The Supply Chain Recruitment Dilemma

How many of us, as clients, have been seated across the table from a recruitment agency representative knowing that the recruiter just does not understand what we’re looking for?  

To source the right people, a recruiter needs to understand not only what role the candidate will play but also how that role may and should develop over the next few years. The recruiter also must be able to grasp the culture of the company, its mode of operation, style of management and how it handles change. This applies particularly to the Supply Chain.  

Supply Chain advances in integration, optimisation, process enhancement and technology are significant.  Anyone who believes that what they’ve done for the last few years will be relevant over the years to come is unlikely to fit into an ambitious and progressive company. Supply Chain is fast evolving – “Companies don’t compete; Supply Chains compete!”

Modern supply chains focus on excellent customer service at optimal cost, achieved through agility, flexibility and process harmonisation. They build seamless integration between the constituent functions of the supply chain and its customer interface, i.e. Technical Innovation, Planning, Procurement, Manufacturing, Distribution and Customer Service. This is complex and can take many years and high levels of resourcing to implement in a multi-national company. This involves not just improved integration with the next step up or down the supply chain but between each and every function, e.g. how can Procurement help improve Customer Service, and vice versa?

How can a recruiter grasp the requirements of senior supply chain roles search for, interrogate and propose potential candidates without an in-depth knowledge of such supply chain evolution? 

Sure, if the client has a very clear direction in mind and can define the role precisely, then the recruiter’s task is simplified.  But this is rarely the case. Frequently the client is not absolutely sure where the business should be going if he or she has never done it before. There is quite likely a lack of clarity on what the outcome should be, so the client may well be looking to recruit a person who will help with just that by bringing in learnings from elsewhere.

The client may well be looking for a candidate who will understand the evolutionary pathway, know what good looks like and be able to lead the diagnostics, benchmarking, analysis and engagement that will be necessary to determine the correct strategy, approach and process for the new company.  This then presents the recruiter with the task of  firstly understanding the client’s needs then judging the quality and relevance of a potential candidate against those requirements. 

 Of course, the recruiter must also be good as a headhunter!  There’s no point in understanding the client’s spoken and unspoken needs but not knowing how to locate and engage the required candidate.  This requires extensive networks, diligence and the ability to put oneself in the client’s shoes.

So the supply chain search and recruitment agency needs both: firstly, deep technical knowledge sufficient to engage the client intelligently and knowledgeably, particularly the appointee’s superiors, and, secondly, to have built the experience in headhunting and developed the broad networks that come from being a professional in the world of supply chain over the years.

One without the other won’t work!

_{Photo: Team of professionals reviewing few finance documents in a meeting by Jacob Lund from Noun Project}