South Africa’s Talent “Perfect Storm”
The next wave in Supply Chain will be fueled by the constrained global economic market, which places a question mark around commercial competitiveness and business sustainability. In short, these goals are on the CEO’s agenda and Supply Chain can lead the transformation required for business growth. The timing is perfect for Supply Chain to rise and be buoyant in this impending perfect storm. The prerequisite: strategic and influential leadership, skills and competencies and a culture of excellence.
For the Supply Chain to be an essential, relevant and constructive force strategically – executing the business strategy – these professionals need to be able to engage and influence cross functionally and at an executive level. Supply Chain Professionals need to initiate and drive innovation as well as implement and execute efficiently across multi-tier supply chains from point of source to end customer.
Captain of the Ship
The Supply Chain Leader has the potential to be the Initiator, Innovator and Implementer of Transformation in the business of the future. The nature of Supply Chain and its history has been one of constant change and adaptation and has equipped the discipline to lead from the front. The challenge is that business as a whole, has not kept up, or adapted, with the fast-paced business demands and still misunderstand the value and potential contribution of Supply Chain in comparison with other established disciplines. This is evident is the reporting structure where most often Supply Chain reports to Finance or Operations who respectively have a seat at the board. The second challenge is a language barrier. Supply Chain is rife with three letter acronyms and operational matrices, which do not align with Board Performance matrices.
Significant Supply Chain leadership gaps have dampened the impact of Supply Chain’s access to the Board. The Wall Street Journal reported a “massive shift” as increasing complexity outpaced the skillset of the traditional Supply Chain Leader. The largest skills gap currently is Financial Intelligence – understanding and effectively communicating the impacts of Supply Chain decisions on the financial statements of the organization. These skills may be addressed through learning, but besides skills the most effective supply chain professionals also possess certain key competencies, which will be covered next.
Supply Chain Leader Competency gaps historically were about tactical execution and efficiency. The future is about creativity and innovation, as well as big picture thinking which is in short supply. The second competency gap is change management, selling and strategic influence, in order to raise Supply Chain to the Board, the Supply Chain leaders need to be the thought leaders and the “Voice” of Supply Chain within the enterprise as well as outside. The rarest competency is Empathy – Supply Chain leaders with an outside-in focus (refer the book titled “Outside In” by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine) and mindset. This re-orientation of your impact on “the others” brings a closer intimacy with customers, team members and internal business.
South Africa’s Talent Perfect Storm (Part 2)
- Published on August 18, 2017
Crew
In the rush for talent, a storm may be brewing that will contract the pool for Supply Chain talent, according to Ruamsook and Craighead from the CSCR in the USA. Is the same true for South Africa? As a developing country with a lot of sociopolitical turbulence, an education uprising, black economic transformation targets, South Africa is in a Supply Chain talent “perfect storm”.
The research highlights four trends that strain the talent pool. Firstly, increased demand for new Supply Chain talent. In SA over the past 12 months, we have seen an increase in the number of newly created Supply Chain roles across the plan, source, make, deliver and return functions, with exponential growth in plan and source. Roles tend to span holistically across the enterprise – up-and downstream. A secondary challenge for business is that many roles remain vacant for extended periods due to lack of relevant skillset in the market. Some executives in multinationals are questioning whether the roles should be moved to other more developed countries they have a presence in.
The second trend is a Supply Chain talent gap, with a third more Baby boomers retiring than later generations entering the workforce. The loss of Baby Boomers also means a loss of good role models. The compound effect of South Africa’ sociopolitical situation makes SA a fertile ground for talent prospecting. The brain drain removes top talent to stable economies and safer locations. These shortages of suitably qualified candidates are putting pressure on employers to retain their current employees. Due to these pressures, 65% of employers are using counter-offers to retain staff that have accepted job offers with other employers. Some organisations employ candidates who have only been with their employers for a short time period.
The implications of these counter offers and short hires are, firstly, that it creates an imbalance between candidate’s salaries and depth of skills. Candidate’s earn above what the market may offer, leaving candidates frustrated and unable to embark on career growth opportunities within other organisations as they are not “affordable”. Secondly, the candidate’s depth of experience is lacking as they have not been with organisation long enough to develop depth of technical skills, knowledge, and most importantly soft skill competencies (such as resilience, influencing, self-leadership, conflict management and problem solving). This in itself, if left unchecked, leads to negative growth of the talent pool.
The third is Profession dynamics, a transition to information/service economy. The projection is that skills needed in the medium term is not possessed by many of the current workforce, nor is business ready for these fast-paced challenges. The Millennials are independent minded; want flexibility and challenge the norm. Traditional business is not ready for this group, or stimulating enough, which leads to a loss of high potential talent. There is concern over the Millennial generation and instant gratification, but companies have a similar “instant Fix” challenge. They have neither time, nor the financial resources to invest in people development. In addition, educational institutions lack the funds and agility to upskill and adapt the curriculum for the fast changing workplace requirements leaving the talent pool ill-equipped.
The Last trend is the academia’s capacity to create new talent. The recent student uprising is a symptom of the frustration felt by the youth who are ill prepared to secure employment and succeed in the work place. South Africa is in the midst of an Educational crisis, which according to an Industrial Psychologist, an advisor to SA corporations, is starting as early as nursery school, where kids are not taught how to learn and reason. Tertiary Institutions are under extreme pressure to churn out larger numbers of graduates to meet demand, but the shortage of math and science students at secondary level makes this task very tenuous. Lowered pass rates are exacerbating the problem even further.
Qualifications mean nothing if you have them, but everything if you don’t. Technikons generate a better caliber skillset with practical application, although corporates still perceive them as lesser to university degrees in South Africa (which have a large theoretical base). Companies are relying on mentorship and coaching to guide the acclimatization from varsity to the workplace. Competencies or “soft skills” are underdeveloped at tertiary institutions providing a significant gap for the discipline and business as a whole.
South Africa has additional trends which fuel the vortex. Globalisation’s effect on skills and competence is most felt in managing diversity across cultures and languages. The South African context is a good learning ground, although still a major challenge for many individuals. A global workplace requires a high ability to deal with complexity, competencies of adaptability and flexibility, as well as deep experience-based knowledge which enables these professionals to navigate the ambiguity of a global source and supply in the face of much competition with global player entering the SA market.
The effect of Matrix structures is significantly felt as some companies moved their strategic operations into global hubs and left only tactical and operational skills in SA. For team members remaining behind, this meant less strategic- and out of the box thinking exposure and learning, which adds to the lack of depth.
Retrenchment – a double-edged sword and all too prevalent in SA – brings insecurity and lack of transparency. A common consequence of the retrenchment process, is losing the best talent first as they are mobile and being left with often disillusioned and unengaged resources to stage a comeback with. The level of employee engagement often is hard hit during such a process and requires a lot of change management and investment from leadership to turn around and re-engage.
Transformation in South Africa is a reality, as one Supply Chain Executive recently stated, you need to learn the rules of the SA game, adapt your approach or get out the game. It is a mindset, are you Tim (Victim) or Victor? Internal Supply Chain Academies could become the feeder for future business leaders. Source the youth when they have a high learning agility with many bright ideas. Release them to the rest of the business as holistic business impact players and advocators for Supply Chain once upskilled and competent. A serendipitous bonus.
South Africa’s Perfect Talent Storm (Part 3)
- Published on August 25, 2017
Changing Tide
The rapid change of business has inherently, and will continue to, change the skillset required to fulfil the growing demand. The traditional focus on technical “hard skills” is no longer sufficient. Even for Supply Chain team members, competency has taken over as the key differentiator and predictor of success in these turbulent and changing times. Essential competencies are:
1.Dealing with Ambiguity
2.Creativity
3.Innovation Management
4.Motivating Others
5.Planning
- Strategic Agility
- Building Effective teams
- Managing Vision and purpose
Influence and stakeholder engagement is no longer only the responsibility of the leader but essential at every level of the Supply Chain department. The critical competency gaps that are negatively affecting Supply Chain and business as a whole, are firstly, problem solving and analytical skills and secondly, Emotional Intelligence (EQ). In dealing with a large number of blue chip in South Africa, we have noticed and the Industrial Psychologists have confirmed, a sharp decline in problem solving, analytical skills and critical reasoning, in the current talent pool. With complexity and pace of business ever increasing, business requires innovation and solution generation with fast decision making. The current skills pool (which includes Tertiary Institution graduates) is simply not equipped with these skills.
South Africa’s Perfect Talent Storm (Part 4)
Culture of Excellence
McKinsey coined the term “the war for talent” based on research done into the skills gap in 1998 and again in 2002. The Authors placed the responsibility to become more attractive to talented individuals; building a culture and mindset devoted to high performance, engagement and growth opportunities squarely in the organisation’s hands.
Keys to building a Culture of Excellence:
- Vision: Strategic direction & Inspirational Leadership
- Powerful conversations & learning culture
- Retention Strategy and practices
People require a clear vision and collection mission which is communicated regularly. The Business and Supply Chain Strategy that is filtered down, translated and aligned to the individual’s career strategy. Inspirational Leadership. People yearn for a higher purpose; a leader’s agenda is a picture of an optimistic future with possibilities for the individual and achieved through a team. Building a vision to drive not just for success, but rather significance. A leader should set a strategy and challenge that inspires and that the team can aspire to. This speaks to the basic human needs for certainty and variety. A challenge that pushes one beyond their comfort zone. Attainable yet a stretch; an intellectually stimulating vision to drive towards, breeding passion and engagement. The most successful Supply Chain departments overcame the biggest obstacles, when lead from the front by a great leader.
Powerful collaborative conversations build trust, energy and forward thinking. Regular performance discussions, goal setting and review with good feedback loops are essential. Richard Branson said, the most productive people recognize that making a decision is not about a binary success or failure, it is about conducting an experiment. Where failure is not actually failure, it is just a result that helps you make a better decision next time. Teams flourish in environments where they are able to experiment. Failure builds wisdom and success in the long game. Individuals feel secure to challenge the norm and the result is innovation. Leaders who are decisive and where the decision-making process is clear upfront, show results.
Retention is not a policy; it is a practice. Companies who manage the individual (not employee number) have better employee engagement, productivity, retention and ultimately business results. Retention is a multifaceted approach – from individual career pathing, salary and memorable benefits, work life balance, wellness, formal and informal education.
John Gatherer, in the book “I am Talent”, stated that engaged employees work with passion and have real connection to their companies. They drive innovation and are champions for change.
The times are changing as William Pollard said,
“without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement”.
Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable and surf the changing tides. The timing is perfect for Supply Chain to rise and be buoyant in this impending Perfect Storm.
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