Logistics staff have to deliver much more than just consignments: they have to be right for a job that makes demands on a wider range of skills than most. The skills set is extensive, but the wrong mindset can make an otherwise ideal candidate an increasingly expensive liability.
The “right-fit” employee does exist and can be readily identified by specialists in logistics recruitment. “There is a golden recruitment triangle,” says Mark Botham, chief operating officer at BiS Henderson. “Job requirement, the candidate’s experience and salary. If you don’t match up all the points of the triangle, you will not get the person you want.”
Botham believes that many firms undervalue key players, such as transport managers: “They require a unique skills set – it is a high pressure, 24/7 role and they have to manage a team that they rarely see. If you pay peanuts, you will not attract the right quality of applicant.”
The logistics recruitment job advertisement has to make the requirements crystal clear. “I see so many three-line job adverts that could be aimed at anyone,” warns Botham. “The companies placing them end up with a number of unsuitable candidates and end up choosing the least bad one. It is a fatal mistake.”
Unless companies can communicate a clear description of the role, there is even less chance of them getting the right applicant, Botham argues. Asking for the wrong skills is as frustrating as it is unproductive. “Line managers don’t need to be strategic thinkers,” Mark observes.
Being aware of existing skills within the business is also essential when it comes to filling senior positions. “Too many firms assume that replacing senior people means recruiting from outside, when in fact the skills have already been trained into the business by the departing manager.” The very people the firm needs may already be present: it sometimes needs a fresh pair of eyes to spot the potential.
The face of logistics has changed beyond recognition over the past 20 years, though, so succession is not always a matter of replicating the previous postholder. “Replacing old Ted with another old Ted can miss the point,” adds Botham. Some of what was cutting edge in the 1990s is no longer current now: the computing world can teach us that.
Logistics recruitment is about finding the right people: it is also a matter of asking the right questions at the right time and understanding what makes the question the right one to ask.
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