The demand for Supply Chain (SC) expertise is bigger than the offer. How to close this gap?
The Supply Chain Management profession is facing a talent crisis that endangers organisations. SC leaders will need to completely change how to attract the talent that could bring leadership, creativity, resilience and problem-solving skills to benefit your firm.
What caused this crisis?
This talent shortage responds to some concerns:
• The potential retirements of vast numbers of "baby boomers.”
• There has been an expansion of global Supply Chain requirements.
• The cumulative effect of years of head-count reductions, all leading to a shortage of employees with the skill sets and knowledge.
How to close the gap?
In spite of the recent growth of academic Supply Chain programs, the amount of SC professionals is still a problem, by far! Companies are taking actions to face these challenges by turning to colleges and universities as a source of new talent.
SC leaders must change completely the way to attract talent and the type of skills they want from prospects. Soft skills are now at the top of list requirements; some examples are creativity, resilience and problem-solving skills, to mention a few. This issue of the existing gap gives Supply Chain leaders the opportunity to spend on creating outstanding teams. The gap justifies the need, so see the Supply Chain profession as an excellent alternative when choosing your career.
Furthermore, the skills required to support world-class supply chains are continually getting higher. For that reason, organisations are in search for a blend of analytical and managerial leadership capabilities, which can only be developed through integrated programming that includes classroom education, internships, and on-the-job experience, to educate individuals with the broad-mindedness, knowledge, and expertise needed to be the efficient leaders of the future.
How to develop a Supply Chain talent pipeline?
Given the hard impact of the current situation affecting business, it is essential for SC executives to hire, and in the long-term, retain talent Find the talent who pursue an organisational success, done through a more programmatic approach, working toward ways to fill the gap between the demand and supply. Highly capable individuals who can execute the Supply Chain mission to ensure the continuity of talent availability.
Finally, a SC leader has to negotiate with executive and make intelligent decisions about whether to get talent externally or develop existing resources. Track down talented prospects from both, the new college graduates and the more experienced professionals. They must be continually evolving to bring top value into your organisation.
However, very few companies are likely to view Supply Chain talent as a long-term, strategic benefit to invest. Moreover, not all organisation count on clear regulation whether who is responsible for looking for candidates, capacitating the newcomers, or follow up with the continuing updating of SC seniors. Are these Supply Chain team or Human Resources (HR) functions? As a result, these discrepancies limit companies' ability to entirely make the most of out of their human capital.
Final comments: Talent issues are the concern of many universities and enterprises leaders especially regarding Supply Chain Management talent development. Why not work together?
This article, is based upon a recent University of Tennessee (UT), USA white paper that reports the results of the research described above.
Dave Food
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