Supply Chain Talent in the Post-pandemic World

Patrick Ogwu is an experienced specialist recruiter for the Endto-End Supply Chain sector at DSJ Global. Covering the JAPAC market, Patrick focuses on working on senior roles in Manufacturing, Operations and Procurement in the region. Throughout these years, Patrick has built an extensive network with not just E2E supply chain professionals but also position himself as a business partner for HR and senior line managers across the industry.

If you work in supply chain and logistics, you've probably heard about the growing talent gap. While it has been a hot topic of conversation for few years, how does COVID-19 affect supply chain recruiting?

MIC Magazine spoke to Patrick Ogwu, a specialist in supply chain and procurement talent recruitment services at DSJ Global. He provides his insights on how both supply chain employers and employees should adjust themselves in the new normal, and what kind of talent is needed to trade with China.

For supply chain employers

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc in the global jobs market. However, the latest DSJ Global Job Confidence Index surprisingly finds that only 36% of the supply chain employees are likely to stay with their current employer over the next six months. Patrick believes that career progression and the need for an exciting challenge are two major factors.

Career progression has always been very vital for most professionals, as it gives a clear career path for them to look forward to and encourages their engagement. Most employees are also driven by the desire to take up a challenge, which signifies stepping outside their comfort zone, whether it means taking up more scope or even venturing into something outside their current

industry.

In a situation like this, how should companies avoid a potential exodus of talent? Five suggestions are given:

1) Effective Communication

The uncertainty coronavirus has brought about, coupled with a chaotic scramble to adapt to new processes is exacerbating workers' anxiety about the future. Companies must ease it by effective

communication.

2) Transparency

Though costly, transparency is necessary to encourage employees’ engagement.

3) Adapt employees’ needs

Employers need to be willing to adapt and innovate to meet their employees’ needs. For example, recent polling shows that over 1,300 supply chain professionals, 82% say they want their work from home flexibility after COVID-19. Are you ready to take action on their needs?

4) Provide support and authority

Talent is attracted not just to the best positions or salaries but the best opportunities to grow and thrive. So make sure your company has been providing enough support and authority to your employees.

5) Foreground meaning and plan for the long-term

COVID-19 made people more aware of the importance of family, community and health, which sheds some unflattering light on the nature of their work: if work is deemed meaningless, engagement will drop and it will be harder to convince top talent to stay on. Make sure you have a long-term plan rich with purpose and opportunities for your employees to make genuine,

meaningful contributions.

For supply chain employees

The skills supply chain professionals need are constantly evolving. While the COVID-19 disrupted the supply chain world rapidly, it brought on the need for experts that possess skills more than using spreadsheets. The postpandemic world is calling for a new set of skills.

In the short term, the coronavirus has paved the way for an increased demand for talents specialized in quality control and global sourcing. With businesses prioritizing de-risking and de-centralized strategy,

these two business-critical roles are playing vital roles in activating the strategy.

In the long term, digitalization will be a key in-demand skill for supply chain talent. Industry 4.0 is a hot topic nowadays, especially while COVID-19 interrupts the normal work process, businesses relying on automation and digitalization more than ever.

Besides, most hiring managers find it difficult to identify top talents that possess the relevant soft skills needed, which include communication, influencing skills, stakeholder management and supplier relationship management. If a Chinese supplier’s salesperson for example wants to become a buyer, they should think of what are the soft skills that are transferrable and enable them to become a good buyer, and work on presenting these soft skills on their CV and interview process.

Find talent to trade with China

China is the largest exporter of the world’s production and the main hub for suppliers. However, for many mid-to-senior supply chain professionals across APAC, the common struggles that they have while doing business with Chinese suppliers are the cultural difference and language barrier. Although the majority of Chinese suppliers are capable of basic business-level conversational English, this is still a roadblock for a lot of global buyers.

Both suppliers and buyers will need to overcome these hurdles and it has been reflected in their hiring requests. More requests on fluent mandarin speaking and experiences in working with Chinese networks have been seen recently. There are also more requests on sourcing talent who has a local network and able to deal with Chinese suppliers, at the same time with international experience or working in international firms.

The talent and skills gap affects the supply chain industries more than almost any other occupation. However, the strategies provided by Patrick are worth trying for employers who are eager to fill critical positions with qualified professionals and for employees who want to master skills needed to do supply chain jobs.

A Beginner’s Guide for Green Sourcing

Sustainable procurement has been discussed for years, but why does it matter and how can you apply it in your procurement process? This article is going to share with you an overview of sustainable procurement. Price should not be the only thing that you consider. As a procurer, you can use your power as a customer to seek out the best value instead of the cheapest costs and make true difference.

What is sustainable procurement?

Sustainable procurement is a process of balancing social, economic and environmental impacts while meeting the purchasing needs of your company. It is worth pointing out that this is not only about the environment; the social side is as vital.

For example, many have realized that they should procure low carbon product to mitigate the poor air quality, but making sure that stockholders through your supply chain are paying a reasonable wage for their employees are essential too.

For the economic impact, ask yourself:

※ Do we need this resource?

※ Are we using this resource correctly?

※ Is this resource just stocked on the self?

For the environmental impact, ask yourself:

※ Where did the resource come from?

※ What is its impact now? What will its impact be once we have finished with it?

For the social impact, ask yourself:

※ Where are the resources from?

※ Who made it?

※ What are the working conditions of the people involved?

……

Why does it matter for your business?

Sustainable procurement does not necessarily cost you a long time and more money to obey the rules. Instead, the benefits of sustainable procurement are significant in the long-term effects and quality of a business. It will be of great benefit for cost-saving, the reputation of the company and innovation.

Cost-saving

Purchasing sustainably can be the cheaper option because sustainable approaches mean efficient procurements. A focus on buying only what you need and efficient demand management can help you minimize overproduction and waste, therefore, reduce overall costs.

Reputation

For many corporates, reputation is the key. Business needs a fantastic social responsibility report at the end of the year to attract customers responsible for the environment, but if they don’t pay attention to sustainable procurement, they may lose their reputations.

Innovation

Sustainable procurement involves a higher degree of collaboration and engagement between all parties in a supply chain. Many businesses have adopted a broad interpretation of sustainable procurement and have developed tools and techniques to support this

engagement and collaboration. If you don’t look at the latest trend, you will miss the chance to improve your tools and technology. As result, you miss most innovative ideas that could move your company forward.

In western countries, the pressure on companies to engage in sustainable sourcing and procurement continues. However, the concept of sustainable procurement has not been widely accepted and practiced globally and the difficulty for buyers to change their procurement behavior and habits still exists.

How to achieve your sustainable sourcing goals?

Since every procurement process is different, there is no silver bullet that can cut through all of your challenges with a single shot. I will point out some pressing issues and common practice. However, the very first step to embracing sustainable procurement is to raise your awareness and embed sustainability to your organizational culture.

Start with guideline

Guideline is a real commitment rather than a piece of paper. If your company doesn’t have a sustainable procurement guideline yet, it is crucial to get a policy through top by senior management or politician and make sure that guidelines should be structured to be able to use at any stage of the procurement process.

Ultimately the individuals KPI is still based on cost savings. You need their support to balance internal scores for sustainability. Frankly, it is a great idea to improve the supply chain through the influence of procurer, but it is less likely to achieve the goal if you do not willing to pay higher prices or provide other direct benefits to the suppliers.

Clear objectives

Sustainability is a huge topic. You need to know what you want to achieve exactly and set your priority. Kiri Hannifin from Countdown, a New Zealand supermarket chain, mentions that when she first took charge of the sustainability team, she put plastic issue as their priority. “If you can provide us a grocery item without plastic, your will be our preference.” Simple as it is.

However, plastic materials may be necessary for some items. Their preference will be consist with the 'reduce - reuse – recycling – recoverable' hierarchy and they went across category by category. Only when you clear your goals, you can ask your suppliers to provide the information that serve your objectives.

Work with suppliers

Working with suppliers is the key. People actually value that you ask for their opinions. It won’t be as confrontational as you imagine if you involve suppliers to a workshop, present them with the draft guidelines and ask them for their feedback.

Some may ask, “what if I need a particular product that only one company can produce?” In this case, the relationship that you have with your provider is likely to be a long lasting one. Therefore, why don’t you sit down and have a conversation about your shared long-term

objectives and shared interests from an environmental or social perspective?

Self-assessment is not enough for sustainable procurement management. Making meaningful improvement in practices requires a more holistic approach that includes audits in three levels.

※ The supplier conducts an audit of its own business

※ Procurer audits their suppliers

※ Suppliers being assessed independently by a third party

It is often the case that you have multiple tiers of subcontracting in supply chain. If your supplier has subcontractors, you should know who they are and how they produce: one by one until the end of the supply chain. There are plenty of agencies providing service like this. Look at the best examples in your industry and ask the leading agency to assess your supply chain.

The purchasing of goods and services offer you a significant opportunity to have a broad impact environmentally, socially and economically. I hope that all buyers would work on sustainable procurement with responsibility and communicate with your suppliers equally and friendly.

Cheers! Above article is draft from MIC platform. Hoping it will help somebody.