Talent in Supply Chain

Burning Issues For Supply Chain Managers

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“There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”- this is very true and a challenge most managers face when recruiting. This is truth stands when the market is flooded with candidates or the pickings are slim. Finding the combination of skills, aptitude and attitude can be quite tricky when even the psychological and personality test only have rigid outputs and simply just putting warm bodies on the job can have costly consequences.

Considering that talent usually has a high contribution to the businesses expenses, is it no wise to pay for top quality than high quantity? My grandmother used to say “goedkoop is duurkoop”. This may seem counter intuitive but highly impactful individuals may come at a cost.

The costs of frequent recruiting add up and can be avoided or funneled by hiring and paying well for quality talent. What good does it do you when you have employees like wheel barrows that will only move when moved and could not be self-enterprising. Be willing to pay your talent very well, invest in it and care for it as you would any of your multi-million machinery, and you will realise the return on investment akin to the effort you put in.

Good talent should be multi-skilled, this is important for both the business and the talent. When skills are diversified it create for an adaptive environment and easier succession planning. Especially if the multi-skilling is geared towards upward mobility-93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers (LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report). This entrenches in your talent that they are valued, it creates sustainability and lowers staff turnover. The business benefits in that when talent leaves there is a ready replacement that can essentially-“plug and play”.

Most businesses neglect succession planning, this is an integral part of talent retention. This is also serves to retain institutional memory.

Remember the following:

1. Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave
2. Average employee exit costs about 33% of their annual salary
3. 70% of employees chose a company the invests in their learning and development
4. Employees are 8 times likely to stay when they feel they are assisted in finding a work/life balance
5. Employees are 5 times more likely to stay when they are acknowledged
6. employees 4 times more likely to quit when there is no upward feedback or managers lack appropriate management skills