Category: Talent Acquisition

You can’t find the right talent. Can you create it?

Some important take aways from my recent meetings and calls with senior executives at some of the leading 3pls in the Middle East relating to commercial activity and talent.

1. Many of them are finding it challenging to identify and hire sales professionals with enough in-depth overall supply chain knowledge and experience who can create and sell end to end supply chain solutions to their clients.

2. A lot of 3pls are struggling to find suitable freight sales professionals with a good enough track record of being able to back themselves and consistently bring the revenues for freight sales in the region

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The first point about supply chain solutions is an ongoing challenge for everyone as many of the people with the level of operational supply chain experience that’s needed don’t have the sales experience or know how (a major skill in itself!) that’s needed to be able successfully sell SC solutions to end users (as they are coming from more operational backgrounds and simply haven’t been exposed to sales).

Those that have the sales ability and experience are commanding very high salaries as they have usually already reached to a senior management level leading the supply chain function for companies in their career to-date (those are the people you need if you could afford them!)

With regards to the second point about freight sales I asked some of the employers what’s more important, the ability to sell and having a proven track record of sales?

Or having the knowledge of freight forwarding?

Most answered that’s it’s easier to teach someone about freight forwarding, the hardest part is having the sales ability in the first place !

So what are the possible solutions?

To get suitable supply chain professionals onboard from client side to logistics service provider then in my view its either a case of upping the budgets for salaries to get the senior people (which is probably not an option in the current market for most 3pls) or alternatively start creating dedicated screening, on boarding and training programs that run on an ongoing basis to first identify potential sales ability amongst mid career supply chain professionals and then ensure they have the tools and ongoing support they need to be successful.

Their are many mid career SC professionals in the market currently who are looking for a move, I am sure a few of them would make excellent SC solutions sellers!

In other words start building talent pools / talent communities and taking a proactive approach to “develop” talent for these types of roles.

For the more transactional high volume / high activity driven sales functions perhaps it’s time to look for experienced sales professionals from other sectors and teach them about the Logistics industry?

Is anyone else experiencing similar challenges, do you agree or disagree?

For my contacts outside the Middle East is this a similar story in your regions?

Any other thoughts or ideas to share?

Simply Engaging Talent.

Struggling to recruit or even identify the right people?

Not getting enough suitably qualified and experienced applicants responding to your job adverts?

External recruiters not living up to expectations?

Perhaps your company should be focusing more on building talent communities (and not just on social media), organising and attending regular real time events, for example getting more actively involved in outreach programs to engage with the future work force (Schools, Universities etc).

Talent acquisition is not about posting jobs on LinkedIn or jobs boards and hoping the right people apply or putting a vacancy out to a load of recruitment agencies and hoping they can fix your problem, its about having your finger on the pulse, knowing what’s happening in the market and constantly being connected to the global talent pool, identifying potential skills shortages early on and doing something about it.

Talent Acquisition & Management / HR professionals in your organisation should ideally be aiming to attend (as often as reasonably possible) industry conferences or events related to your companies business sector and operations that are not HR focused. It always amazes me that you rarely see people from these functions / departments proactively engaging with people from other organisations face to face at these types of gatherings as important ambassadors for your business.

Keep it simple, keep it real, never forget it’s all about people!

Isolated diversity tree hands

 

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Could The Square Peg Fit ?

Is it time for the logistics service providers to make more of a concerted effort to hire people from the other side of the fence in order to bring fresh ideas and insight instead of just trying to grab the best people from the direct competition?

There is certainly lots to learn from people who have worked on the client side even if they haven’t been 100% focused on Logistics in their role.

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End users are always looking for cost effective solutions to help bolster and improve efficiency and visibility within their supply chains and I am sure that having a deep knowledge of the business gained from having worked on the inside of the industry on the clients side of the fence would be a major factor in being able to provide very client specific and industry specific solutions and ultimately win and retain the business from that client.

Within the 3pl’s I would cite regional key account management roles for certain specific industry verticals and regional business development roles focused on delivering supply chain and contract logistics solutions as very good examples where many companies are struggling to find suitably qualified people with existing 3pl experience, in my view this is certainly the case in the MEA Region.

Agree or disagree?

Please share your thoughts.

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Future Leaders Take Note!

Here’s some food for thought for those you of reading this who are at the early or mid stage of your career and have aspirations to become a senior executive within the Supply Chain & Logistics sector in the future.

If all goes to plan then in few years time you will be leaders in the Global Supply Chain holding a position such as CEO, Director, VP and possibly with Global, Regional or Country wide responsibilities.

Whether that’s working in Aviation, Shipping, Contract Logistics, or indeed managing Supply Chain functions in Retail, Manufacturing or Distribution etc (the list goes on) there is going to be one common factor which will be a priority for you all… you are going to need people.

The current Supply Chain and Logistics industry leaders are already struggling to bring fresh talent into the sector and this is an issue around the world. The fact that its a global problem was further reinforced to me over the last two weeks as I attended two separate conferences in Asia and Europe. The week before last I was at the Logisym Supply Chain conference in Singapore and just last week the IATA World Cargo Symposium in Berlin.

It was the first time in a very long time that I have attended any Supply Chain & Logistics related events outside of the Middle East yet the same issues around attracting and retaining people in the sector that are discussed regularly across the MEA Region also featured heavily at both of these events. I am sure if I went to similar events in North or South America I would hear exactly the same.

As you are reading this you might well be wondering why I am specifically addressing people in their early or mid-career stage, surely I should be aiming this towards the  current leaders, not the future leaders?

Well here’s the reason.

When you become the next CEO or Global Supply Chain Director you are going to need a ready supply of people just as todays leaders need this right now. The difference is the current leaders have left it far too late and now we are constantly talking about how to make the sector more attractive as there is a huge shortage of new blood.

Those discussions should have already been happening years ago, the current situation is that we are struggling to attract talent to the Supply Chain today but for those of you in your early or mid careers it’s a perfect time too start talking up the sector and getting fresh talent interested because you are going to need those people when its your turn in the driving seat.

In short its essential that you start getting used to being an ambassador for the Supply Chain sector right now! Do everything in your power to gain the interest of school leavers, fresh graduates, and  also anyone else you can think of who may be open to a career change because these people are going to be your talent pool in years to come.

SC brand

Everyone complains about the challenges in finding new people for the sector right now and its a real problem, but lets face it we have all dropped the ball in the past.

Lets not make the same mistake again as there’s no time like the present to give a boost to the Supply Chain & Logistics brand!

Heres a great Chinese proverb which sums this up perfectly.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

 

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Out with the old and in with the… “Who?”

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.

Brain Drain.jpg

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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Talent Tracking & Traceability

Real time data capture and analysis is a key factor in managing an efficient Supply Chain and making continuous improvements.

Could more organisations benefit from applying similar principles to their People Supply Chain when it comes to recruiting?

Many organisations have systems in place to track lead times from identification of a vacancy through to onboarding, number of applicants, sources of candidates etc. This is useful if you want to speed up the internal recruitment process or identify choke points, but aside from that this information is very limited, especially considering that you will have invested a lot of time in the hiring process and are missing key information which will help with future decision making and ultimately business growth.

With the right systems and processes in place for capturing better data you could place your organization many steps ahead of the competition when it comes to winning the talent war.

Here’s The People Supply Chain list of useful data to track, capture, and analyse for your organisations future hiring benefit!

Data

Candidate Hotspots

Where in the world are the majority of suitably qualified potential candidates based for the specific role you are trying to hire for.

Generating a birds-eye view of which locations in the world are home to the people with the skills you require will save copious amounts of time (and money) on future searches for similar roles.

Applications Vs Approaches

Where did each candidate come from and how many applied themselves directly versus those who were actively approached?

This is great data in order to see how proactive you were at finding people.

It’s also useful to see just how many people want to work for your organization in the advertised role and where they are coming from. Maybe potential applicants have a better impression of your organization in some countries than they do in others, or your organization is more visible in certain markets.

Skills Gaps & Diversity

We live and work in a world where skills gaps are everywhere and we are constantly losing vast amounts of skills and experience across many industries as the older generation retires from the workplace without enough sufficiently qualified people to take their place. By monitoring certain demographics throughout a hiring process organization’s can track potential skills gaps amongst various groups of people for specific functions with the benefit of being able to predict future skills gaps and provide training and development opportunities where necessary.

Industry Verticals

Which industries are the people with the skills you require mainly coming from?Depending on the function this could be limited to just a few verticals or it could be vast… either way this is essential knowledge for future targeted hiring!

Reasons Why Candidates Declined.

Why weren’t people interested in the job when approached? Perhaps the package is below the market rate, perhaps your expectations of skills and experience are too high, perhaps the location isn’t appealing enough or perhaps your employer brand needs improving?

The list goes on, but the point is that if you know the core factors you can work on making changes for the future.

Reasons for Rejection

It’s very important to know why your organization rejected certain applicants, (I am talking about the applicants who had close enough experience to make it through to the later stages of the hiring process, not the hundreds of people who applied but didn’t pass the initial CV screening)  it could be as simple as they lacked specific key skills and experience… but if that applies to the vast majority of candidates then it’s a good indicator that you really are asking for too much in a person.

Perhaps the person with ALL of the skills and experience that you are looking for simply doesn’t exist!

I recently learnt an excellent German expression that sums this up perfectly…

“Eierlegende Wollmilchsau”

Google it, or ask a German colleague!

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A breath of fresh air.

Some of you will have read an article I wrote a long time back discussing whether the office environment had a big part to play in an organizations ability to attract, engage and retain employee’s. Today I have had another thought about office environment which I want to share but please bear with me as this is a bit off the wall (you can find my original article here by the way > http://www.globallogisticsmedia.com/articles/view/the-future-is-now).

I have a team of A/C sanitizers at my house today deep cleaning all of the ducts because a dirty A/C system is a major health concern. Dirty ducts =  breeding ground for mold and bacteria  = increased chance of sickness (viruses – flu / colds… or worse etc etc) =  time off work…. which I could do without right now with so many conferences and exhibitions to attend over the next few weeks, and that’s exactly why this is relevant to “The People Supply Chain”  

Imagine an organization which (as part of positioning their brand as an employer of choice) cares about their employees enough that they go one step further than just improving the look and feel of their office’s.

Have you ever seen an employer shouting about the air quality in their offices?

“Join XXXXXX LTD we guarantee you will breathe the cleanest air throughout your working day” (I am talking about white collar offices in countries where A/C is required of course)

I say this tongue in cheek as it probably sounds a bit daft on the face of it but actually there cant be many more things which are important to a person than the quality of the air they breathe, and lets not forget a major key to success in winning the war for talent is about positively differentiating your organization from your competitors in any possible way you can think of.

Maybe I have just been sold on the importance of proper A/C sanitization, but I am not taking any chances and neither should you.

Whose responsibility should this really be in an organization? QHSSE, Facilities Mgr, GM, Directors…HR?

Just as a holistic approach was taken with Supply Chain management the same holistic approach must be applied to “The People Supply Chain” as things like this affect everyone. My A/C duct cleaning example is just a drop in the ocean when you consider all possible areas of an organization which directly or indirectly affect employees

I think it’s apt that i finish with A/C in mind, so here’s my final thought….

“Protect your workforce, become an even more attractive employer, reduce sickness, and stay productive…. clean those dirty ducts!”

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Click HERE for some light viewing about why you should sanitize your A/C for those of you who are interested ; )

 

PS: this is just an observation its not intended as a sales pitch… (although it would have been a very good one!)

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WANTED: Supply Chain Superstars & HR Hero’s

It’s not that long ago when the job of a Supply Chain Manager was largely unknown as the collective function responsible for management of many key activities involved in bringing a product to market.

In the past organizations had an often disjointed mix of Warehousing, Transport, Procurement, Planning, Operations etc with each seen as a specific stand-alone function and in some cases reporting to very different departments or managers. This was the norm until a more holistic approach to Supply Chain eventually became the trend.

One of the best things to have happened for Supply Chain in recent years was arguably the beginning of the global financial crisis when organizations had no choice but look inwardly at cost saving initiatives without causing too much disruption to their business in general.

The Supply Chain Superstars were born…

Once organizations adopted this approach and put in place their Supply Chain leaders they were soon presented with a high level view of all “Supply Chain” activities bringing (in some cases) immediate cost savings and efficiency improvements whilst highlighting other areas where further cost savings and efficiency improvements could be made given more time and focus.

Now seen as one of the most important strategic business functions any company could have, Supply Chain finally took its rightful place in the boardroom, and we haven’t looked back!

A Supply Chain supported by clever software systems and automation, as well as practices and methodology such as Kaizen, and Lean 6 Sigma etc won’t work though unless the combined efforts of all the people involved in the chain actually make it work.

Back we go to “The People Supply Chain” this is where the HR Hero’s come in!

Superheros

When all of the above can only be driven by people why do we still see many companies with their HR departments purely viewed as an admin function, we see more and more HR business partner titles but are those HR professionals really being brought in as strategic partners to the business, or are they just paper shufflers?

Are they involved in shaping the strategic and operational focus of the company? Are the HR processes, procedures and the overall talent management strategy aligned with the company’s overall vision and strategy.

Has that other empty seat in the boardroom been filled by a Chief HR Officer yet?

Leading organizations have developed all-encompassing talent management strategies which provide support and development throughout the whole employment life cycle of its employees whilst aligning perfectly with the strategic direction of the company.

The era of the CHRO’s and the CSCO’s is upon us!

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Urgent & essential job vacancy! (It’s been open for at least one year)

Here’s an interesting question…do you employ people for jobs or do you build your jobs around each individual you employ?

Where do you draw the line?

I have regular discussions with business owners, senior decision makers and hiring managers who are looking for people to “tick all the boxes” for vacant posts as per very specific (non negotiable) job descriptions and as a result of this they haven’t employed anyone at all and usually tend to have their vacant positions open for months on end.

Imagine having a key position vacant for the past year which is (in a very significant way) going to be impacting the rest of your team, your business, your clients and ultimately revenue and market position.

In the current business climate the majority of the people and the companies which are succeeding are those which continue to be flexible, those which are constantly adapting and innovating in order to keep making money.

The good news is that more and more companies are taking an increasingly pragmatic approach to the job fit vs candidate fit by regularly adapting role profiles.

When they  meet people who they really want in their business they adapt, innovate and simply put…. find a way to make it work!

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I would bet that these companies are amongst the leaders in their field.

If they are applying similar principles to the rest of their business its a pretty safe bet in my view.

If you are hiring and have had an open vacancy for a long time yet still cant find the right person then maybe the person with the skills and experience you want simply doesn’t exist or if they do then maybe your business just isn’t an attractive enough option for them to want to join?

There’s actually a good chance you have already met the ideal person for the business need, maybe you just need to find a way to make it work.

Taking a more open and flexible approach and being prepared to build a role around a person enables an organization to utilize more of each employees strengths rather than just the specific skills / experience required for a pre-set role.

The company stands to gain a higher return on investment for each person they employ and as long as the employee is receiving fair compensation for an expanded role they are normally happier as well.

The world has changed, ticking boxes is not enough.

Don’t restrict your business by looking for the obvious or by doing things a certain way just because that’s the way you have always done things.

Be open to new ideas…. be entrepreneurial!

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Procuring people. What’s the cost of getting it wrong?

Whether it’s for a start-up and this is employee number one or if there is a requirement for employing vast numbers of people an organization will always have direct costs relating to hiring and will decide whether to pay for advertising, marketing, career portal, external recruitment services or headhunting fees, assessment tests, visa’s etc etc.

The choice is there for an organization to spend as much or as little on these direct costs as they wish… but how little is too little?

It’s practically impossible to get it exactly right when hiring a person (or people) but investing time and money in developing sufficient process and procedures will increase the chance of hiring the best people in terms of cultural fit as well as ability and experience.

Finding a good balance between the cost of hiring the right people versus the cost of getting it wrong isn’t easy but when you take the time to really consider the hidden costs of making a hiring mistake then investing more time and money up front becomes a very worthwhile and necessary investment.

Hidden cost factors of a bad hiring decision;

  • Time spent hiring a replacement
  • Reduced morale of other team members
  • Disruption to clients
  • Investment in on the job training (internal and external)
  • Time taken from exit of previous hire to the replacement person reaching minimum standards to perform the job
  • Loss of confidential information
  • Damage to company brand
  • Additional work load for other employees

The list goes on and many are interlinked, but the actual cost of an employee leaving is not easily quantified as there are just so many additional factors to be considered, for example a key employee with a very specific skillset will have a greater impact when leaving an organization than that of someone in a role which is easily replicated. Smaller businesses will also be more affected by one person leaving than larger businesses.

I guess the best advice is don’t cut corners and always think about what could be the cost of getting it wrong.

Consider the hidden costs...
Beware of the hidden costs.

How does your organization calculate the cost of replacing an experienced employee?

I look forward to reading your comments.