Is the bloom coming off the talent management rose in supply chain?
While that may be putting it too strongly, survey data from the analysts at Garter suggests supply chain executives are seeing declining priority for talent recruitment, retention and development, topics that were red hot a few years ago.
Gartner analysts Samuel Kim and Veena Variyam wrote in a recent Gartner blog post that “For the first time in three years, chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are not citing supply chain talent recruitment and retention as one of their top three near-term priorities.”
As support for that statement, the Gartner analysts note that according to the recent Gartner CSCO Community 2025 Outlook survey, less than 40% of CSCOs now consider talent a top near-term priority, a significant drop from 56% last year.
But before companies put talent management too much on the backburner, they should be aware of three important and related trends, identified by Gartner’s Global Labor Market Survey - which gathers insights from more than 2,500 supply chain professionals every quarter regarding job market outlook, job search behavior and employment value proposition:
Trend #1 - The Decline of Supply Chain Workplace Promoters: In the past two years, Gartner says, supply chain organizations have witnessed a significant decline in their net promoter score (NPS), a key metric that gauges employees' willingness to recommend their workplaces to others. This downward trend suggests a growing reluctance among supply chain employees to endorse their organizations. NPS has been steadily declining among supply chain employees from a high of 32% in 3Q22 to a low of 26% in 1Q24, Gartner adds.
The data “highlights a deepening dissatisfaction among supply chain employees,” Gartner further observed – and means supply chain executives must still prioritize work place satisfaction if they want to avoid losing workers.
Trends #2 - Employee Turnover Risks Remain High: Supply chain organizations are increasingly at risk of facing turnover challenges, Gartner notes. Data shows that 31% of supply chain employees surveyed in the second quarter of 2024 intend to leave their organizations within the next year. This marks a slight increase from the 29% reported in the same quarter last year. (SCDigest’s question: did the actual turnover meet the survey data?)
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 The data underscores a significant trend, Gartner says: supply chain employees are looking for opportunities outside their current organizations. Among the 31% who expressed their intent to leave in 2Q24, 61% plan to find employment at another organization, and 14% cited dissatisfaction with their current role (the last of which actually seems low to SCDigest).
“For supply chain leaders, these statistics signal the urgent need for a strategic reevaluation of employee development and turnover strategies,” Gartner says.
Trend # 3 - Greater Respect Drives To attract and retain top talent, Gartner says, supply chain leaders should focus on enhancing their employee value proposition (EVP) drivers - the benefits and value employees gain from working with an organization.
A recent Gartner survey found supply chain employees were most attracted to roles offering competitive compensation, favorable location, work-life balance, vacation benefits and, importantly, respect. Conversely, the factors that most deterred them from a role included inadequate compensation, lack of respect, poor manager quality, undesirable location and ineffective people management.
Nothing surprising here.
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