‘You don’t know what you don’t know’. It’s a saying that rings true throughout a variety of Australian industries looking to bolster its employment ranks, and the relative anonymity of the transport and logistics sector in wider society is only exacerbating its existing issues.
Australia is more connected both with itself and the world than ever before, however one of the country’s most important industries – and the variety of roles that are vacant within it – remain largely unknown to the everyday Australian.
The mass shortage of truck drivers and the impending damage it could unleash on the nation’s economy and supply chains is starting to make its way into the national psyche. Mainstream news coverage means people are becoming aware of one of the major staff shortages impacting the wider sector, but what about the others?
Supply chain and logistics is currently bearing the brunt of employee shortages across multiple levels and modes of industry. From road to rail to shipping and everything and everyone in between, it’s an industry on which the burden of increasing demand is being placed on an all-too-small catchment of employees.
Through the necessity to bring a larger and more diverse workforce through the doors, the Australian Logistics Council (ALC) is pursuing a program that is rapidly gathering legs within the sector that, at its best, will not only fill vacant positions, but identify future leaders and long-term career forgers in the transport and supply chain logistics sector.
‘Wayfinder’ is an industry-led program that started in 2017, but only recently became incorporated into the ALC. It aims to bring women of all backgrounds together and offer them a touchpoint with a number of areas of the sector and support them in finding roles within it.
ALC CEO Hermione Parsons is one of the most significant driving forces behind the project, which, after its early success on the Australia’s mainland eastern seaboard, is quickly showing potential to expand nationwide.
Parsons herself is a long-time logistics professional. She has co-chaired the Wayfinder program since its inception and helped foster its integration into the ALC, she’s undertaken executive roles with VicTrack and Port of Melbourne, and she has held high-level tertiary education positions at Deakin University and Victoria University.
“I’ve been in the supply chain, freight and logistics industry for about 20, 25 years and all the time people have been talking about how difficult it is to get diversity and attract women into the industry,” Parsons tells ATN.
“In 2017 a number of people tried to work out what we need to do to stop the talk and how we can make a difference.
“We tried to work out how it was we could create a pipeline of women, not a mentoring program or a women’s network, but how could we actually attract women into our industry?
“It’s not easy, and that’s because the image of our industry is unknown, we’re a hidden enabler and the only time supply chain logistics is noticed is, say, during something like the COVID 19 pandemic – then in the aftermath people have quickly forgotten the importance of supply chain and logistics.
“Although we’ve been working on this since 2017, about 18 months ago we were able to bring Wayfinder across and incorporate it into the Australian Logistics Council which means it’s now an industry program … when I became the CEO of the Australian Logistics Council, I wanted to bring in Wayfinder.
“It’s taken a little while for it all to transition across, but now we’ve really got started.”
So, what is Wayfinder? While it is one of a veritable handful of programs that has the end goal of attracting women and people of diverse backgrounds into the supply chain and logistics sector, it stands out from the crowd in how it aims to do it.
Through partnering with supply chain and logistics giants like Qube, Linfox, Coles, DP World, Port of Melbourne, Toll and many others, Wayfinder offers participants a holistic perception of the industry and the opportunities it provides through its Freight Heartland Tours.
These tours give participants on a no-holds barred view of some of the country’s largest supply chain and logistics companies and showcases the sheer number and variety of roles available within the sector.
Tours in Melbourne and Sydney have both been completed in the second half of 2024. At the time of writing a third tour – this time in Brisbane – is in the process of being planned for early 2025.
Parsons says a key pillar of Wayfinder’s strength is its ability to offer participants an idea of roles that may be immediately available, or training pathways to future roles.
“There are a lot of very good and very practical initiatives out there, but there is a tendency towards creating specifically tailored education programs,” Parsons continues.
“The tour itself is based on attracting people, no matter their age, education, experience or background, to connect with an industry they don’t even know exists.
“We have a Wayfinder supply chain career map that shows 150 roles across 18 sectors from base salary up to executive management.
“People can look at that career map and see the different job types and descriptors, and under that are links to all the courses.
“But sometimes people don’t want to do courses, they want to get right into a job, so they can click on the logo of one of our partners and it will take them straight to the jobs board of that company.
“What we’re trying to encourage people to do is to see the opportunity and then put their hand up for us to open the door and help them into it.”
The sheer scope of how the program operates over a single tour day is remarkable. The Freight Heartland Tours are jam-packed with site visits, panel interviews and networking opportunities for participants.
Parsons offered a concise summary of events of the recent Sydney tour.
“We started at the Amazon distribution centre at Kemps Creek, and we took the participants through the awareness program to teach them different definitions and examples of supply chains.
“Amazon is a robotics distribution centre so it also showcases an aspect of modern supply chain which is pretty exciting.
“We were warmly welcomed by the people at the Amazon and had a tour of the facility, we explained safety as a key component of the industry, and after the awareness program we jumped on a bus and started the tour.
“We went to the import/export automated intermodal facility and Qube and saw the astonishingly exciting infrastructure and had the Head of Operations taking us through and explaining what was happening.
“After Qube we went to Port Botany and NSW Ports, we picked up the Head of Policy Greg Walls and he jumped on the bus with us and took us on a tour of Port Botany.
“Then we went to DP World and at DP World we were, again, met very generously by the people there, and we did a big tour of the stevedore business.
“Then we drove around the NSW Ports offices and could show the participants the tugboats, and on either side they had a big ship at the Patrick stevedore, another big ship at the DP World stevedore, and we were watching everything play out.
“We had a great discussion with CEO of NSW Ports Marika Calfas and ALC Independent Chair Margaret Staib, and we had a great conversation about how people get into these careers and how you get into this industry.”
The Melbourne tour was no less in-depth, with site visits to facilities like BevChain’s North Laverton distribution centre, the Viva Energy fuel transportation depot in Newport, and talks with the likes of Victoria International Container Terminal CEO Bruno Porchietto. The upcoming Brisbane tour is looming as another success.
“We’ve already got some companies lined up for the Brisbane one,” Parsons says. “One of our member facilities is Port of Brisbane, and we’re lining up members like Coles and Woolworths.
“Within about a day I can get all the companies lined up, but the hard work is getting the community, but we think we’re working out how to do this and how to succeed with it, so it’s coming along really nicely.”
The importance of programs like Wayfinder on future-proofing the Australian supply chain and logistics sector is not purely down to perception or bias, but it’s indoctrinated in hard numbers.
Recent data from the 2024 Australian Workforce Occupation Shortage found occupations with 80 per cent or more male or female representation face higher labour shortages, while those with at least 20 per cent representation of both genders are more likely to experience greater stability.
This is a metric that extends far beyond the practice of trying to recruit more women into supply chain and logistics, but for a traditionally predominantly male industry like this one, it is crucial to at least partially tip the scales to ensure its future productivity.
After each Freight Heartland Tour participants were asked a series of survey questions and rated the event from 0-10.
Over 90 per cent of participants rated it between a nine and a 10 for enjoyment. Almost 60 per cent gave it a perfect score.
Testimonials include statements such as “I just didn’t think I could get any opportunity like today. I can see the world now”, “people really care about us and how we progress as future leaders of supply chain”, “it’s inspiring to see women in diverse roles” and “it has inspired me to work in the logistics industry in the near future”.
Despite its efforts – and early success – in attracting people to consider careers in supply chain logistics, is also crucially targeting something of an underrepresented demographic in its programs and is beginning to build its community through further partnerships with community groups in its tour cities.
It is not a program aimed at catching students at the end of their high school or university careers, although they are more than welcome, it’s thrown its arms open to those later in life and is helping tackle societal issues at the root.
“When you read the papers and look at census information it shows us the new highest cohort of homelessness for women is in their late 40s or 50s,” Parsons says. “For one reason or another, their life has gone in a completely different direction to what it was, and they find themselves really struggling.
“Sometimes, we can be an ageist society that doesn’t embrace age very well, but I believe these women have a great propensity to be very effective and efficient in logistics.
“To encourage people to come to our industry later in life – and that could be 35, 40, 45, 50, if you’re a homeless woman and in that early 50s cohort the chance is you’re going to be working for a good 20 years. That’s enough time to establish a really good career in supply chain and logistics.
“I think there is so much opportunity for women of all ages. Some of the women we invited might be in physical jobs like a cleaning business and don’t want to be doing physical labour in their jobs anymore.
“A number of women who came to these events were women that were saying they wanted something different, and that was really encouraging.
“We’re also working closely with refugee associations, and we’ve been able to meet several people who have permanent residency and are ready to forge a career.
“The range in our industry is huge – and it’s exciting.
“And because Wayfinder is a fully integrated program with the ALC people and companies can join, I encourage everyone to become actively involved.”
To learn more about the Wayfinder program and its Freight Heartland Tours, click here.
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