FILLING
JOBS
WISELY
How companies use
Talent Supply Chain
Management to link human capital to business needs.

By DOUG ARMS AND TONY BERCIK
ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT PIZZO/WWW.ROBERTPIZZO.COM

June 2015 / STRATEGIC FINANCE / 39

W

hat do building an airplane and finding finance and accounting talent have in common? In the case of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, more than you’d imagine. Boeing uses more than 1,000 suppliers to deliver this airplane’s specific parts—a number that’s so high because the company focused on finding the highest-quality parts instead of the lowest-cost supplier who tried to do everything. As a result, the overall product is of a far better quality than it would have been with a one-size-fits-all approach in which a single supplier provided all the parts.
For years, companies like Boeing have employed the principles of supply chain management to enable leaner operations and position themselves more competitively in the marketplace. Supply chain management is the process by which the flow of materials—including raw materials, work-in-progress inventory, and finished products—moves from the supplier to the consumer by means of an effective infrastructure that allows for the synchronizing of supply and demand.
Because it’s adaptable, effective supply chain management reduces inventory and enables companies to forecast peaks and lows in demand, thereby facilitating a lean, agile system of input and output. As a result, companies minimize the possibility of a surplus of inventory and decrease the resources necessary to purchase and store this inventory—all while maintaining an open supply line to the materials they need. In short, supply chain management is about being as effective and streamlined as possible while enhancing quality and reducing risk.

Talent Supply Chain
Management
It’s also entirely possible to apply the principles of supply chain management to the supply and demand of finance and accounting talent. After all, for most companies, talent is the number one resource and the foundation of their competitive advantage. Using the experience of Boeing as an analogy, talent supply chain management (TSCM) involves using the right supplier for each specific and unique hiring need as well as establishing the right supply chain implementation, coordination, and, when necessary, remediation. With an established infrastructure of talent pipelines and oversight of how talent needs to be deployed to meet business objectives, companies can optimize their talent strategies, maximize the potential of their human capital, and minimize waste. In other words, by using TSCM—also referred to as “holistic” or “integrated” talent management— companies can create strategies that encompass talent
40 / STRATEGIC FINANCE / June 2015

FAST FACT

Over the next 15 years in the U.S. alone,
10,000 workers will turn age 65 every day.
Source: Pew Research Center

across all labor categories and that are aligned with business goals.
As Teresa Carroll, senior vice president and general manager at KellyOCG, points out in “Talent Supply Chain
Management Readiness” (http://bit.ly/1PCP1DC), most companies that utilize TSCM still focus primarily on meeting their current talent needs. But that approach fails to harness the full power of TSCM, which allows companies to forecast their talent needs in one year, two years, or further into the future. By assessing what type of talent they will need in order to reach specific business goals and combining that information with data about workforce trends, organizations can pinpoint talent gaps before they occur and create strategies to deal with them. Tapping into this predictive ability is the key to success in today’s evolving workforce where skills shortages, work preferences, and increased globalization play interrelated roles.

The youngest generation of workers doesn’t just want a good work-life balance; they want worklife integration.

The Evolving Workforce
In this competitive labor