It’s a good time to jump ship!

We’ve all learn the tales concerning the labor scarcity on manufacturing facility and warehouse flooring. And, in fact, truck drivers and different logistics employees are unimaginable to discover and maintain– the trucking business has been experiencing 100% annual driver turnover for years. Although much less seen within the media, there’s one other acute scarcity in provide chain: Chief Supply Chain Officers and VPs of provide chain.

Just how scorching is the market? According to SCMR’s annual wage survey, 58% of respondents reported a wage enhance of 9% or extra in 2021. According to Kevin Burns, a associate with the Dallas-based govt search agency ON Partners, 9% is peanuts.

“It’s a candidate’s market,” mentioned Burns, who has 20 years expertise within the provide chain house. “The greatest A+ expertise at all times have 2 or 3 aggressive gives in his or her hand. It’s a warfare for expertise.” He is seeing will increase of 25% from pre-pandemic ranges for CSCOs, or any executive-level provide chain skilled. Whichever class you end up, potential employers seem to be keen to make it rain. It’s good to be a CSCO.

Burns divided the market into two buckets – CSCOs and the VPs who report to them – after which described the dynamics enjoying out in each of these job classes.

CSCO’s, he says, are a rarified few as a result of the title is comparatively new, and people few can just about write their very own ticket. At the VP degree “wage inflation and wage creep are positively there. A place that will’ve paid $225,000 to $250,000 is now commanding $275,000 to $300,000,” Burns mentioned. He added that VP degree professionals are getting bombarded by recruiters. 

Wage inflation is inflicting some firms to make changes to job titles as a result of many, giant, publicly traded corporations have hiring bans, or wage scales by title that they’ve to work inside. “Some of our shoppers are elevating the title so as to justify the bump in pay,” Burns mentioned. The result’s that VPs are being recruited as SVPs and administrators at the moment are turning into VPs. There’s a trickle-down impact, as firms are then required to upscale their current VP-level executives to maintain them on par with the brand new hires, or danger shedding them to a competitor.

Those having probably the most success hiring good expertise on this market are the sub $2-$3 billion firms or smaller venture-backed firms. “They have a lot extra flexibility in hiring than massive, world corporations,” Burns mentioned. And, the venture-backed firms might also give you the option to maintain out the prospect of an fairness share down the highway.

What areas are the most well liked proper now? That is evolving as provide chain challenges shift.  In 2020, as an example, expertise with backgrounds that aligned with planning, S&OP and built-in enterprise planning had been in excessive demand, particularly if the candidate had expertise in world forecasting or knew how to make the most of rising applied sciences like AI to tackle danger. “It was all about the usage of information, danger mitigation and planning,” Burns mentioned.

Today, the main focus is on all points of transportation. “When container prices went from $3,000 to $26,000, it turned all about logistics,” he mentioned.

That’s at the moment. What in case you’re a mid-career provide chain skilled trying to place your self for the long run? Burns expects two comparatively new roles to flourish: The VP of community optimization (everyone seems to be rethinking their provide chain design in gentle of tariffs and political instability) and the VP of knowledge analytics. “I’ve a venture-backed shopper now trying to pull somebody from a Fortune 500 firm with a longtime information analytics background,” Burns mentioned.

Today, these positions are extra doubtless to report to the CIO than the CSCO. However, Burns believes that can change over the following decade. “Supply chains of the long run are going to function on main indicators and predictive indicators as a substitute of final month’s KPI’s,” he mentioned. “The one that can analyze these indicators and the danger behind it’s going to be in excessive demand.”

About the Author

Bob Trebilcock

Bob Trebilcock, editorial director, has coated supplies dealing with, expertise, logistics and provide chain matters for practically 30 years. In addition to Supply Chain Management Review, he’s additionally Executive Editor of Modern Materials Handling. A graduate of Bowling Green State University, Trebilcock lives in Keene, NH. He could be reached at 603-357-0484.