How the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted hiring across Procurement & Supply ChainExploring the challenges faced by supply chain & procurement professionals during Covid-19, and how businesses have adapted to find solutions.​The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the supply chain, which has had a knock-on effect on how teams within the supply chain function and recruit. Speaking with several procurement and supply chain leaders, two main challenges became apparent. One challenge was the insolvency and temporary closing of suppliers, which caused supply limitations and delays in meeting customer demand. The second challenge was the decline in sales and reduction in margins, which hatched a difficulty in trying to stabilise balance sheets through this period. Despite these challenges, procurement and supply chain teams have worked tirelessly to find solutions to overcome these challenges and continue to bring success to their business. A solution that was proposed by a supply chain leader in the Automotive industry for the insolvency of suppliers was to insource by purchasing all the equipment needed to manufacture this component in-house. Although this could raise further challenges, this solution would ensure businesses are able to continue to manufacture the parts and products they need to reduce delays and meet customer demand. To help stabilise balance sheets, a solution that was proposed by a procurement leader in the e-commerce space, was to optimise and consolidate the supply base by identifying contracts that were affected by change in demands and extract value where necessary. For example, facilities management contracts is an area that could be optimised due office lockdowns and the new ways of working for many businesses. Maximising savings in these areas will help businesses avoid a reduction on personal costs such as laying off workforce. Clearly, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought new priorities to the forefront for supply chain teams. As a result of businesses implementing solutions to tackle the challenges above, it has changed the way teams are functioning and, in some respects, helped businesses identify areas where they may be lacking in skill. When analysing insourcing as a solution, it’s implementation can impact team functioning as this would require the business to internally reshuffle and train their present operations teams on the new equipment and manufacturing process. This could inadvertently put more stress on the supply chain by reducing workflow efficiency as the additional tasks would add to their existing responsibilities. Alternatively, after an assessment of the departments hiring budget and commercial viability during this period of uncertainty, a business could recruit and build specialist teams to cover the added work. Overall, insourcing brings with it advantages for the business and for the team as it helps to create leaner manufacturing processes and streamlines product development, which can help to improve planning and forecasting. For supply chain teams, this can be beneficial as it gives current employees greater opportunities to learn new skills and it improves the local economy by potentially opening up new job roles in the area. During this uncertain period, optimisation and consolidation of the supply base is a key solution for many businesses to avoid significant workforce reduction. However, much like insourcing, new challenges can arise such as reduction in supplier diversity, flexibility and innovation. According to Spend Matters, research shows diverse suppliers that offer “greater flexibility, better hands-on support, lower cost structures, more creative resources” tend to be smaller suppliers and having a heavily optimized supply base can restrict businesses from accessing this wider variety of smaller suppliers. This is an issue as businesses and customers are becoming more diverse and if the ultimate goal is to bring value to your organisation and stakeholders, it makes sense that the supply base for the organisation should reflect this global demographic.Although, the exercise to consolidate and optimize the supply base will help to identify areas of improvement in the team such as the need for an upgrade in agility costing and working outside a set action plan to deliver on targets. Additionally, it will help teams to hone focus in on building stronger strategic relationships with existing suppliers where you can understand their pain points on capacity and inventory to allow for further negotiation and cost reduction. Ultimately, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on how supply chain team’s function, if businesses are successful in implementing these solutions, as evidenced in this blog, it will create new opportunities for organisations to be more competitive in the market. Examples include a stronger strategic supply base following the need for optimisation and consolidation of their suppliers and opportunities for employees to learn new skills in new equipment or even handling new procurement categories such as medical wear and personal protective equipment for staff. For the future, the Covid-19 crisis has taught teams to become more agile and to work outside of their action plans, in order to continue to hit their needed targets and key performance indicators. ​

5 Factors that Makes Supply Chain Professionals Want to Change Roles and How You Can Offer Them​I​n a recent survey, we uncovered the top five things that are most important to candidates when looking for a new job. Here are our thoughts on how you can offer them.​1. Provide an interesting challengeA new challenge is often the biggest motivator for changing jobs. It doesn’t necessarily mean a step up from the previous role the employee was in, it could simply be the same seniority level but with different challenges. This could be things like a new exciting project, freedom to make changes or being part of launching new products or structures. Also, when you’re looking to make a new hire, highlighting these upcoming challenges can help create an exciting job advert and job description.​2. Think about how the role can developIn every job there should be an understanding of how the role can progress. Many start-ups and SMEs would say that they don’t have the size and structure for each role to progress, but there are other ways of progressing than just vertically. For example, the role could move sideways into a different department, move to a new country or take on broader responsibility within the organisation.​3. Give the employee a chance to make a difference There are endless ways that an employee can make a difference, but in supply chain there are a few motivators that seem to stand out. Making an impact on the environment is top of the list for candidates when it comes to wanting to make a difference. Many candidates expect businesses to drive a well-thought-out CSR strategy. Especially if it isn’t thinking about making itself more sustainable. Alternatively, employees could take the company through a journey such as delivering new products to market.​4. Provide a better work/life balanceFlexibility is key to creating a healthy and happy workforce, and can help create a more diverse workforce. And not just in terms of being able to leave work one hour early on a Friday but by allowing individuals to work around their schedule and the hours of the day they’ll be most productive. You can read more about what employees are now expecting from their employers in terms of flexible working here.​5. Increased salary - not always the best motivatorMany employers fall into this trap; they still think salary is the main motivator for candidates to move and employees to stay. But as seen in our survey, this is the least valued motivator! That is not to say it’s not a big factor when moving jobs. But, if an employee is happy with the company culture and feels challenged and motivated in their role, they are less likely to move for £2K more.​If you would like to benchmark yourself or your team against other supply chain organisations, you can download our Supply Chain Salary Survey here. It covers the following areas: Manufacturing, Logistics, R&D, Supply Chain Tech, Supply Chain Planning and Procurement.

IT’S CHAPTER 2 IN POD’S EVOLUTION: WHAT TO EXPECT…​It is hard to think of a time of greater change within the supply chain industry, with so many challenges to overcome. Over the last few years we have been rebuilding our physical networks to better serve the needs of our consumers while seeking to reduce end to end costs in an increasingly volatile world. But further great challenges lie ahead requiring vision, courage and leadership: How do we continue to serve our organisations, customers and shareholders while meeting our global environmental and social obligations as humans, parents and grandparents? How do we harness existing and future technologies to enhance performance while mitigating risk and ensuring security? And how do we ensure that the leaders of supply chains find their voice to drive these agendas within their organisations?Chapter 2 of Pod is all about helping our industry to solve these challenges and more. We mainly do that by delivering supply chain recruitment solutions to the most important challenges out there. People are the most important asset of any organisation and the best permanent solution to a supply chain challenge is to have the right people doing the right things in the right way.We are going back to our roots of creativity and excellence in delivery: We’ve bolstered our internal capabilities, bringing more industry specialists into the recruitment sector while launching our own internal training scheme for graduates. All to ensure that we maintain the best success rates in our sector across specialist permanent recruitmentWe have added further know how within senior leadership search across Europe and the UK, to mirror the ever-increasing focus on the quality of leadership within supply chainWe’ve strengthened our abilities to deliver multi-hire projects to support our clients through major change such as team relocations and greenfield builds within physical supply chainWe’ve recently launched the Grad Pod – a unique take on supply chain graduate recruitment that helps our customers to build a foundation of future talent that the supply chain industry desperately needsBut we want to add so much more value to our network…We have a huge and enviable network of the best thinkers and practitioners within the supply chain industry so we will now be mobilising that network to help the supply chain industry to do what we can to helpOur Podcast will bring the best thinkers talking about the key topics within supply chain to our network The Library on our website will be populated with comprehensive guides to everything supply chain, built by those that know bestWhy are we doing this?We launched Pod Talent in 2012 with a clear desire to change the perceptions of what a recruitment consultancy can be. People thought that a UK based, dress-down, values-driven and ethical recruitment business was madness. But then the industry took notice and so did our clients.  We doubled revenue three years in a row and won increasingly prestigious industry awards. We were brave in the way we approached things and we delivered better results.Fast forward to 2019 and we recognised a need to get back to our roots, recommit to the supply chain sector that we love, acknowledge how the industries around us are changing and set new exciting goals for the future. And since April 2019, we’ve been busy putting our new plans in motion.We have never been about growth for the sake of it, increasing revenues and profits just because we can.  We want to continue to be brave to be better in what we do – and that isdelivering supply chain recruitment solutions. Our growth plans are based on the needs of the supply chain sector and we are putting ourselves firmly in the centre of that industry. 

The Supply Chain Salary Survey 2019/2020Our salary survey provides data to support organisations and individuals to benchmark their supply chain salaries against the market.The survey covers both the UK and the Netherlands market across most seniority levels. Supply chain functions included in the survey are: R&D, Procurement, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Planning, Logistics and Supply Chain Technology.The report also provides reflections on the dynamics that underpin shifts in salaries over the last few years and commentary on the key trends in supply chain, benefits, flexible working and relocation considerations.Please complete the form below to receive your copy.(Note: If you are on a mobile device and can’t scroll down past the form, turn to landscape and that will fix it!)​

What Organisations Want from Supply Chain LeadersA definitive guide for aspiring and existing supply chain leaders: Which behaviours do organisations value the most in you?Where could you focus your personal development activities to support further career growth?How can you effectively plan a job search by understanding the value you might bring to different organisations?How can you prepare for CV writing and interviews to maximise the potential of success?Pod have placed nearly 500 supply chain leaders to many of the biggest and most exciting fast growth organisations in the world. We’ve combined our knowledge gained over many years of supply chain recruitment specialism to help you to answer these questions and more. Please complete the form below to receive your copy.(Note: If you are on a mobile device and can’t scroll down past the form, turn to landscape and that will fix it!)​​

Assessing Supply Chain LeadersA comprehensive and pragmatic framework to help organisations to benchmark existing supply chain leadership talent and assess incoming supply chain leaders with increased success:Not all supply chains are the same – how do you match your needs to the external talent market?If your supply chain leadership is not delivering what is needed – why is that happening?How do you prioritise different elements of supply chain experience based on your individual supply chain dynamics?Which behaviours are most critical within a modern supply chain leader?How do you convert your specific supply chain requirements into a well-defined job description and measurable assessment process?Pod have placed nearly 500 supply chain leaders to many of the biggest and most exciting fast growth organisations in the world.  We’ve combined our knowledge gained over many years of specialist supply chain recruitment to help your organisation answer all of these questions and build a successful supply chain leadership talent strategy for the future.​Please complete the form below to receive your copy.(Note: If you are on a mobile device and can’t scroll down past the form, turn to landscape and that will fix it!)​​

​A D&I conversation with Jon & LucyWe think D&I is something that should be shared. Spoken about constantly. Talked about openly. When there is the opportunity for discussion, we get to learn and change and develop and be better. Which is why we’re always talking about it, and today we caught up with Pod Founder Jon Dweck and Managing Director Lucy Morgan. D&I is the latest buzzword that everyone is throwing around, but what does it mean to each of you? Lucy: It means having a diverse workforce in the right way. So, putting the right people in the right roles but making sure you’re bringing in people who have different ideas, beliefs, ages, races, genders etc. For me the inclusion is a really important part because it’s important that whoever you are, you have to feel included in the workplace. You need to feel like you can be yourself and no one’s ideas, beliefs, sexuality, race, religion ostracises you in any way. Jon: I think it started off around gender, race and age, but as we move on it’s become so much more. It’s disability and backgrounds and everything that can link you to having a conscious or unconscious bias around people when building a workforce. It’s about building a diverse and collaborative workforce that delivers strong results for the bottom line. So how do you make sure you’re becoming inclusive and not resorting to tokenism? Lucy: I think we genuinely don’t have tokenism and that goes back to inclusion first. Whoever walks through our door – regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, religion – they’re walking into a workplace that allows them to be whoever they are. We have the value of individuality here, so people are open and honest about who they are. That’s our workplace and it fundamentally works against tokenism. Jon: I think we were lucky in that the first founders of Pod were two men and two women. And diversity breeds diversity. It automatically removes bias in terms of your decision making because you’ve already got a diverse combination of perspectives. But in a practical sense, we have a competency framework that we test everyone against. We’re looking for behaviours that are right for our business and the moment you start testing people on behaviours rather than what they’ve already done or what it says on their CV, you’re setting yourself up to make better decisions that are not based on someone’s bias or background. It also eliminates tokenism. We also have a set of values that are inclusive. And I say that because the more I get into D&I the more I recognise that if you have the wrong values, then you’re already driving out diverse people. What’s an example of a ‘wrong value’?Jon: Well it’s not just about the word but also about how it’s implemented. For example, a value people often have is teamwork. They define it as kind of being able to get on with the people in the room. But if you want to get drunk and go down the pub every night, you might not necessarily get on with the person sitting next to you who doesn’t want to do that. So, let’s talk about individuality instead. Celebrating the individuality in everyone we deal with is our equivalent of teamwork. We think about what makes a good team working together in the future, as opposed to ‘do they fit into our existing team.’ Why do you think so many huge brands are struggling to get D&I right?Jon: Well in supply chain there’s a specific issue which is a legacy thing. I was at the main industry supply chain conference in Europe for leaders within supply chain, and I found myself counting the number of people in the room, and then counting the number of women. It was about 18/20% female, and that actually surprised me. I didn’t see one black person in two and a half thousand people. The majority of people were 55-year-old plus white men. That’s the foundation of where we’re coming from. When we talk about D&I in this industry there’s two things going on. One, leadership need to catch up. But number two, the people responsible for recruitment are predominantly male. The recruitment industry is 75% male. So, you’ve got all these people making decisions from a place where they haven’t even realised their own bias or how they’re perpetuating things. Who do you think is doing it well currently? Lucy: I think Danone are good at it. There’s a lot of women in their supply chain and they’ve got a lot of senior female leaders. Coty and GSK also do it and it’s because they’re hiring on behaviours. Jon: Agreed. It’s organisations that have a behavioural based management approach that do it best. The moment you start measuring people not on what they do, but how they do it, that automatically starts getting rid of traditional testosterone-driven old man behaviour.How do you ensure that everyone in your office is aware of their unconscious bias? Jon: We’re rolling out unconscious bias training in our office over the next three months. It’s about teaching people a standard approach to assessing candidates. What I mean by that is that most recruitment businesses see themselves as a sales organisation and wonder how much money they can make. So, you’re naturally going to speak to people most likely to get an interview and so you’re already building bias into the process. Also, if a client engages you first past the post, it’s nearly impossible to avoid bias. You have to rush the decision you make in order to give yourself the best change of making a fee which doesn’t allow you to stand back and look beyond the superficial. So, it starts with how you engage. Set yourself up to have a chance to succeed. Work exclusively with clients. Lucy: We also apply this in terms of how we recruit internally. We’ve been very deliberate about moving to evidence- and behaviour-based recruitment. We’re at the point where people are scored throughout the process on behaviour and we don’t talk about ‘fit’ for teams. Sometimes the hiring manager isn’t involved and someone is hired for their team. We had an example of that recently. They matched our behaviours and competencies, so we hired them and then matched them to a team. The hiring manager didn’t meet them until after because we’re so confident in our process. It’s about a fit to Pod, not the individual team. As a white male, who is arguably privileged, you’re surrounded by women in your business. Your MD is a queer gender fluid person who is definitely the opposite of you. The partners of Pod are female dominated as is your management team. How did you achieve that?Jon: Lucy has just been there since I’ve started so maybe she has a better answer because it’s never been a conscious thing for me.Lucy: I think it’s because there’s an absolute lack of ego around here. We’re brutally honest and we call each other out a lot. We have meetings where we discuss what’s not working and who’s accountable for that and we do that in front of everyone. Our value of openness means we have to be able to call things out as we see them. That means if someone isn’t pulling their weight, we call them out on it. Your ego cannot get in the way of that. And the truth is, the men we’ve hired who haven’t been successful couldn’t handle that. The men in our business don’t have that ego about them. Jon: I agree. We just don’t have the classic locker-room alpha behaviours. It would never work in this business. And a lot of the types of men who work in the recruitment industry, and I’m in danger of talking in stereotypes here, but a lot of them either superficially or un-superficially have unacceptable behaviours which would not allow for a diverse workforce. Objectifying women. Feeling comfortable having a substantial number of casual work relationships. Those behaviours can be rife in businesses and it would never be accepted here. Everyone has varying degrees of privilege. You’re both white and benefit from white privilege. And you’re in charge of this business and the lives of everyone who works within it. How then are you always checking your privilege? Lucy: I support a lot of LGBTQ+ charities. I can’t always understand what people with less privilege go through – for example, it’s hard enough as a gay women, I can’t imagine what my gay friends of colour go through – so I want to give up my time and resources for those who do have it much worse. Jon: I have a very personal reason as does Lucy. We’ve both had substantial things we’ve had to overcome in our personal and family lives and that drives us and helps us check that privilege. I know what it’s like to feel like I had no choice in the world and no money and just trying to survive day to day and overcome all the challenges. I know what it takes to try and pull yourself out of that so a lot of the charities and work we do is around social mobility. For example, we work with a charity that helps kids come out of the care system. What’s your main bit of advice, because you have done it exceptionally well?Lucy: I think it’s about your hiring process and recruiting for behaviours and values. Get your values right and match what you want and what your people want as a business, and then base your process on that. Jon: The best thing I’ve heard is get comfortable with being uncomfortable. In order to change your approach to D&I, you’re going to have to have conversations that previously you’ve been uncomfortable having. Get used to it because you are opening a pandoras box.​Interview conducted by Salma Ed-Wardany, Director of Digitally Human

​Jon Dweck's Top 10 Supply Chain PunsWe decided our website could do with some fun, but relevant fun at the same time. So we gave Jon 1 hour to come up with 10 supply chain puns - these were the results... we apologise in advance and want to hear from you if you can do better. 1.The S&OP process within the Meat processing factory was a challenge due to the amount of steak holders involved2.The condiments category head buyer at Tesco's was embarking on some strategic saucing3.The Spanish procurement team were looking to hire a purchasing professional with a decent amount of experience. They were planning on calling him Senor Buyer4.The forestry commission were looking for a new ERP system. Sap came in to pitch but they were barking up the wrong tree.5. The Tefal factory failed on adherence to pan 6.The park furniture plaque manufacturers were comparing their production processes for bench-marking purposes.7.Due to increasing supplier costs, the combine harvester business required a bail out but their potential investors said they were clutching at straws.8.The soft drinks manufacturer nearly came up with a new packaging format but they bottled it9.Helicopter gearbox suppliers are facing substantial pricing pressure because they can’t get their COGS down10.The inventory manager at Knorr was sacked for holding too much stock.​We're interested to hear from anyone who has a supply chain pun to add to our list!