The Talent Series XI: The War is Still Going Strong

Just in case you missed it, I wanted to point out the recent article declaring that there is no end in sight for the ‘war for talent’ over on the European Leaders Network site.

According to the article, the ‘war for talent’ in procurement is being fought as fiercely as ever on battlefields as diverse as Mumbai, Shanghai and Singapore and that a recent survey from McKinsey suggested the logistics industry is facing an annual demand for 75,000 employees, not a huge number until you consider at present, the industry graduates just 5,000. In other words, the demand is fifteen times as great as the supply!

The article concludes by noting that the next 12 months do, however, promise to offer further challenges to an industry function that has come a long way but still has further to travel and whether it’s changing the mindset of existing procurement staff, to ensure that strategic thinking becomes second nature, or attracting the new breed of employee necessary to drive forward change at an exciting time, the ‘war for talent’ shows no sign of abating.

What I’m wondering is why all these articles that acknowledge the war is worsening fail to mention that good eSourcing and eProcurement systems can help these companies by allowing their current staff to do significantly more with less while they search and fight for new talent. (And, more importantly, when are companies north of the border going to realize this fact? I’ve been back in Canada for three and a half years, but have spent the last two and a half working exclusively with companies south of the border.)