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The Top 5: Hiring Supply Chain Tips
Don’t Neglect Your Hiring Supply Chain!
Everyone knows about the on-going supply chain challenges – companies are understandably motivated to find solutions. Everyone also knows about the severe staffing shortages – employers are desperate for candidates.
What everyone doesn’t seem to know is that the employee shortage is also a supply chain issue! You need product but you also need people to sell it, install it, maintain it, bill for it, etc. Your hiring supply chains needs just as much management.
- Identify your suppliers. How did you find your current employees? Advertisements, job fairs, employee reference, recruiters, or just dumb luck? Rank your more reliable sources by their cost and their supply quantity and quality.
- Improve your relationship with those suppliers. Speak with your contacts about what you can do to improve output. Do you need to dedicate more resources (whether that’s money, time, or people) to increase output? Is there anything your company is doing/not doing that is sabotaging your supply? Do you have clear decision-makers and are they fully aligned on the company’s needs and priorities?
- Diversify. We’ve been warning for years that the industry’s current candidate pool is drying up. Employers used to have their pick of experienced candidates. Now you have to start accepting candidates with transferrable skills and a willingness to learn. Look at your job openings and reassess your requirements. What skills does a candidate have to have and what can you teach them?
- Rethink safety stocks. Guy Courtin, of 6 River Systems writes, “Trying to ‘lean out’ our supply chains has been the mantra for ages. We strive to reduce working capital. Safety stock is ‘bad.’ Do we need to reassess this?”When it comes to your employee back bench, the answer is yes! Think about your best people and what a nightmare it would be to replace them. How long would it take, what opportunities would you miss, who else might leave if they do? With a job market this tight, companies simply can’t risk running with the bare minimum of essential employees. People get sick, they move, they leave. You need a safety margin to account for this human element.
- Embrace change. When something’s not working, try something new – a new supplier, new type of candidate, new job description, new hiring team. If you can’t find any candidates, if you keep losing your candidates after the second interview or if candidates keep rejecting your offers, something is wrong. Don’t throw up your hands and shout, “No one wants to work any more!” That simply isn’t true – people are working, they just don’t want to work for you. It’s up to you to find out why and fix it.