HR Team Speak Logistics?

We are heading in to a tough time in the logistics and supply chain world of hiring. There is a talent shortage in our growing industry.  Good quality people are becoming harder to find, especially in middle management.

When it comes to new graduates, students have their pick of sweet offers and if they went to a college which had internships built-in to their program, chances are they have jobs waiting for them at graduation.

As an independent recruiter who specializes in logistics and SCM placements,  our biggest frustration is dealing with HR people who do not understand logistics and supply chain.  They really struggle with the complex positions involving high level project management, big data, engineering and lean or six sigma certification.

We recently filled a Corporate Director of Logistics role at one of USA’s largest companies and it took five months for them to hire the candidate I presented on day one.  Why?  Because this highly qualified, very educated and experienced supply chain expert didn’t actually use the term “3PL” anywhere on his resume. The HR person only knew enough to look for “3PL” to know if the candidate was qualified enough to pass the resume on to the hiring team.

This candidate, in addition to his career experience, had a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a Concentration in Logistics, an MBA, with Concentration in Strategic Leadership and held a Master Black Belt Certification.  He was also awarded the Demonstrated Senior Logistician (DSL) award from the International Society of Logistics.  The HR Team said he wasn’t qualified and finally 4 months later, when they agreed to show his resume to the hiring manager, the candidate was hired.

By the time the candidate started, over five months had gone by and five months without a Corporate Director of Logistics was probably a costly mistake on their part.

If your company is experiencing growth or plans on experiencing growth in your distribution, logistics, warehousing or supply chain business units, make sure that your Human Resources team is knowledgeable enough to spot talent or you will lose them to another company with an HR team who is ready and well versed in all things pertaining to logistics and SCM.

Time is running out because the talent shortage is only going to continue and it is a NOW a candidate market.