SCL Sector faces “critical talent shortage, skills gap”: CITT

TORONTO, Ont.–According to supply chain and logistics professional development association CITT, only 8% of supply chain employees are under 30, and with the impending loss of Baby Boomers, companies need to be proactive about succession.

CITT President Catherine Viglas said it’s no secret that it’s getting harder to replace talent and fill vacant jobs in the logistics sector. And with the aging workforce – the majority of supply chain employees are between 40 and 59 – plus a global talent shortage, research suggests that industry will be facing an unprecedented HR crisis in just a few years.

So, how can businesses be proactive about getting the talent they’ll need? The answer is industry-specific skills-building professional development that complements on-the-job work, says CITT President Catherine Viglas. 

“Employers are losing the luxury of being able to pick and choose between candidates who have the experience and skills they want” Viglas said.

“Many businesses decide it’s smarter to accelerate the training of their people with professional development. And some even hire promising people who don’t have much or any supply chain logistics experience at all, then put them through a program like CITT’s.”

CITT develops supply chain logistics expertise through a suite of specialized logistics courses and grants the CITT-Certified Logistics Professional (CCLP) designation, the most widely held and valued logistics designation in Canada, said CITT. 

The practice of finding promising candidates and training them in the discipline is known as “Developable Fit”, and is often compared to an athlete draft in which the “best available athlete” is drafted and then trained in a specific sport.

It’s becoming a necessity as businesses see they can’t afford to NOT invest in supply chain logistics expertise – and “difficulty finding workers with the correct skills/training” was the MOST-cited major recruitment issue in the 2012 Supply Chain Sector Council HR report. This isn’t surprising in light of low public awareness of the sector, which means the entry of new talent could slow further, forcing employers to be even smarter about finding and training people, said the release. 

A factor that compounds the problem of the skills gap is that Boomer retirements mean businesses are losing mentors and leaders. Traditionally, almost 70% of learning happened on-the-job,3 but as Boomers leave, their ability to transfer knowledge and give on-the-job training goes with them.

“The shallow SCL labour pool is a problem by itself, but if organizations can’t necessarily depend on training people on-the-job as much as they could in the past, they’re going to need a new strategy to cope.” CITT’s Viglas noted. Fortunately, with the rise of online learning through sources like CITT, acquiring the right skills is increasingly accessible.

 CITT is helping employers prepare for the skills gap in supply chain logistics through its specialized logistics courses and CCLP designation – and they’re seeing boosts in enrolment that prove it.

“We’ve been seeing big increases in students coming not just of their own initiative, but with the encouragement of employers, too. In just the last 3 years we’ve seen entry in our program go up by 47%. We think one of the big reasons is that companies are realizing how important it is to accelerate their peoples’ learning before the skills crunch gets worse.”

Courses in CITT’s spring semester start April 24th, so Viglas encourages employers to think ahead and register their employees at www.citt.ca

Yet another HR trend in industry is the prevalence of poaching. With a shallow talent pool, businesses are sometimes forced to look to other businesses to find the right people. Data is difficult to obtain, but industry reports suggest poaching is almost certainly damaging the sector as a whole, driving up salaries and jeopardizing planned succession strategies.

However, portable professional development such as the CCLP designation has actually been proven to help retention, further insuring against potential skills gaps. Research has found that a sense of reciprocity grows between a company and the employees they encourage to pursue professional development. This results in increased commitment which, in turn, increases loyalty as much as 73% – protecting against sudden and unexpected skill gaps in an organization, said CITT. 

“But whether it’s the need to replace retirees, poached talent or fill new roles, it’s clear there will be many jobs for skilled logistics professionals. Workers should seek skill-building professional development if they want those jobs, and the whole sector would be very wise to help them,” said Viglas.