According to new figures, almost half of distribution and logistics organisations in the UK (40%) state that talent attraction and retention is the biggest challenge facing their business in 2024, while 39% state it is the number one priority.
Implementing a strong DE&I strategy is crucial for both attracting and retaining the best talent yet according to data from the Advanced Distribution and Logistics Trends Report 2024, less than half (47%) of D&L respondents said their organisation has a clear DE&I strategy which is owned and driven by the HR Director or CPO, compared with 55% on average across all industry sectors.
The report also shows that there’s still work to be done in improving diversity and improving recruitment processes within the sector as only 43% say they use technology to support diverse hiring and onboarding, which is considerably lower than the average for all respondents, 63%. Also, just over one-third (34%) said their organisation works hard to remove bias in recruitment, while almost one-third (28%) said they have gender and diversity pay gap reporting.
While people remain the top challenge in the sector, rising costs for raw materials as well as higher fuel and transport costs are affecting the sector’s ability to plan and deliver accordingly, so, unsurprisingly, supply chain challenges were named as a problem for one-quarter (24%) of D&L organisations.
Over a quarter (26%) of organisations said their supply chain management function needs better technology to enable greater effectiveness through optimised storage and using efficient stock control and management tools.
There is clear recognition that technology could bring the solutions they require with more than half (55%) of organisations in the sector having plans to upgrade their technology solutions. The report found that D&L teams named supply chain as the number one area in their business that needed new technology to succeed (26%) followed by product and service development (20%) and finance (18%). Also, half (50%) of D&L professionals said better systems integration would increase their confidence in their technology solutions being able to help them achieve these goals.
Doug Hargrove, Senior Vice President, Distribution & Logistics at Advanced said: “These new findings show that the sector still has a long way to go to attract the best talent and ensure they stay with an organisation. However, the desire to upgrade systems and processes is a promising sign.
“More than one quarter of D&L organisations are still dealing with misconceptions around using new technology, over one quarter say they face user resistance (26%) and 31% tell us the biggest barrier to implementing new tech in the D&L sector is lack of buy-in from leaders,” he added. “As a sector, we need to find a way to overcome these barriers in order to solve supply chain issues currently being faced while also being able to recruit and retain the best people”.
Despite this appetite for change, the data shows there is still some resistance to technological change, as cost was named as the number one consideration for implementing any new technology by 44% of respondents with 19% saying that difficulty in measuring return on investment (ROI) was also a significant barrier to adopting new technology.
Article taken from Factory and Handling Solutions.
