February 2020
How to Attract and Retain Female Supply Chain Talent
The modern supply chain industry has transformed in countless ways as it becomes increasingly complex and integral to global business operations, yet the underrepresentation of women in the workforce remains a pressing issue.
According to Gartner’s 2024 Women in Supply Chain Survey, while the number of women in supply chain reached record levels in 2023, progress stalled in 2024. The proportion of women in the overall supply chain workforce fell from 41% to 40%, underscoring how easily progress towards inclusivity can be reversed without sustained commitment, and warning of a weaker future female talent pipeline.
One study carried out here at DSJ Global highlights a critical barrier to entry: many recruitment processes inadvertently discourage female candidates. Nearly half of respondents we surveyed reported withdrawing from job searches due to experiencing gender bias during the hiring process.
Why diversity in supply chain matters
Diverse teams bring fresh perspectives, new ideas for innovation, and improve problem-solving capabilities – all critical qualities for navigating the ever-evolving supply chain landscape. Beyond these advantages, gender diversity can also enhance financial performance, with many studies linking inclusive workplaces to higher profitability.
Despite these benefits, many firms face challenges in attracting women to the field.
Understanding the barriers to female supply chain recruitment
The top reason for women withdrawing in our study was due to gender-biased comments made by the hiring manager, while the second and third were a lack of diversity at the hiring company’s leadership level, including the management team and the board.
Perception is everything. This study shows that companies have a huge opportunity cost from a lack of gender diversity. While most are not consciously biased, their leadership orientation is turning off women from staying in the process, which in turn will only further the problem. In an environment where competition for supply chain talent has never been greater, companies should be addressing this imbalance to attract more female talent. In the short term, they need to find a way to communicate that they share and value an inclusive work culture. This will help alleviate any concerns from female candidates that the hiring company holds any biases.
Women who said they had withdrawn from a hiring process identified this as a long-term obstacle for solving supply chain’s diversity problem; particularly in leadership roles. Less than four percent identified a lack of qualified women at entry-level as the main challenge to increasing gender diversity. Rather, they said that gender-biased cultural values, leadership orientation and behaviors within supply chain needed to be overcome.
Tackling long-term challenges to improve supply chain diversity
In a webinar hosted by DSJ Global, Antoinette Irvine, Vice President of Human Resources for Unilever’s global supply chain, agreed that systemic cultural challenges are the main obstacles to gender diversity in supply chain:
My experience has been that if you just focus on the targets and you don’t work on the culture, you end up having a lot of women leaving your organization because you aren’t making them feel included. Within the context of our supply chain, the main challenge was changing our leaders’ mindsets to understand unconscious bias and to change the lack of understanding in bringing in diverse, female talent. Once you have those senior leaders buying into what it’s like to be judged on the basis of whether you are a man or a woman, then they lead for the change themselves.
Unilever has worked towards radically improving the diversity of their supply chain workforce, all the way from procurement through to manufacturing and factor managers. Due to a balanced intake of new hires and internal promotions, Unilever increased their senior management level from 33% female in 2016 to 40% in 2020. As part of their diverse talent strategy, Unilever found that this two-pronged approach was responsible for improving female representation:
Recruitment and integrated pipeline planning were the two initiatives that caused the most change for Unilever.
The way forward to building an inclusive supply chain workforce
As the demands on supply chains continue to escalate, the industry must have diverse perspectives and experiences to successfully shape its future. This will only be possible if supply chain companies invest in building inclusive workplaces, address gender biases, and invest in long-term strategies for attracting and retaining female talent.
For more information and actionable advice on attracting and retaining diverse supply chain teams, read our latest Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, or get in touch with the team at DSJ Global to transform your talent strategy.