Will you be an employer of choice?
JUDGING BY THE ATTENDANCE AT THE “PEOPLE SIDE OF
the Supply Chain” seminars held during the recent ProMat 2011
Show, hiring and retention are hot-button issues these days. To industry insiders, that will come as no surprise. Although it’s not as widely
publicized as, say, the truck driver shortage, the warehouse and DC
business has been facing an ongoing labor crunch of its own. DCs
report that it’s getting harder to find qualified workers, and if they’re
lucky enough to find them, it’s getting harder to keep them. And the
problem is being reported at all levels of the organization.
The situation isn’t going to reverse itself anytime soon. In fact, it’s
expected to worsen. That’s why a lot of far-sighted
employers are already looking at ways to ensure
they’ll come out on top in the coming war for talent.
To that point, Dan Boos, principal and executive
consultant for Boos Consulting Services LLC, who
led the “People Side of the Supply Chain” track at
ProMat, had a couple of suggestions. Part of the
solution will be to embrace diversity, he said. As the
traditional labor pool shrinks, employers will necessarily have to broaden their sights to include traditionally underutilized segments of the labor force—
people of different generations, genders, and cultures. The other part, he said, will be making themselves more attractive to potential employees. In a
tight labor market, workers can be more selective
about the jobs they’ll take. To attract top talent, companies will have to figure out how to become employers of choice.
“Taking steps to become the employers of choice, coupled with a
strategy and willingness to embrace diversity in your work force,
could make the difference between success and failure,” said Boos.
But how do you become such an employer? Obviously, it helps to
know what today’s logistics professionals want from their jobs. Our
latest Salary Survey sheds some light on that question. In addition to
asking about salaries and compensation, this year’s survey included a
number of questions about overall job satisfaction—what the
respondents liked and didn’t like about their jobs and what their
employers could do to make them happier. (For the full Salary Survey
results, see our story on page 40.)
Job satisfaction proved to be extremely high among the survey
respondents (a full 88 percent indicated they were happy on the job),
but that’s not to say they didn’t see room for improvement. When
asked what their employers could do to boost their job satisfaction
(aside from upping their pay), respondents were
ready with suggestions.
