Are Your Priorities Aligned?
When you’re running a supply chain organization, you need to keep your own business goals in mind, but those goals need to be aligned with the needs of your customers in order for your business to be sustained and grow. One of the biggest risks you can take that will keep you from meeting those goals? Not having a proper hiring strategy!
How can you develop a staffing strategy and plan that is aligned to your business goals?
Rather than a reactive role, where you only think about staffing when you have to fill a particular position, strategic staffing is a proactive approach.
The first step you need to take is to look at the employees you already have. Do your people and resources meet your needs? Help your company’s managers strategically—and honestly—evaluate projects and focus their teams’ efforts on only those that grow revenues, increase efficiency, reduce expenses or meet other company priorities. Strategic staffing doesn’t mean only hiring more employees. It means making the best staffing choices available to address your company’s core business needs.
Next, make a plan to evaluate all hiring requests. Next time a manager asks you to fill a job, check and see whether the role’s most critical needs have changed since the last time the job was open, instead of immediately searching for a candidate based on the old job description. Is a full-time individual still required? Should the replacement have the same skills and experience as his or her predecessor?
Now, identify the frequency and timing of workload peaks and valleys, and look for predictable patterns. This allows you to spot any shortfalls in staffing for upcoming initiatives.
All of this can take up time, a resource you may not have. One of the ways you can work around that problem is to work with an experienced recruiter. A recruiter that takes the time to get to know your organization and how it runs, who also knows the ins and outs of your industry, can handle much of the strategizing for you. Also, because the best plans often need backup, they can help you find qualified employees at times when you do need to react quickly.
At ZDA Supply Chain Recruiting, we’ve helped countless companies create staffing strategies. Contact us any time if you’d like to see what we can do for yours. And for more information on strategic staffing in the supply chain industry, please read our previous blog post.