Supply chain management is the whole process that a product or service goes through before reaching the consumer. Depending on the type of business, supply chain management may include planning, sourcing, manufacturing, delivering, and returning goods and services.
The primary focus of supply chain management as a whole is to minimize cost and maximize productivity. Sacrificing one for the other isn’t considered an optimum solution and can be implemented without any planning.
If you install more machinery and hire more laborers, you can increase productivity. No surprise. But achieving that without investing the presumed resources is the job of supply chain management.
The key features of supply chain management include:
- Automation. The whole supply chain needs to access necessary data from the data sets to effectively execute their part.
- Collaboration. Improved collaboration between teams and suppliers opens up ways to a more efficient supply chain.
- Artificial intelligence. The whole supply chain, especially in 2022, needs to be automated and educated in a way that it can make substantial decisions or recommend solutions to the “links’ ‘.
- Comprehensibility. The data available with the supply chain needs to be comprehensible and must be generated without latency for faster execution.
An HR working in supply chain management, while finding the right talent, must be aware of several facts that contribute to the effectiveness of supply chain management. This list includes the general principles of hiring, supply chain orientation (SCO), and organization-specific guidelines.
We are going to focus on the last two components. As an HR in the supply chain, you need to learn and apply these elements in your recruitment process to find the right talent.
1. Creating Strategic Partnership
Working in a supply chain requires individuals to work in various fields that overlap with each other. An HR needs to know about the importance of strategic partnership between the suppliers & organization and between employees.
When hiring the right talent, you need to verify that the person is capable of analyzing a situation and making logical judgments depending on that. They might also have to take responsibility for each other and solve issues that arise. You may also need to work with workforce retention solutions that hire frontline workers for you. They are experienced in hiring talents for supply chain management.
As an HR in supply chain, you also need to take into account the long-term organizational goals while choosing the right talent. If a talent isn’t capable of respecting and adhering to the organizational goals, they wouldn’t be the right choice despite their experience.
Traditional relationships in other fields are replaced by strategic partnerships in supply chain management. The right talent for supply chain management needs to look beyond opportunism and embrace a co-dependent, firm-specific approach that focuses on long-term partnerships rather than short-term gains.
2. Building Trust
Just like a strategic partnership, the supply chain employees need to trust each other and the process. This is achieved by making sure that every member of the supply chain works towards a common goal and can fulfill their obligations.
Your job as an HR in the supply chain is to maintain trustability and hire talents that are responsible for what they do. Experienced employees are somehow better in this aspect. They know how to gain trust and make others comfortable around them.
To increase trust between parties, you need to know and embrace a philosophy that encourages joint planning, transparent information sharing, and risk reduction activities. When hiring new talents, you need to consider these elements too. If they aren’t a team player and don’t value the opinions of others, they aren’t the ones for your organization.
3. Protecting Partner Advantages
Supply chain partnership relies on trust and long-term mutual benefits between suppliers and the organization. The supply chain management system predominantly focuses on protecting supply chain partner interests. Protecting specialized assets, proprietary information, and other sensitive assets need to be maintained by your organization.
As an HR in supply chain, you are responsible to hire talents that can comply with the requirements and are capable of maintaining confidentiality. They also are expected to share common goals, common norms, and economic integrations, and nurture familiarity between the partners and your organization.
4. Strength of Dependence
Supply chain management systems strongly depend on various partners and services. For example, if your organization runs on Windows PCs, you are dependent on Microsoft for its services. Your dependence may also extend to particular suppliers that you source your raw materials from.
Whatever be the case, you need talents who can sustain and operate within the bounds of that symbiotic relationship. Especially if you are hiring talents for management and executive roles.
You, as an HR in supply chain, must know the compliances and the stronger and weaker dependencies to hire the right talent. If your prospects were unable to comply with the norms in their past experiences, they might fail again.
5. Types of Interdependence
A supply chain system works on three types of interdependencies:
- Pooled Interdependence
- Sequential Interdependence
- Reciprocal Interdependence
Automobile assembly lines are examples of pooled interdependence. The teams or suppliers source different parts of a car to the assembly line as modules, where those are fitted into the car. This type of interdependence demands very limited coordination and the processes can be interchanged to some extent.
Sequential interdependence requires the processes to be done sequentially. In the clothing industry, spinning fibers, knitting, dyeing, cutting, and sewing need to happen sequentially to make a complete product. This type of interdependence requires a lot of coordination between teams.
The IT industry is the best example of reciprocal interdependence. The teams need to perform in coordination with each other daily and process information that’s available through other teams. This kind of interdependence is the most complex.
Depending on the requirement of the interdependence of your organization, you must hire talents who can embrace the coordination levels and work accordingly.
The Bottom Line
Being an HR in supply chain management needs you to be mindful of the organizational goals and partner interests. In addition to adhering to the basic hiring practices, you need to hire talents who can maintain trust, manage partner information, and nurture synergy. The dependence on partners and interdependence on other teams within the same organization also needs to be considered when hiring talents.
