Transport and logistics managers are doing very nicely for themselves, thank you. But the 2008 Supply Chain and Logistics Employment
Transport and logistics managers are doing very nicely for themselves, thank you. But the 2008 Supply Chain and Logistics Employment Market Survey, prepared by Logistics Recruitment and supported by SupplyChain Review, also highlights the depth of a shallow employment pool and the pressures on the sector to find, keep and grow their staff.
According to the report’s results, a survey of hundreds of logistics professionals in Australia and overseas and exclusively released through SupplyChain Review, the logistics workplace is more dynamic and flexible than ever.
Employees are reporting a movement to greater flexibility in workplace conditions and benefits, including private medical care programs, childcare, technology support and salary sacrifice.
But just 37 percent report their company offers flexible salary packages and fringe benefits, while the percentage of the workforce afforded salary sacrifice has dropped from 63 percent in 2007 to 41 percent this year.
The need for staff is greater this year than any other. Sixty percent say staff levels have increased in the current financial year, up from 54 percent in the 2007 survey, while 57 percent report their company plans to grow its workforce in the next 12 months.
‘Logistics’ was listed as the most difficult area to recruit in, with almost 14 percent nominating the field, ahead of ‘supply chain’, ‘warehousing’ and ‘transport’. But there was a fairly even split across the gamut — from marketing and sales to customer service, human resources and information technology, purchasing, inventory and accounting.
That, according to Logistics Recruitment boss Kim Winter, may just be bringing out the best in supply chain-related companies.
“Never more than now has our industry experienced such pressure on the most valuable resource of any organisation — people,” he says.
“The competition for talent has driven the need for unprecedented innovation and flexibility by companies as they find themselves in a war for talent for competitors across the road, city, state, country and the world, and increasingly from other sectors as skills are sought and transferred between industry verticals.”
Complete results of the Logistics Recruitment 2008 Supply Chain and Logistics Employment Market Survey in the January/February edition of SupplyChain Review, out this week.