Supply chain: More key roles being filled by women

While the supply chain management industry historically has been male-dominated, there are more efforts to increase gender diversity in the field. This is driven by one of the biggest pain points for companies with significant supply chains: a shortage of talent and challenges in retention and engagement. Talent management is one of the biggest expenses for a company these days—but at what cost? A common budget allocation for talent development is 3% to 6% of salary or 2% to 4% of revenue. The average cost to hire a new employee is on average $5,000, but many employers estimate the total cost to be three to four times the salary of the position.

What are some of the biggest challenges? There’s a talent shortage, and the demand for skilled workers is often higher than the supply, which can lead to a talent gap. Keeping employees engaged and motivated can be difficult, especially in large and diverse organizations. High turnover rates can be costly and disruptive, so effective retention strategies are important.

Women in key SCM roles makes good business sense

One way that companies are addressing this workforce challenge is to explore new demographic groups from which to recruit—including women. There can be significant advantages to intentionally recruiting more women into your workforce. Some of these advantages include:

• Increased profitability. Diversity can help companies hire top talent, understand their consumers, and build a solid reputation.
• Faster problem-solving. Employees with different experiences and views can contribute different solutions to problems, which can help resolve them faster.
• Increased productivity. A diverse workforce brings a range of skills, experiences, and perspectives, which can lead to more ideas and processes, and increased productivity.
• Improved decision-making. A diverse workforce can help control biases and encourage people to question their assumptions, which can lead to better decision-making.
• Improved customer understanding. A diverse workforce can help a company better understand and serve its customer base.
• Reduced employee turnover. Diversity can reduce employee turnover, which can save on employment and training costs.
• Enhanced innovation. A diverse workforce can drive innovation and differentiate a company from its competitors.
• Improved employer brand. Diversity can be positive for a company's employer brand.

How many women are in industry roles?

Are more women playing important roles in the transportation and logistics industry? The simple answer is: yes.

The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) regularly conducts the WIT Index, which is the industry barometer to benchmark and measure the percentage of women who make up the following roles in the transportation and logistics industries: corporate management (C-suite); boards of directors; functional roles in such areas as operations, technicians, HR/talent management, safety, sales and marketing; and professional truck drivers.

Approximately 350 respondents identified as authorized to report their organizations’ gender diversity statistics in the most recent WIT Index (2024-25) survey. A majority of them (51.5%) represent for-hire motor carriers or companies with private fleets as part of the organization’s operations. Of those respondents representing organizations with fleet assets, 38% are for-hire motor carriers of various types; 13.5% are manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and other company types with private fleets; and another 13.5% are intermediary companies such as 3PLs, truck brokers and freight forwarders.

The 2024-25 WIT Index highlights the following critical data points that demonstrate that women are playing a much more dominant role in this industry:

• A significant percentage of women are involved in leadership roles. For example, an average of 28% of executives in the C-suite are women and an average of 34.5% are company leaders with supervisory responsibilities.
• An average of 29.5% of board members are women. Approximately 40% of participating companies report that between 20% and 49% of their boards of directors are females.
• An average of 9.5% of all professional truck drivers who hold CDLs are women.
• Approximately 38.5% of dispatchers are women.
• An average of 38.5% of safety professionals are women.

Fixing the talent gap through more gender diversity

Many companies in the supply chain industry are taking strategic, proactive steps to recruit and retain more qualified women into their overall workforce strategy. Here are four ways through which companies are accomplishing this.

First, companies are rethinking talent acquisition and promotion strategies in their overall business strategy. If the transportation and logistics industry is going to attract women, companies need to look not only beyond their four walls but also outside of the industry itself. When it comes to talent acquisition, smart companies focus on the qualities of the individual and what they can bring to the table.

Second, move from “talk to action.” Companies in this industry without a proactive diversity-building strategy will fall victim to common pitfalls and will fall flat. When it comes to gender diversity, organizations need to prioritize, collaborate, and think long-term.

Lastly, women need to feel more empowered. Women tend only to apply for jobs that they feel they are perfectly matched, while men do so even when they meet no more than 60% of the requirements. Similarly, men tend to be promoted more often than women simply because they speak up and more aggressively ask for a promotion. Companies can more actively seek out talent and promotions from talented women inside their organizations.

“Women need to take responsibility for themselves and for their own careers,” says one industry recruiter. “Women need to apply for jobs with confidence, even when they don’t have 100% of the requirements. They also need to be more assertive and ask for a promotion.”

About the author

Brian Everett is the group publisher and editorial director of Redefining the Road, the official magazine of the Women In Trucking Association (WIT). He is heavily involved in strategic counsel for WIT and managing the association’s annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo. Everett has more than 30 years of marketing, communications, and sales experience in transportation, warehousing, and logistics, with a special expertise in business strategy, B-to-B marketing, and association management. He also is senior partner of MindShare Strategies, Everett regularly provides marketing counsel to the firm’s key accounts. Everett is the former executive director of the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC), and is the group publisher and editorial director for Food Chain Digest and Food For Thought, the official magazine and member e-newsletter, respectively, of Food Shippers of America.

Everett has served on the board of directors for the International Association of Business Communications at the international, regional, and local chapter levels; on the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Twin Cities Roundtable; and was the Chairman of the Transportation Track for a recent Warehousing Education Research Council (WERC) annual conference. In fact, in recognition of his career experiences and passion for industry involvement, Everett was named the youngest recipient of TMSA’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

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