Report: Labor shortage, skills deficit are hampering hiring efforts

It’s getting harder to find the right talent in the supply chain, especially when it comes to filling leadership roles and developing the next generation of corporate supply chain managers.

That’s according to a recent survey by Alcott Global, a Singapore-based supply chain and logistics recruitment and talent management firm. The company surveyed more than 300 senior executives in supply chain from around the world and found that a current talent shortage is among the top challenges the industry faces over the next 12 months. Half of those surveyed listed the lack of talent as a key problem, a factor that came in just behind issues such as rising inflation (54%) and changes in geopolitics, trade policies or customs regulations (57%), and ahead of issues such as rising labor costs (36%), emissions regulations and carbon footprint concerns (31%), and capacity constraints (26%).

What’s more, the survey showed that what available talent there is lacks the right skill set needed to succeed in supply chain management: 64% of survey respondents listed “finding candidates with the right skill set” as their biggest hiring challenge right now, followed by a shortage of talent in data analytics, optimization, and automation (58%); the need to reduce time-to-hire for open supply chain positions (32%); retaining talent and reducing turnover (28%); and a lack of diversity in the talent pool (27%).

But there are ways to solve the problem. The report identifies a set of hard and soft skills professionals need in order to advance and succeed in the industry. The “hard skills”—which are essentials for doing the mechanics of the job—include: understanding end–to-end supply chain operations; mastery of data analytics; being up-to-date with supply chain technologies; and understanding risk management. The “soft” skills—which are behavioral in nature—include the ability to: problem solve, collaborate, be adaptable, be influential, and have a customer-focused mindset.

Alcott Global detailed the findings as well as the skills recommendations and strategies for attaining them in a white paper released this month.