by Jennifer Hart Yim | Sep 26, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Leadership, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain, Talent
In today’s job market, candidates are in such high demand, companies are posting positions with little or no experience requirements.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
On the Argentus blog, we’ve spent the past few months charting the strong job market and its effects on hiring. My, how things have changed. A few short years ago, publications were writing about how employers weren’t bothering to hire for their open positions. Now, candidates are in such high demand, companies are more and more doing something that would be considered radical in the previous economy: posting positions with no experience requirements.
[bctt tweet=”Companies like Microsoft, Bank of America and Github, are in particular relaxing education requirements and looking at candidates who don’t have degrees for positions that would have required a degree during the recession.” username=”Fronetics”]
Kelsey Gee at the Wall Street Journal gave some frontline reporting about the talent picture in the U.S. economy, which is beginning to see strong wage growth follow historically low unemployment rates. She charts how more companies are becoming flexible in their hiring process, to the point of doing away with experience requirements for some positions completely. We’ve written before to argue that companies should hire people for their potential – especially junior employees – and in this market it seems that more companies are putting this into practice. Companies like Microsoft, Bank of America and Github, are in particular relaxing education requirements and looking at candidates who don’t have degrees for positions that would have required a degree during the recession.
Alicia Modestino, an economist at Northeastern University, has argued that in times of recession companies tend to raise job requirements, like in 2008. In times of expansion – like we’re seeing now – companies become more flexible in their requirements to compete for talent, a practice Modestino calls “Down-skilling.”
At first, it might be easy to assume that companies are only doing this for transactional or administrative positions, but the Wall Street Journal interviewed the President of SCM talent group – a Supply Chain Recruitment firm in the U.S. – who said that companies are re-evaluating their requirements for Supply Chain Managers and other strategic positions. He said that his recruitment firm has been turning away clients who want to fish for underpaid or unaware applicants instead of bolstering education, experience and compensation levels in order to compete.
At Argentus, we’re working in the same vertical in Canada. Candidates in our market are in such high demand that we’ve been doing the same.
Anecdotally, we’ve seen a small uptick in roles for high-potential entry level grads in Supply Chain Management – (though still not as many as we’d like to see, with the high number of new grads that come to us!) Companies are becoming slightly more willing to relax requirements on the junior end to hire quickly; in a hiring market as strong as this one, “entry level” can actually mean entry level instead of, paradoxically, requiring at least 3 years of experience. But companies should be more flexible, at least if they want to actually hire instead of kicking tires.
In strong job markets, companies can’t afford to hire the same way they did during a recession. More employees in Procurement and Supply Chain are waking up to their own value, and the strong job market is compounding an already-considerable talent crunch. Hiring managers can’t afford to practice magical thinking in their hiring in this economy – the type of thinking that says, “if we post it, they will come,” or that treats employees like they have no leverage in the process.
The WSJ outlined three options that companies have to keep down hiring costs and secure talent in this market:
- Offer more money up front
- Retrain current staff to upskill them for changing requirements, or:
- Become more flexible in their job requirements.
All three are valuable options, but for some reason the third one has always been a bit of a third rail. Hiring is a risk, and companies don’t want to hire someone who can’t do the job. But just because someone hasn’t done the exact same thing before, or just because they don’t have a degree, or just because they’ve done it before, but in another country, doesn’t mean they can’t do it.
There will always be lots of positions with considerable requirements that can’t be flexed away: a Director of Vendor management who’s conducting a business transformation obviously needs to have done that in the past. A Senior Manager tasked with setting up a totally new Supply Chain needs the deep base of knowledge and connections that certain experience provides. The necessity of strong experience and education requirements makes sense for some positions.
But for a Supply Chain Analyst, or a Buyer role, companies are well-served to relax hard-and-fast requirements and treat applicants on a case by case basis. Assess skills, assess technical and analytical capability, without requiring that candidates fit a specific experiential profile.
In our interviews with senior Supply Chain and Procurement leadership, one thing we hear again and again is that strong business acumen and soft skills – in other words, potential – is more important for junior employees than specific education requirements. So if the Wall Street Journal report is accurate, and more companies are waking up to this line of thinking, you know what?
Bring it on.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Aug 30, 2018 | Blog, Leadership, Logistics, Supply Chain, Talent
Bad leadership in procurement has the potential to sink a company’s reputation, making it difficult to hire at all levels below it.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Everyone knows that a bad hire can be really costly to a business. When you account for hiring, training, and onboarding costs, plus the opportunity cost of not hiring a successful employee – not to mention the impact on workplace culture – hiring the wrong person can set a company back tens of thousands of dollars. This is something that people have written about widely across the vast array of blogs about talent.
But what are the costs of hiring the wrong employee (or employees) at the leadership level of a business?
It’s something we’ve been thinking about recently at Argentus. As a firm that helps companies hire at all levels, we have our ears to the ground about the costs that companies bear when leadership issues have hurt their reputations in the marketplace. So particularly in Procurement – one of our core areas of recruitment expertise – what’s the cost of hiring the wrong leadership?
In short, it’s this: a bad hire at the junior level costs lots of money, but a bad hire at the leadership level has the potential to upset the apple cart and sink a company’s reputation, making it difficult to hire at all levels below it. Having the wrong leader in place can create a noxious effect that filters down into senior managers, managers, sole contributors, and junior employees. Procurement sometimes struggles to get buy-in from executives and stakeholders, and having mishandled leadership can make this task even more difficult for everyone in the organization.
Even if it’s a company with a storied history and a powerhouse brand as an employer, word always gets out if the wrong leadership is in place within any specific function. It means that individuals won’t apply for jobs. They won’t respond when recruiters contact them about certain opportunities. At a certain point, it becomes hard to find recruiters who are even willing to help hire for open roles at the company. Given that recruiters, especially those who work on a contingent basis, are usually all over clients trying to send them candidates, if a recruiter won’t work with a company, you know something must be wrong.
As we’ve written about a lot, the marketplace for talent in Procurement and Supply Chain is particularly tight in this strong economy. Companies are battling to bring in star performers who can enact business transformations, implement total cost of ownership models, boost their vendor and risk management, and modernize their Procurement as the function evolves for the future. And if your Procurement leadership develops a negative reputation in the marketplace, attracting those individuals becomes simply impossible.
We should clarify what we mean by bad leadership in Procurement.
We all know it when we’ve seen it, but there are a few traits that ineffective leaders have in common: quite often, they’re individuals tasked with leadership of a Strategic Sourcing organization who don’t have boots on the ground experience in Procurement. They often don’t have the war wounds to understand the function from bottom to top. Strategy and vision are important, but subject matter expertise helps leaders gain credibility with the managers and analysts who are expected to execute that vision.
[bctt tweet=”We all know it when we’ve seen it, but there are a few traits that ineffective leaders have in common: quite often, they’re individuals tasked with leadership of a Strategic Sourcing organization who don’t have boots on the ground experience in Procurement. They often don’t have the war wounds to understand the function from bottom to top. ” username=”Fronetics”]
It’s not absolutely necessary for a CPO or VP of Procurement to have done every job in the function. But if they haven’t, it’s important for them to be able to be humble enough to recognize the subject matter expertise of the people they’re working with – especially if they’re expected to bring changes to the organization. A great leader will admit the gaps in their own knowledge, and work to figure out how they can combine their strengths with those of their team. A bad leader will act like they understand every detail of every Procurement process and category – even if they don’t.
Beyond that, in our experience, the biggest issue with troubled Procurement leadership often comes down to soft skills. For a function that often comes down to negotiation, relationship-building, and getting buy-in, people skills are everything. Ineffective leaders will micromanage, yell, and show a lack of respect for junior employees. How can a leader expect to get buy-in from executives if they can’t build relationships with their own team members? The best leaders in Procurement will empower their teams to pursue cost savings, minimize risk, and increase value without watching them like a hawk.
Leadership is a topic so complex it’s inspired a cottage industry of books and academic research – so we can’t hope to address everything about how to hire effective leaders. But what can companies do to make sure they don’t risk the almost-priceless commodity of their employer brand by installing bad leadership? Be very careful about the leaders that you hire. These individuals should either be subject matter experts, or be very willing to learn from their team-members. When interviewing prospective hires, try to assess their ability to be empathetic and build consensus, and be wary about boasts that they can enact sweeping changes through their force of will alone.
If you can’t, you might be risking more than just the time it took to hire.
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by Fronetics | Dec 18, 2017 | Blog, Leadership
Our most-viewed leadership posts from this year cover positive and negative leadership characteristics and provide examples of exceptional industry leaders.
One of my favorite experiences from 2017 was interviewing Ellen Voie, the CEO of Women In Trucking. A true inspiration, Voie exhibits tangible passion for promoting more gender diversity into the transportation space, but her practical, strategic approach is the hallmark of her success. She is an exceptional leader, and I feel privileged to have gotten this opportunity.
Our top leadership posts from 2017 examine what makes a good leader, as well as what makes a bad leader. They also look at some executive thought leadership about industry trends, and talk about graduate programs from which future leadership may be matriculating.
Top 10 leadership posts
1) 80% of Executives Say Procurement Isn’t Strategic Enough
Tis guest post from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting looks at insights from the Procurement 2020 Survey. The survey of 200 C-Suite executives from a variety of industries and functions presents a rather dispiriting picture of the Procurement function today — or at least how it’s perceived. The majority of executives don’t think procurement is crucial to business leadership, and that it isn’t a key input when making high-level strategic decisions. Read full post
2) Women In Trucking’s Ellen Voie Paves the Way for Women Drivers & Managers
Ellen Voie is successfully breaking down barriers and changing the perception of the trucking industry. As founder and president of Women In Trucking (WIT), Voie and her team work to promote the organization’s mission “to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.” I spoke with Voie about her experiences in the transportation industry, as well as her hopes for WIT and the future of women truckers. Read full post
3) Top Supply Chain Management MBA Programs 2018
We write frequently about the importance of recruiting and strengthening the relationship between academia and the supply chain industry as means to solve the growing supply chain talent gap. If your company is looking to hire, consider strengthening your rapport with schools that offer supply chain programs or specialties. The U.S. News & World Report annual rankings give 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. Read full post
4) 5 Ways to Push Employees to Be Their Best without Stressing Them Out
Management works to create a balance between pushing employees and pushing them past their limits. Leaders should create a safe and supportive environment where employees feel respected and, in turn, cooperative and productive. With this is mind, it’s important to incorporate tangible ways of reducing stress for your employees. This post offers some ideas. Read full post
5) How to Be a Bad Leader: 6 Common Characteristics of Poor Leadership
What’s the number one reason talented employees quit? Gallop polls show that 50% of employees cite their managers as the reason for leaving. A bad leader can cost your company. And poor leadership at the highest levels of a company can be detrimental to a business. This post outlines 6 common characteristics of poor leadership that should be red flags to all companies. Read full post
6) Should You Get an MBA in Supply Chain or a Designation?
Again, our friends at Argentus Supply Cain Recruiting ask an important question: What value do you see in getting a Master’s Degree in Business/Supply Chain vs. some of the designations out there? The recruiting experts speak to what companies are looking for in hiring, and how graduating from these programs builds your personal brand. Read full post
7) Should You Freeze Hiring During Uncertain Economic Times?
Despite an 8-year bull market, many businesses are still licking the wounds caused by the 2007 financial crisis. Add a volatile political climate and predictions of impending economic turbulence, and you can’t blame those growing wary of rapid growth or expansion opportunities. But, as the supply chain is already suffering from a talent gap, can companies afford to slow or freeze hiring — or, even, to downsize? Research suggests that organizations that balance caution with a forward-looking talent-acquisition strategy may fair best through difficult economic times. Read full post
8) Why Supply Chain and Logistics Executives Should Be Active on Social Media (as Themselves)
With their relative celebrity, supply chain and logistics executives are uniquely positioned to attract a following of customers, prospects, potential talent, industry peers, and admirers. They can use social media to connect with these people, share their ideas and industry news, and become the human face of their brands. It amplifies the company’s social media efforts in a way brands can’t do themselves. Read full post
9) Women Leaders Who Make the Supply Chain Flow
We have had the opportunity to interview 6 supply chain leaders about their professional experiences, as well as their thoughts on gender diversity in the industry and beyond. Interviewees include: Kendrea Durr-Smith, Director of Global Trade Compliance, Arrow Electronics; Barbara Jorgensen, Co-Founder and Managing Editor, Electronics Purchasing Strategies; Hailey McKeefrey, Editor-in-Chief, EBN; Cathy Morris, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Arrow Electronics; Mickey North Rizza, VP of Strategic Services, BravoSolution; and Kelli Saunders, President, Morai Logistics. Read full post
10) There Are Lessons in Success, Not Just Failure
Companies have a responsibility to ask the tough questions when things go awry. We have all been in these meetings: we diagnose failures, and we dissect the process, tools and staff involved to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, most companies only step back and really dive into what happened when something bad happens. But what if companies took the same approach when something went right? Read full post
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Sep 27, 2017 | Blog, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Insights from the Procurement 2020 survey
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 the world of Procurement is changing and fast. With automation, big data and burgeoning AI systems removing more and more of the profession’s “tactical” or “clerical” tasks, companies are calling on their Procurement teams to be more strategic, more nimble, and more innovative. They’re expecting their Procurement functions to deliver not just bottom-line cost-savings, but other sorts of value, adding to organizations’ overall competitiveness.
Procurement, you’ve come a long way, baby.
But a new survey of 200 C-Suite executives from a variety of industries and functions presents a rather dispiriting picture of the Procurement function today – or at least how it’s perceived. Held by Management Consulting firm Ayming, the survey explores a wide base of opinions from some of business’s top leaders – CEOs, CPOs, COOs, and CFOs – about the value Procurement has to add, and where it’s going to be in 2020. The survey, titled Procurement 2020, has lots of interesting insights, showing where Procurement is knocking it out of the park – and where it’s striking out.
The biggest headline takeaway? 83% of executives surveyed say that their Procurement function is not entirely strategic – meaning they don’t think it’s crucial to business leadership, and that it isn’t a key input when making high-level strategic decisions.
It’s a rough verdict, one showing that as much progress as the field is making, a lot of that development – the chance to be a true partner to business at the highest level – is still unfulfilled potential. Some of the other data is relatively damning as well: only 28% of executives surveyed viewed Procurement as a core aspect of their strategy. More than half (51%) of the executives do not consider their Procurement operating models to be effective as they stand today.
Interestingly, this last number breaks down differently across industries:
- Retail executives had the highest confidence in their Procurement function, with 43% of retailers considering their Procurement operations to be highly effective – and 18% considering them to be somewhat effective. Retail also had strong marks in terms of its strategic value from Procurement, with 79% of executives saying that its Procurement operations were “mostly or entirely strategically focused.”
- 27% of Manufacturing companies viewed their Procurement operations as highly effective – with 24% considering them to be somewhat effective. The Manufacturing industry also led the way in terms of strategic value, with 91% of Manufacturing executives saying that their Procurement operations were highly strategic.
- 21% of Technology companies, as well as only 21% of Healthcare companies, viewed their Procurement operations as highly effective.
- Dispiritingly, only 15% of Financial Services companies considered their Procurement operations to be highly effective.
The numbers represent a large base of dissatisfaction with how companies are prioritizing, training and supporting their Procurement departments. 44% of CEOs, as well as 44% of CFOs, consider their Procurement functions either very or somewhat effective. 52% of COOs gave a “very or somewhat effective verdict,” compared to (perhaps unsurprisingly) 56% of CPOs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, very large companies – most able to leverage a shared service model and consolidated spend – were most likely to report that they received a very high amount of value from Procurement: 36%.
Despite the survey saying that Procurement still has a long way to go, the broad base of executives surveyed often indicated a deep interest in helping the function get there. 48% of companies surveyed have either reorganized their Procurement function in the past 5 years, or are in the middle of reorganizing it, with a full 20% planning to reorganize Procurement in the next 24 months.
There are some other interesting and divergent opinions when it comes to how companies are seeking to increase their Procurement function’s effectiveness:
- 68% of executives surveyed believed that if Procurement gets involved earlier in new product creation, as well as long-term strategy, it’ll be able to add more value.
- 82% of CEOs believe that employee training and upskilling is a key way to improve Procurement effectiveness. In contrast, a 38% of CEOs believe that Procurement-specific technology is the answer.
- A large percentage of CPOs (90%) believe that upgrading technology is key to improving Procurement strategy (compared to 76% of CEOs), but across different industries there’s some disagreement about the best way to drive further value from Procurement: In the Financial Services, Transportation, Retail and Technology sectors, executives saw people and skills development as the biggest opportunity to add more value through Procurement, whereas Manufacturing executives saw reorganization as the best opportunity.
We tend to think that surveys like this are an opportunity for the field rather than an indictment. And despite some of the more negative responses, we happen to know tons of Procurement departments who are excelling and creating true strategic value for their stakeholders. But if these surveys are anything to go on, there’s much more to be done. We encourage you to dig into Ayming’s survey, as there’s a lot more data we only briefly covered here.
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Feb 13, 2017 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
Supply chains must accept that they cannot equal the power of Amazon’s supply chain without embracing these new trends.
This guest post comes to us from Adam Robinson, marketing manager at Cerasis, a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker.
Amazon’s supply chain continued push deeper into new and existing markets will define additional trends in the supply chain throughout the coming year. While supply chain entities struggle to stay competitive with the e-commerce giant, more organizations will look for ways to eliminate inefficiencies and boost operations. Fortunately, these five trends may alleviate some of the strains of competition by giving supply chain partners an advantage in the global market.
Top 5 Trends to Know to Compete with Amazon’s Supply Chain
1. Robotics Will Grow More Versatile.
Amazon’s purchase of Kiva Robots changed the landscape of robotics in the supply chain. However, new companies are being created and developed to fill the void. The robotics company Starship released a robot that delivers meals and groceries to people in Euro metro markets. Meanwhile, Lowe’s has created the LoweBot, which boosts customer service, explains Dan Gilmore of Supply Chain Digest.
More companies are turning to robotics to find new ways to bridge the divide between a dwindling number of customer service representatives, including store associates, and maintaining around-the-clock operations. Across the spectrum, robotics will become more versatile and accessible. In other words, robots will gain new movements, capable of picking items from shelves in warehouses and storefronts.
Per IDC Manufacturing Insights, the use of robotics will become more platform based through robot-as-a-service, reducing costs of deployment and maintenance. Furthermore, the speed of operation of robots will increase more than 30 percent by the end of 2017. Clearly, robotics will become more important in 2017 than during any previous year.
2. Technology Will Reshape Procurement Practices.
Better procurement practices translate into better overall sales, but the role of procurement in driving sales’ statistics will change throughout 2017. Today, procurement drives up to 67 percent of sales, explains Johnathan Webb of Forbes magazine, as procurement professionals look for innovative ways to produce effective, superior products.
For example, Johnson & Johnson procurement professionals actively review market trends before making purchases. Upon identifying these trends, a correct forecast of supply demands can be generated. Thus, the role of procurement has become more focused on being physically involved in market news and research, not just signing purchase orders in an office.
3. More Businesses Will Create E-Commerce Platforms.
Amazon’s supply chain empowered the e-commerce market by giving everyone an opportunity to sell their goods online, which has made competing with Amazon difficult at best. Amazon’s supply chain expansion culminated in more companies looking to enter e-commerce without giving shares to Amazon. Companies expanded e-commerce and omnichannel solutions simultaneously as well, reports Steve Banker of Logistics Viewpoints.
For example, Walmart and Kmart redesigned their mobile e-commerce interface for consumers, making shopping and purchasing online easier and integrated with major companies. A simple search for a product on Walmart.com reveals partnered listings with Wayfair and third-party sellers, much like Amazon’s current vendor options. Moreover, customers can make purchases online and have them shipped to the store or their home. At Walmart, customers can even pick up orders without ever getting out of the car now. Ultimately, more businesses will seek out partnerships with bigger companies to stay competitive with Amazon’s bare price points and ease of use.
4. User Preferences Will Enhance Mobile Management Systems.
Traditional warehouse management systems (WMS) lacked integration with other systems. Procurement strategy was not always evident. Accessibility of systems depended on in-house IT departments, and upgrading access terminals could cause extreme delays and problems in operations. However, newer management systems, such as a comprehensive transportation management system (TMS) that integrates warehouse management with transportation management, are starting to offer more accessibility and personalization options.
In other words, accessibility and personalization allow warehouse managers and staff members to define metrics relevant to new products and current operations, test new processes, and effectively manage the flow of goods. Similarly, new mobile options, ranging from Android tablets to compact barcode scanners, will reduce inconsistencies and errors across the supply chain, explains IRMS 360. Paired with the advancements of predictive analytics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), more data will result in more efficient processes, creating a positive feedback loop throughout an organization.
5. Contingency Planning Will Become a Standard Practice.
Amazon’s supply chain has proven that not planning will result in the failure of small and medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, natural disasters reap $211 billion from the global supply chain annually. Having a larger global footprint is how Amazon’s supply chain has been able to maintain operations in the face of natural or man-made disasters. This is contingency planning.
The IIoT empowers contingency planning by giving supply chain entities real-time data from an endless number of sources, which range from online browsing data to point-of-sale data. Consequently, supply chains can react appropriately and divert resources to maintain operations. But, the key to utilizing this information lies in knowing what to do and how to do it when an event occurs. In other words, more companies will diversify distribution, supplier and storage networks throughout 2017 to prepare for what might happen in the future.
The Big Picture.
Supply chains must accept that they cannot equal the power of Amazon’s supply chain without embracing these new trends. New technologies are great, but chances are Amazon has already implemented them. Rather than falling into despair, you can use these trends to re-evaluate processes and practices in your organization, which will help you stay competitive with Amazon.
The complexities of the global supply chain rely on your willingness to take advantage of new trends and technologies today, as well as tomorrow, so do not squander this opportunity.
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