Does your company have the resources to identify a supply chain of workers to replace your employees who will be retiring soon? As Americans hit the age of retirement, thousands are leaving the workforce.

This question is affecting companies and government agencies across the United States. Many older workers are choosing to work longer, even into their retirement years. But of those leaving, is your company ready to fill those jobs? And if you do find someone to replace workers who are leaving, has there been a transfer of knowledge from the senior worker to the new recruit?

The primary supply chain for hiring employees has and continues to be referrals from current employees. In 2013, according to respondents’ applicant tracking systems, existing candidates provided the number one source of qualified candidates for filling jobs, followed by other referrals and social media. Many companies use a recruiting company or recruiting firm to assist with a plan to locate new workers. Supply chain staffing looks at and understands what the supply chain is for that particular job or profession.

Hiring veterans can be an advantageous situation for the veteran new employee and for the employer.
Military personnel can be a great supply chain for many types of work. Military operations world wide provide many different types of work from cooking to engineering while in the military. Veterans bring those skills to their new employer and are able to provide skilled work with little training. For instance, veterans who were driving trucks in the armed services have been waived from taking “behind the wheel” tests. This has happened in 34 states where this rule has now been adopted. Veterans have also gained many soft skills relating to hard work and loyalty that is part of their military training experience. Self-discipline, teamwork, attention to detail, respect and leadership are the top five skills that employers say veterans bring to civilian jobs. These are just a few of reasons former military provide a supply chain for employment in many different fields and many different types of companies.

Pharmaceutical work is a growing but hard to fill employment type in this country.
Health care and medicine is a growing need and growing business. This is also related to the high number of elderly people and that population is growing. People are living longer. Becoming a pharmacist requires a degree and has many aspects of education similar to that of a health care professional. Many pharmacies now are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Given that scenario, it is sometimes hard to find and hire pharmacists. Often pharmaceutical recruiters will be involved.

The Pharmacy Technician may be an appropriate supply chain for the pharmacist. There were 368,760 pharmacy technicians working in the United States in 2014, while at the same time there were 290,780 pharmacists. The pharmacy technician is already familiar with the type of work, the possible requirement to work nights and weekends and the stress of dealing with the sick and impatient public. This makes these employees an excellent supply chain for actual pharmacy work. Additional education as well as licensure is required; however finding a person who is familiar with and who has an understanding of the work as well as someone that you have had the opportunity to observe in the work place in the same type of work environment, allows pharmaceutical recruiters to pursue those technicians who are already successful.

Looking for the employee who will do the best job, be loyal, learn quickly, get along with others, be interested in seeing the business or work of the agency succeed and flourish, would be the goals for many recruiters.
Identifying and using the appropriate supply chain for the workers your company needs can be accomplished by using supply chain recruiters. Your company will benefit from the ability and knowledge of who is the supply chain for your jobs, how to you locate those candidates and how to entice them to employment or work in your company. After you employ the appropriate candidates, those employees often provide further referrals for the supply chain of additional employees.