There are tons of highly qualified and experienced Supply Chain & Logistics professionals ready to work for your business immediately.
Yep that’s right, there’s not really a skills shortage, in fact there is an abundance of amazingly qualified and experienced people ready to join your organization today.
These very same people also bring vast networks and business relationships and can not only develop and improve your operations based on their first hand experience but its likely they could also bring new business.
Oh, and that’s all in addition to training their own successor!
Supply Chain solutions experts and Professional Logisticians, Project Logistics experts, Supply Chain Management and Optimization experts, Procurement, S&OP, Demand Management experts… the list goes on and on…
Sounds too good to be true right?
Well these are facts, and the unfortunate truth in this politically correct world in which we live is that whether anyone is prepared to admit it or not there is an entire under utilized Supply Chain work force of senior professionals who often aren’t being given the opportunity to continue working, yet aren’t even close to thinking of stopping work. Add to this that there are only a very limited number of people from the younger generations who could take their place and we have a significant problem.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the more mature experienced people would command only the very highest levels of salary and benefits, but in my experience from a cost to company perspective that is often just not the case, many of these people have minimal overheads and no dependents and therefore don’t necessarily have the need for a package with all of the bells and whistles included. Don’t get me wrong they know the value of their experience and qualifications and would expect fair compensation for their efforts, but it’s a fair yet realistic compensation which they expect.
Of course in the developed countries Anti-Ageism or Age Discrimination laws prevent companies from not employing the more mature workers… right?
So obviously there are no issues there because anyone at any age has an equal chance… Hmmm.
I mean no one was ever rejected from getting a job because of their age were they?
I would bet there are plenty of examples of more senior or dare I say it older applicants who have been told in the past that they just didn’t… somehow… fit the profile of a job they had applied for yet they have worked in the very same type of job for their whole career.
Anyway my point here is not to argue the politics it’s more about encouraging the leaders of organizations to seriously consider how utilizing the skills of older generations could benefit their business whilst we still have the chance.
Bear in mind when these people are completely gone we cannot replace their years of knowledge and experience which translates to major problems in a global supply chain, and that’s a looming disaster!
The skills shortages do exist in the mid age range and below but this will never improve if we don’t get a move on and start training and developing more young professionals whilst keeping in mind that the older generations which should be heavily involved in passing on knowledge are those who are often being asked to sit on the side lines.
We need to stop the brain drain immediately and start utilizing the skills and experience of the experts in order to properly train the next generations of Supply Chain & Logistics professionals.
If someone is ready to put in another 3-5 years before they finally wish to consider finishing work then surely that’s plenty of time for them to join a business, take a future successor under their wing and show them the ropes whilst imparting valuable knowledge.
Give it a shot and you might find your business advancing far faster and more efficiently than it ever has before.
There are no substitutes for vast networks and experience!
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