I don't like the crying about a lack of supply chain talent

Why do supply chain papers and people constantly complain about their not being enough staff?

This has been annoying me lately, the amount of articles and studies that seem to be constantly put out by the supply chain industry media machine that concentrate on how there is such a lack of talent, that they are so understaffed, and that there is no one that is willing to work for them.  I think that this is a lot of baloney.  To executives and hiring managers – you spend all this money maintaining an HR department, did you ever think to look at the resumes that they have?  

I can picture what your going to say: “yes, but they don’t have the skills in this area…, they don’t have experience in that…”  

I have become to believe that the reason that there aren’t enough people in supply chain is because supply chain firms do not invest in creating positions that new recruits can grow into.  The problem is that there are just not that many firms that see a benefit in developing talent over time.  Look at firms like Loblaws and Canadian Tire.  I don't believe that they have difficulty attracting new talent, because they spend money on creating programs where new blood can circulate through the company, try different areas, learn the business.  On the other hand, I can feel the attitude of supply chain firms is the same for middle management talent as it is for truck drivers.  They expect to open their door and have perfectly qualified, educated, experienced people just banging down the door to get in.  

Young people today are more unemployed than recent generations and I think more hungry to work.  They don’t have big expectations, and will do a lot for not a lot of money.  And you have a very well educated cohort to choose from.  So I would venture to say that we stop complaining about a lack of talent, and start complaining about a lack of space available in training programs in companies.  Just my two cents.