Heather Sheehan, Advisor and Former VP, Sourcing, for Danaher Corporation, and also an AWESOME Advisor, recently spoke at the Transforum Conference on the topic of Real World Strategies for the Logistics Talent Gap. The discussion also focused on why women’s talent is underutilized. One reason, she explained, is the bias women often face, and she offered advice on how to overcome it.
“If you as a female do experience bias, remember this: it’s about business,” Sheehan was quoted in an article in Fleet Leader. “I looked at it from a business perspective and asked myself, ‘What are the business goals we’re trying to achieve? We have to work together — what are we trying to get done?'”
She also presented statistics about the growing talent gap. “There are estimated to be 1.4 million new logistics jobs to be created just between now and 2018. Logistics jobs overall are expected to grow 26% from 2010 to 2020…” and “…just 38% feel their organizations have the necessary competencies in their employee pools and rising into management.”
“We should always be thinking that every person potentially has talent and something to offer in our organization, and we need to ask the questions and find out what their skills and abilities are,” she said.
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