are struggling; that’s where you find the bulk of people doing the work, and that’s where most of our searches are. It really is about sheer numbers, a generational issue. At the executive level, enough people have risen up, but I’m concerned that as baby boomers retire, it could create a problem in the near future.
Which positions tend to be the most challenging to fill?
Junior-level positions, those who have between one to four years of experience. When you land your first job out of college, you keep your head down and get immersed in the job that has to be done. You’re not actively looking for a new job. So you really have to do a lot of direct sourcing to find the analysts, engineers, inventory managers, and planners and sell them on why they should make a career move at this stage of their career. They are not in management but doing tactical, analysis kind of work. Those are the most challenging positions.
At what point do companies ask for your help?
Small and medium-sized companies often come as soon as a position needs to be filled since they don’t have dedicated resources for recruiting. If they have tried themselves and the search has been unsuccessful, the need is urgent by the time they come to us.
What challenges do companies run into when trying to recruit talent?
When you look at the supply chain function, it’s typically the most complex, diverse, and challenging. Unlike recruiting for clear-cut, core corporate functions such as IT and Finance, the supply chain sector will yield a much greater variety of job profiles. Add the complexity of different job levels and geographic factors that may involve distribution centers and plants spread out all over the country, and you will see why it can be challenging to find the right fit.
Companies also tend to understaff or undervalue the supply chain recruiting function. Coupled with a lot of internal movement, from the corporate office to the field and back, it’s like a game of musical chairs — you’re always backfilling internal movement. If you’re also looking for a high-demand skillset, it can be similar to finding a needle in a haystack.
How should a company prepare to increase the likelihood of a successful search?
First of all, you need to up your game when it comes to finding and sourcing candidates. You have to master the intake process. Before you even post a job opening, sit down with the hiring team or manager. You have to truly understand your company’s unique value proposition, selling points, culture, and what makes it exciting to work for your company. Then, you have to gather information on what I call the supply chain footprint; you have to understand the company’s organizational structure — the number of plants, warehouses, key challenges, key opportunities, key projects — and look at its size, scope, and complexity, including the process, system, and talent.
Next, you have to understand the position you’re trying to fill: the selling points, key deliverables, key challenges, key traits, and so forth. Use that information to build the position profile. A lot of companies start with the job description and fill it with skills and qualifications, and that is not the best way to go about it.
What’s the next step?
You take that information and sit down with hiring team to develop what I call an omnichannel sourcing strategy. There are a lot of channels to tap into. Many make the mistake of thinking the act of posting gets the job done, but you can never just sit back and wait. You may be able to get away with that if there’s an abundance of talent in the marketplace or if you’re a marquee employer, but in the supply chain you have to employ other sourcing tactics, which could include proactively reaching out to universities in the region and even nationally that match up with people in the workforce.
You also need to direct source across different channels. Come up with a targeted list not only of industries, but of companies who may employ the type of talent that you’re looking for. You don’t always need to shop in same industry because supply chain tends to be a transferable skillset, especially in logistics, procurement, and inventory planning. Other channels not to be left out include LinkedIn, Google search strings, top supply chain associations, membership directories, and employee referrals — you want to have strong referral programs to allow people to easily share job opportunities with their networks and potentially build an internal resume database if you have frequent openings.
What part of the search process tends to be forgotten?
When you’re a smaller company, you have to understand your unique value prop. It’s critical that you find a candidate who’s looking for the same work environment that you offer; I call it the ‘motivational fit.’ You may not want to source someone from a Fortune 500 who’s used to robust process systems, organizational structures, volumes, scope, and immense complexity.
Look at companies in your own range. Can you find people who want to continue working for similarly sized companies with similar challenges and opportunities? You may want to engage search firms if you only have a few openings to fill per year as it costs less than employing a full-time recruiter. Every company needs to figure out what talent acquisition resources they need from a people, process, and systems/tools perspective in efforts to proactively hunt people down because that’s what it takes to land top supply chain talent these days.
What can you do to make it last?
Make sure you have a strong onboarding program. Don’t just throw the person into the fire. On the onset, establish goals and expectations. The new hire should understand what needs to be accomplished and outline key deliverables, projects, and performance expectations. This is where management and leadership come in to make people successful, especially in a smaller company. Most companies are doing a pretty good job in this area with mentorships, additional training, courses, and so on, to help the employee reach his or her career goals.
Some companies are also moving away from the rigid once-a-year performance review to more real-time, on-the-spot, feedback. Everyone wants to advance. If your company requires everyone to be in a position for 24 months before they can even apply, you run the risk of losing them. In general, you should be more flexible how you move talent throughout the organization. It can do wonders.
What is your experience when it comes to looking for supply chain talent? What do you consider to be key steps to success?
This article originally appeared on EBN Online.
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by Fronetics | Apr 20, 2016 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Seek out candidates with these skills and experiences when hiring new supply chain talent.
Your business is growing, and it is time to hire. That means facing the challenge and overcoming the fact that there is a dearth of supply chain talent. Growth is very common right now, as job titles evolve and shift due to the rapid changes in supply chain management and new technological requirements. So more talent is in demand as many businesses try to remain competitive.
According to Supply Chain Brain, managing how you seek and acquire supply chain talent can either make or break your company’s success. One study revealed that only half of organizations surveyed had a talent-management program, and 80% thought that the program was a priority for their business. But, that leaves a large segment of companies that are not managing talent like it is a priority, and that can be a critical issue when business is growing.
There are, of course, specific things your talent management program should be looking for as it reviews new candidates. Here are some attributes that top the list:
Soft skills
Recruiters typically have a list of about 30 job skills that they look at when reviewing job candidates within the supply chain industry, but soft skills take top priority to produce the most successful new hires. These include: knowledge of basic business ethics, problem-solving skills, and solid communication skills. These can be identified through the talent’s past job experience, references, and responses to key questions during the interview process.
Supplier and inventory management experience
Look for previous experience and direct knowledge of supplier management and inventory management. These are typically a critical component to a hire’s skill set.
Financial management proficiency
Financial management training is a huge plus. Maybe the talent didn’t crunch numbers daily in their prior position, but there should be indications that he or she definitely has a good understanding of how to utilize data to make solid business decisions.
Demonstrated interest
Seek talent that demonstrates interest, enthusiasm, energy, and passion for the position they are hoping to fill. For example, they have researched and show knowledge about your specific company and how their skills will benefit the organization.
Education
Try to find candidates that possesses university training or certifications. Specific things to look for include participation in projects involving problem-solving and a basic understanding of financial management.
Mentorship
Look for applicants that have been mentored by supply chain professionals or took part in an internship for career development.
Data and technology knowledge
A candidate with training in supply chain data-driven technology should catch your eye.
“Fit”
Look at talent that aligns with your organization’s objectives. According to SCM Talent Group’s founder and talent recruiter, Rodney Apple, every supply chain is different, especially in size, scope, and complexity, so the talent you hire should be a good match for your specific organization.
Varied experience
Seeks someone with knowledge and/or experience spanning multiple functions within the supply chain.
Results-oriented track record
Ask candidates to not only list their previous job responsibilities, but to quantify their results. Look for someone who can produce a few examples of projects in their resume, with results, where they have had to work with other supply chain departments, suppliers, and/or service providers.
Female candidates
Also, look for female talent for traditionally male-dominanted roles. Women tend to be strong in many of the soft skills needed for the future of SCM. According to Shanton J. Wilcox, vice president, North America, and lead for logistics and fulfillment at Capgemini, “Many so-called tactical jobs will be replaced by positions requiring more interpersonal and relationship management skills.”
Transferable experience
Also, be open-minded when it comes to considering top talent from other fields/industries. Many candidates in other professions have very transferable skill sets for careers within supply chain.
With the present challenges in securing supply chain talent to fill required positions, it may be time to shift your approach. Examine your staffing forecast, know your company’s specific trends/needs from historical data, create a talent management program, and then look at candidate pipelines that can fulfill your frequent hiring needs. Companies that perform the best are the ones that treat the recruiting department like a strategic, value-added program.
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by Fronetics | Apr 19, 2016 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Looking for talent? Try recruiting from these top-rated programs and schools.
Recently U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings, including the top supply chain and logistics MBA programs. Of course, U.S. News is not the be-all end-all. But this list gives companies in the supply chain and logistics industries an idea of where some of the brightest graduates, who will be seeking employment in the upcoming months, will be coming from.
We have talked before about the importance of recruiting and strengthening the relationship between academia and the supply chain industry as means to solve the growing talent gap. If your company is looking to hire, consider strengthening your rapport with schools that offer supply chain programs or specialties.
U.S. News 2017 Top Supply Chain Management/Logistics MBA Programs
#1 Michigan State University
#2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
#3 (tie) Ohio State University
#3 (tie) Pennsylvania State University
#5 (tie) Arizona State University
#5 (tie) University of Tennessee – Knoxville
#7 Carnegie Mellon University
#8 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
#9 Purdue University
#10 University of Maryland – College Park
#11 University of Texas – Austin
#12 (tie) Georgia Institute of Technology
#12 (tie) University of California – Berkeley
See all 19 schools.
See also: U.S. News 2017 Online Supply Chain Management Master’s Degree Featured Programs
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by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 14, 2016 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain
There is no easy answer to the burning question why the onshoring movement refuses to truly take off.
The issue of onshoring is frequently painted in black and white. While the media often likens the return of companies to the United States from overseas to a stampede, skeptics may be too quick to downplay the positive impact of the recent movement in manufacturing.
Nevertheless, those who were looking for a true Renaissance of American manufacturing have reason, at least so far, to be disappointed. Even among some high-profile companies — most notably Apple and GE — that announced their return with great fanfare, reality has set in. GE has battled high turnover rates at its re-opened Kentucky plants, as workers reportedly refused to perform certain tasks, while Apple has been stumped by the shortage of engineers.
Although the number of companies bringing production back home has risen significantly in recent years — from 64 in 2011 to 300 in 2014 — they are still outnumbered by those going in the opposite direction.
However, the issue is more complex than net gains or losses. According to new research by Morris Cohen, a Wharton School professor of operations and information management, and Hau L. Lee at Stanford University, “There is an unprecedented amount of restructuring going on.” In some cases, departments within the same company are onshoring and outsourcing at the same time, each weighing the perceived pros and cons differently.
In a Knowledge@Wharton interview, Cohen elaborated on the trend: “I’m going to go to China. I’m coming back from China. The same company simultaneously is making what seemed to be opposing decisions. And when you asked them why, they would give the same reasons. It’s because of labor costs. It’s because of market access. It’s because of this and that.”
In fact, they found there appears to be no dominant reason why companies make one decision or another in favor of onshoring or staying put.
And barriers seem to remain the same as when the onshoring movement began to gain momentum: The lack of skilled workers, coupled with an aging workforce, still rank high on the list of negatives. The rapid pace of offshoring in 1990s and early 2000s made younger generations lose faith in the viability of a manufacturing career.
Patrick Van den Bossche, the Americas lead partner at A.T. Kearney’s Strategic Operations Practice — which released its inaugural Reshoring Index last year — explained the problem on Manufacturing.net: “Think about it — if you have a kid in school, with everything that happened in the last few years, with manufacturing moving overseas as fast as it did, would you feel comfortable to tell your kid to develop a career in manufacturing? I don’t think so.”
At the same time, countries like China, Brazil, and Eastern Europe, previously known for their low-skilled labor, are quickly improving and investing in high-tech industries. With a greater pool of skilled workers abroad, a move back to the United States will seem less urgent. And with the arrival of robotics, the issue of labor costs will likely take on even less significance.
So the big question is, how should the United States stand up to the competition? What do you think?
A version of this article previously appeared on EBN Online.
