Succession Planning and Onboarding Prevents a Thin Supply Chain Talent Bench
By Joshua Stack & Chris Gaffney
Introduction
Talent management and succession planning in the workforce have become more of an issue in a post-COVID supply chain world. As technology and artificial intelligence advance, employers must develop a talent pipeline while grappling with an aging workforce. This is clearly not your dad’s supply chain, but that doesn’t mitigate the dire need to replace the retiring Baby Boomers and their institutional knowledge. Factor in massive trade disruptions and sudden shifts in supplier relationship management tactics, and it’s a forecast that creates A LOT of headaches from a talent perspective. Labor costs are a huge portion of a business’s bottom line, and you’ll either pay now or pay more later for failing to invest in talent adequately. But that doesn’t mean that employers aren’t running lean or operating with a thin bench.
In this article, we’ll cover ways in which employers are mitigating the loss of employees as well as developing new talent and retaining top performers.
The Thin Bench Problem, Defined
Put simply, a critical manager leaves, and operations begin to wobble. Backfill of duties and responsibilities doesn’t get spread out as well. You soon begin to realize that not only is your team not as deep as you thought, but that too much responsibility and institutional knowledge may have been concentrated in a single person or position.
The thin bench is a problem regardless of field, industry, or discipline. Talent management requires not only hiring the best person available but also ensuring that there is adequate backup and contingency when needed.
Some questions to bring up with your team if you’re facing a thin bench:
- Are you cross-training managers and staff? Siloing knowledge, while avoiding scope-creep, can be detrimental in the long run. For the more crucial roles, it’s important to ensure that more than one person has the knowledge base to execute and deploy essential functions.
- Have you documented systems and protocols for each position? It’s a lot easier to backfill for a role when there’s a playbook. That way the new person can more easily get up to speed.
- Does your org chart account for future growth? Maybe you need to split up some roles into 2 or 3 different ones. Or perhaps you can do the opposite and combine some. But you won’t know this until you do a thorough audit of roles, personnel, labor distribution, and scalability.
- Who are your talent partners? If you find yourself suddenly short-staffed, you should probably find some help to source and place backfill roles. Just because the people are gone doesn’t mean the work stops. It means that there will be less time for things like sourcing, vetting, interviewing, and hiring. Find a specialized recruiting firm that can help you, like SCM Talent Group. Yeah, cost might be an issue, but you’ll either pay less now or more later with diminished production levels or a bad hire.
Examples of Thin Bench Issues
An astute leader can spot potential issues before they become a problem. Having the pulse of staff morale, knowledge of production levels, and performance benchmarks can help to raise warning signs of impending personnel loss. Here are a few examples of what to look for and how to mitigate for these issues.
Retired in Place: When Experience Becomes Stagnation
Pipelines are built with an eye to the future. Young talent will be the lifeblood fo your organization. If you are properly procuring future talent, you’ll need them brought up to speed by people in the know on your team. Who are those people? Are they promoters or blockers?
Some seasoned workforce veterans might be coasting a little. They may have lost the edge and the drive. The job might have become too easy and repetitive, and they lack a proactive approach to the work. But they like the paycheck and the comfort of knowing the day-to-day routine. A wise leader will already know this about his or her team. They will be able to spot the ones who are just biding their time until retirement.
An optional scenario involves self-scouting: Am I happy here? Am I operating at full capacity? Have I lost interest? If the answer is yes to these questions, then hopefully that veteran will work to phase themselves out and begin mentoring a new leader. Not only does this set the company up for the future, but teaching your replacement also provides a new and exciting way to spend your days, rather than the same drudgery that has become more of a chore than a job. Don’t be a blocker. Be a promoter.
Building Strong Foundations Through Onboarding and Growth Plans
Your employees want a path to the future. (hint: Hey employees, make sure you’re asking about career growth when being interviewed and recruited for a new gig)
As an employer, it’s important to hire people who can not only fulfill the duties of the position for which you’re hiring but also demonstrate the drive to grow into a larger, more impactful role. Status quo hires lead to status quo growth. Thorough onboarding is key to this growth and can avoid status quo production.
- Cross-train new hires and expose them to all parts of the business. This is especially important in supply chain. You might be hiring a Logistics Director, but they may find more interest in strategic sourcing. Empower them because their work product will thrive in a field they’re more interested in. But you now have someone who’s able to backfill in logistics if needed. Thin bench problem addressed.
- Where do I end up? There are some roles where the hire is intended to only be for that role and that role only. Hire accordingly. But for other roles, try and find personnel that can adapt, grow, and change. Provide a clear outlook for their future, financially and in terms of a career path.
You want people with drive and ambition. They will push your business forward while challenging the existing team to do more, by default. Hire people who know how to lead by example and ensure that you are onboarding them with intention. They will become your future leaders on their own and allow you to promote from within, which brings up our next point.
Promote From Within to Strengthen Culture and Continuity
If you’re hiring the right people, you’ll be able to steadily move them up the chain. When the seasoned manager retires or moves on, bump everyone up a notch. Ideally, you’re hiring in a manner that allows for this type of growth. Build and promote from within. It’s a lot easier to hire the lowest link in the chain. It’s also a lot less expensive when you miss. But missing a senior-level role can be very costly and detrimental to growth. By promoting from within, you also retain cultural norms and important continuity. People inherently work better with and for people they know. Try and preserve this when possible.
Avoiding Burnout Among High Performers
Heavy lies the crown, or so they say.
With great power comes great responsibility.
Any other cliches about the burdens of success? Maybe. But what we’re trying to say here is that your best performers can sometimes be overburdened. If you’re not careful, they will jump at the first chance because the job just got to be too much.
We see this a good bit in today’s supply chain talent landscape, especially when it comes to the use and deployment of high-level technology and analytics tools. A lot of times, one person is charged with being the “know-it-all” tech guru. They then become the de facto go-to for problem-solving and troubleshooting things that are out of their scope, but within their knowledge base.
Here’s how you can avoid this burnout:
- Know your team. Have regular check-ins so that you can gauge this stuff before it gets to the exit level. Don’t make the check-ins a “show me what you’ve done lately.” Results prove that this team or person has done more than their fair share. The check-in is to ensure that you know how they’re feeling so that you’re not blindsided by their sudden exit. Remember, people don’t leave jobs; they leave bad managers. Foster an environment of openness and collaboration, and you can hopefully avoid burnout exits.
- Contingencies, redundancies, and cross-training. What are you going to do if the only person who knows your tech gets hit by a bus? This is a question folks should be trained on from the beginning. Start this in onboarding so that your leaders understand the value and importance of redundancies.
A good leader spots this stuff before it happens. So again, onboard correctly and cultivate leaders in the mold that you want. Burnout should be easy to spot. Don’t let running lean run off your best people. Yeah, it’s pricey to hire more, but it’s even more expensive to lose your best people because you were asking too much of them. Pay attention because your best people will leave if they don’t feel like they’re properly valued and overworked.
Now is the time to check in with your high-value employees to make sure they’re feeling valued with a clear path. Try and get them to open up about their frustrations. If you know they’re frustrated but they don’t open up, then be prepared for a backfill.
Conclusion: Ambition to Always Slay the Dragons
Got your attention, didn’t we?
The key to avoiding running with a thin bench starts with your hiring and onboarding processes. And here’s how:
- Identify individuals who can develop into leaders, not just fill a role. Use specialized talent professionals to help you find these folks.
- Always promote from within first until the pipeline runs dry. This helps with continuity and cultural consistency. Keep people happy and help them advance in their careers.
Once you’ve done this, manage your people with positive reinforcement and an environment where they feel they can report the failures and the successes. This helps you avoid burnout among your key players. If they’re an HVT for you (high value target) they’ll be an HVT for someone else, and recruiters are really good at finding unhappy, highly skilled workers. They’ll jump at the chance if they don’t feel valued or are simply burnt out with too much responsibility.
Finally, don’t be a blocker, Mr. Seasoned worker. If you’re ready to bounce into retirement, help to groom your replacement. Mentorship is a great way to sunset your career and helps to transition your role to the younger generation.
Mostly, you gotta always find the people willing to slay the dragons, no matter their level within the company. You do this and you can withstand running lean for a little while until you can get back to full strength.
