After an especially chaotic few years, change and disruption may feel like the only certainties in supply chain. Along with macrotrends like a global pandemic, geopolitical conflict, and a competitive labor market, new and emerging technologies are continuing to transform the ways in which supply chain organizations carry out key processes. Meanwhile, changing customer behaviors and expectations are putting pressure on organizations to continually boost their efficiency and customer responsiveness.
Amid so much change, logistics employees—which includes employees working in transportation as well as warehousing—are remaining remarkably steady. In 2022 research with more than 1,100 global organizations, APQC finds that transportation employees have a median tenure of eight years, while warehouse employees have a median tenure of 10 years.
Median turnover rates are also lower than many people might expect—around five percent for warehouse employees and 9 percent for transportation employees.
Many organizations have an opportunity to invest more than they currently do in developing their existing logistics employees. APQC has found that the median learning budget for transportation employees is only $130 per year, and the median learning budget for warehouse employees is $130 per year.
There's no good reason why logistics employees would need a smaller learning budget than their peers in other functional areas—in fact, the opposite may be true. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a case in point. We've found that the adoption of AI-driven technologies is driving the need for new skills among supply chain professionals. This not only includes the technical skills needed to use technology effectively, but also soft skills like collaboration, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and relationship building skills. These skills allow supply chain professionals to step into more strategic, value-added forms of work once technologies like automation and AI take over manually intensive tasks like data entry.
Learn more about how and why you should invest in logistics employees.
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