Supply chain professionals want challenges and opportunities to learn

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the July-August 2016 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

July-August 2016

What’s the difference between us and our competitors? Our people!” I can’t think of an organization that doesn’t publicly state that its people are its most important asset. Yet, anyone who has been in the workforce for any length of time knows that when the rubber hits the road—or something else hits the fan—people are usually the first casualty of cost cutting. It’s far easier to free up your talent for “other opportunities” than it is to close a plant or sell a fleet of trucks.

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Many organizations are concerned about the availability of qualified candidates to fill their supply chain management positions. This concern is exacerbated by the impending retirement of a generation of employees who are already on the job, with years of experience. In late 2015, APQC conducted research on actions that organizations are taking to attract new talent to the supply chain field. We also sought to learn more about what supply chain professionals are looking for when they accept a new position with an organization. The most important findings are that responding organizations want to recruit top talent to the supply chain to ensure organizational success and employee well being. At the same time, what professionals consider to be most important varies some depending on their age group—but overall they want to be challenged in their roles.

Organizational priorities
At the organizational level, attracting talent to the supply chain is a high priority. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents agree quite a bit or extremely that attracting talent is a top priority for their organizations. These results align with a focus among organizations on both the long-term health of the business and the good of their employees.

Survey respondents were also asked to rate how much they agree that certain factors are a priority for their organizations. Possible responses ranged from 1 (denoting that the respondent did not agree that the factor is a priority) to 5 (indicating that the respondent strongly agreed that the factor is a priority). Respondents rated ensuring the long-term future of the organization highest among possible priorities for their employers, with a mean rating of 4.2. This was followed by meeting short-term financial goals for the organization and ensuring employee well being (both with a rating of 3.9).

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