David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 00:01
Creating a diverse employee base. What retailers can expect from the holiday season. And an update on how ports are handling current import volumes.
Pull up a chair and join us as the editors of DC Velocity discuss these stories, as well as news and supply chain trends, on this week's Logistics Matters podcast.
Hi, I'm Dave Maloney. I'm the group editorial director at DC Velocity. Welcome.
Logistics Matters is sponsored by Signode. You've designed, tested, produced. We'll protect it from here. The Signode team of technical and service professionals will be on site at Pack Expo International in Chicago. Come see how the Signode process and products deliver optimal outcomes for customers, protecting their automation investments, Visit signode and Pack Expo booths S-3742 and N-6015, October 23rd through 26th.
As usual, our DC Velocity senior editors Ben Ames and Victoria Kickham will be along to provide their insights into the top stories of this week. But to begin today: with today's low rates of unemployment, employers would be smart to cast their nets widely to find a diverse set of potential employees, including hiring people with disabilities. To find out more, here's Victoria with today's guest.
Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 01:26
Thanks, Dave. Our guest today is author, speaker, and human resources professional Dannie Lynn Fountain. She's here to talk about National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and why this should be a key part of any company's strategy to promote diversity in the workplace. Welcome, Dannie Lynn.
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 01:43
Thank you so much for having me.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 01:46
We're thrilled to have you here. Can you start by telling us a bit about National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and, you know, why this is an important reminder for employers in all industries?
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 01:58
Yeah, definitely. So, National Disability Employment Awareness Month really seeks to, as the name suggests, bring awareness to this segment of the population and shatter some myths and stigmas that we just have, societally, around disabled individuals and holding gainful employment, and it also is Invisible Disabilities Week this week. And so both of these, in tandem, seek to bring awareness to employment opportunities and the ways that these individuals can be really successful in the workplace. And that sometimes we may not even be aware that individuals we're working with on a day-to-day basis do hold disabilities, and that impacts the way they experience work.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 02:46
Yeah, so I wanted to ask a little bit about that. So, you know, this month and the week that you mentioned, you know, obviously includes people with a wide range of disabilities. Can you talk about the scope of this issue, and how it may have changed in recent years, and maybe talk about the term you just mentioned, invisible disabilities?
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 03:03
Definitely. I think, traditionally, when we think of disability, our minds immediately go to a wheelchair, and that wheelchair is the symbol that we use in many different functional and structural components of our day-to-day life to talk about disability. But it spreads a lot more than just those physical disabilities we might immediately think of. Disability includes chronic illness, in that you're impacted in your day-to-day living through that chronic illness that you might have things like Lupus or myasthenia gravis. It also impacts neurodiversity. So, we're seeing conversations around ADHD and autism and schizophrenia be a lot more prevalent in the day-to-day. All of those fall under the neurodiversity bucket, which overlaps with the disability bucket as well. So, all of these identities that have fallen under "disability" haven't necessarily ever changed. They've always been there. But what is changing is, as a society, as a workforce, our comfortability with talking about these topics and better supporting individuals who are disabled.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 04:18
How does this fit into sort of the broader topic of developing, you know, a more diverse and inclusive workplace? As an HR professional, how do you kind of address that piece of it?
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 04:29
Yeah, there is a stat in the Harvard Business Review from a couple of years ago that says that 90% of companies do consider DEI a priority in the way that they're thinking about structuring their business in different components, but only 4% actually include disability in that, which is unfortunate, because disability similarly to identify as LGBTQIA-plus is a very intersectional identity. You can hold it in addition to race, gender, and a number of other identities, so it crosses a lot of boundaries that we kind of set societally. So, when we're thinking about disability, just having provisions for addressing disability at work makes everybody's experience better. I keep coming back to this stat that I saw recently that something like 60% of millennials watch Netflix with captions. I would assume that not 60% of millennials all identify as deaf, and so when we're thinking about disability and accessibility and inclusion, a lot of these steps that we're taking at work are good for everyone and help disabled individuals have better experiences at work. This should show up from the way that we approach candidates that we're considering to hire, all the way through what an employee's day-to-day experience might look like at work.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 05:57
What are some strategies employers can use to reach out to this community of workers, this very broad community of workers that we're talking about. You know, are there any sort of do's and don'ts in the workplace that you could just sort of encapsulate for us?
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 06:11
Yeah. One big component to be aware of is, coming back to that invisible disability piece, it's not immediately going to be obvious, and individuals may not have disclosed their disabilities, and they're not required to, either. Each of us that holds a disability may choose to share or not sure that, so when thinking about approaching this community of workers, and in general, the biggest step you can take is, think about the ways that you're trying to engage with the population. For so many of my HR colleagues and I, the default outreach method to candidates is reaching out in a LinkedIn message or in an email and immediately converting that to a phone call, asking them to set up 20 minutes to chat with us on the phone about the role and what the interview process will look like. But a phone call isn't always accessible, and not just for the deaf or hard of hearing, but also for those who might have ADHD, or autism, or other things that impact the way that they present themselves. So, just being innovative and inclusive in the way that you're doing your initial candidate outreach is important, and then also considering where you're identifying candidates from, not defaulting just to, you know, career fairs, or open-hour sessions that many individuals with disabilities might choose not to attend, a) because they're not accessible, or b) because they can't present themselves in the best light in that manner. So, it's all about creativity and trying to cast the broadest net to include everyone.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 07:50
Yeah, I was just gonna say that it sounds like, you know, creative strategies are the best way to go here. Are there any particular industries or types of companies that are either better at, or further ahead in trying to attract and hire workers in this demographic?
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 08:07
Yeah, I'm going to say category of company, rather than industry. Any company that's able to offer remote work tends to be a little bit further ahead, the reason for that being, remote work is inherently more accessible. Thinking about an individual who has a chronic illness, they may have a higher volume of doctor's appointments than the average person might, and remote work allows that to fit better into their day or their medical care to fit better into their day. For individuals with autism, such as myself, who are very introverted, even more so than your stereotypical introvert, remote work enables us to do our best work without having to be quote, unquote, always on. And so inherently, companies that are able to offer remote work really tend to be a lot more successful. But there are definitely solutions, as well, for companies who need, for structural or tactical reasons, that in-person experience as well.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 09:08
Right, and our audience is supply chain and logistics professionals, which covers the whole gamut, you know, there are remote, and also, you know, in-person, on the ground, workers. Any final messages you'd like to kind of leave our audience with — which is pretty broad as well, in terms of, you know, celebrating this, or recognizing this month, and sort of proceeding forward with all of this in mind.
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 09:30
I think the biggest thing is, just because something has been done a certain way for a long time doesn't mean it's the best way, and being brave enough to try something new that is more inclusive can be tremendously successful, especially in an industry where inclusion of disabled employees might not be as prevalent as other industries. It's a real opportunity to be a thought leader in the space just by being a little creative.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 09:58
Terrific. Well, Dannie Lynn, thanks so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your insights.
Dannie Lynn Fountain, Author and Human Resources Professional 10:04
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 10:07
We have been talking with speaker, author, and human resources professional Dannie Lynn Fountain. Back to you, Dave.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 10:14
Thank you, Dannie Lynn and Victoria. Now let's take a look at some of the other supply chain news from the week. Ben, you reported this week on some of the expectations for retailers in the upcoming holiday season. What can you tell us?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 10:27
Yeah, exactly. One of the main lessons that we all learned from the pandemic years is that the level of change that we've seen makes markets really unpredictable. So, that's typically the time of the season now when we get a lot of economic forecasts for peak spending, but it's harder than ever. And when we head into the homestretch now, before this coming, post-pandemic peak season, experts are starting to get a little bit better clarity on at least the process of what has changed in stores, and how that might affect the fulfillment operations that make them all work. First, from the consumer's point of view, we saw a shoppers survey from IBM that found that shoppers worldwide, not just U.S., are trading sort of a reduced pandemic concern in terms of mingling with others in brick-and-mortar stores in exchange for rising stress about other stuff: economic conditions, particularly like inflation, gas prices, supply chain delays. So, in response, apparently, consumers are making things like holiday travel and shopping plans earlier than usual, and also they're seeking out more flexible return policies. So, basically, they're trying to hedge their bets. Some of that continues an existing trend; we've seen, for some years now, the traditional big spike of a winter peak shopping season flatten a little bit into a broader curve across the calendar, so that continues that. But other aspects show some new change in the market, since, in that IBM survey, nearly seven in 10 respondents said they're going to opt for brands or retailers that offer things like free cancellations, order changes, and easy returns.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 12:16
Well, Ben we all know that shoppers really want those flexible terms, and of course, they love things like free shipping for e-commerce, but as we know, nothing's really free in logistics. So how are companies managing those demands?
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 12:30
Ain't that the truth? Yeah, this "free shipping" term is something that's always been a little funny to hear. But we did get some color on that. We saw another study, this one from the logistics software vendor Manhattan Associates, that was studying how retailers are, as they phrased it, "recalibrating" their sales and fulfillment strategies to keep up with a more hybrid marketplace, where the line is getting blurred between physical and digital commerce. So, that means that companies have an increasing level of interconnection between their online and their in-store functions. That's easy to say, but not so easy to do. One of the biggest challenges, apparently, is that they lack a single view of the inventory. So, as one particularly precise example, barely half of the U.S. respondents in Manhattan Associates' study said that they can support a mixed inventory tool like buy in store and then return online, or buy online and return in store. So, you can see how those would would mix the two streams, and that's a difficult thing for at least half the retailers out there to be able to square those numbers on their accounting sheets. To solve that problem, companies said they're putting more emphasis on a really old approach to retail, which is just checking stock availability. Sixty-six percent, you know, two-thirds, said that was among the most important customer-facing duties performed by their shop assistants, actually. Ideally, they'll, in the 21st century here, they'll do that work with in-store handheld devices, so that can try to provide a consolidated view of the inventory across, not just that one store, but across the larger network of additional shops and DCs and in transit. So, it's hard, but that's what shoppers want. The survey also found that shoppers increasingly expect shop assistants to be able to check availability in a nearby store if a product is out of stock where they are, or even order that product for later home delivery or collection at a different store. So, we're really seeing those omnichannel streams start to be more tightly braided together.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 14:49
Right. And customers have come to learn to expect that great customer service that we see today, and it's, I guess, up to the retailers to figure out how to make that happen. Thanks, Ben.
Ben Ames, Senior News Editor, DC Velocity 14:59
Glad to do it.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 15:01
And Victoria, you wrote this week about our nation's ports. Some are showing some easing volumes, while some are still feeling continued congestion. Could you share some details of what's going on at the ports?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 15:12
Absolutely, yeah. So, congestion at U.S. ports continues to ease, and this follows, you know, the massive backups we saw earlier in the year, especially on the West Coast. But as you say pockets of delays and disruptions remain, and they continue to cause headaches as peak shipping season unfolds. And that's according to some recent industry reports from this week that analyzed conditions in both September and October. So first, the 10 largest U.S. ports saw a five-and-a-half-percent drop in inbound container volume in September, and that marks the biggest decline in more than two years, and that's according to the McCown report, which was released midweek. The decline was driven by a 17% drop in inbound volume on the West Coast over the past 27 months. The report also noted a 24% reduction in ships waiting for berths compared to August, as well as a continued shift in trade activity from west to east. Our listeners will recall the huge backups of vessels earlier this year that I just mentioned. At one point you had more than 100 ships waiting off the coast of Southern California, for example. But things have changed. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach accounted for two-thirds of waiting vessels back in January, and now they just account for 8%, and the ports of Savannah, New York, and Houston had the highest number of waiting chips in September, and cargo volume there continues to rise. Some other reports echo those results. Third-party logistics service provider ITS logistics pointed to a bunch of problems along the Gulf Coast this month in its fourth-quarter outlook report, which was also released midweek. The region is dealing with disruptions from Hurricane Ian, of course, but it's also grappling with higher cargo volumes, and the report, the authors say this is because freight forwarders and importers are relocating business to that area as well. ITS noted that as of this past January, Port Houston, for example, experienced a 27% rise in its TEU tally year over year — that's a measure of container volume — and that's directly because of increased container imports.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 17:21
Victoria, what's driving that shift in volume from west to east?
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 17:25
Well, the backups on the West Coast earlier really helped push volume east, and at the same time, many East Coast ports had already been gearing up to handle larger ships, especially in places like Georgia and South Carolina. So, that has led to increased volume there. Both of those situations — so, the delays in the west and an influx in the east — have also helped push companies toward the Gulf, and it's causing a shortage of space, equipment, and chassis, especially in Houston, where container facilities there handle about 70% of all U.S. Gulf Coast container traffic, according to that ITS report. These another reports are calling for overall lower inbound volumes over the next few months, and of course, we've seen consumer demand for goods soften recently, along with the cooling economy. So, the expectation is that, you know, any remaining congestion, you know, should be cleared up by the end of the year. Other problems persist, though. Both these and other reports pointed to the ongoing problem of inflation and its continued effects on the supply chain. It doesn't seem like that will ease anytime soon. And as we've discussed before, warehouse space remains tight as well, so that's something the supply chain companies will have to continue to deal with.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 18:39
Right. So I guess there's some good and some bad in looking at what's going on at the ports. Bad the volumes are somewhat slowing, but also good that our ports might be returning to normal operations after a very hectic time the past year and a half.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 18:52
Exactly.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 18:53
Thanks, Victoria.
Victoria Kickham, Senior Editor, DC Velocity 18:54
You're welcome.
David Maloney, Editorial Director, DC Velocity 18:56
We encourage listeners to go to DCVelocity.com for more on these and other supply chain stories. And check out the podcast Notes section for some direct links on the topics that we discussed today.
Thanks again to Dannie Lynn Fountain for being our guest. We welcome your comments on this topic and our other stories. You can email us at podcast@dcvelocity.com.
We also encourage you to subscribe to Logistics Matters at your favorite podcast platform. Our new episodes are uploaded each Friday.
And speaking of subscribing, check out our sister podcast series Supply Chain in the Fast Lane. It's coproduced by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Supply Chain Quarterly. Our new season has just kicked off. We're just a couple of weeks into it, and we have new episodes each week dealing with attracting and retaining labor in our supply chains. Subscribe to Supply Chain in the Fast Lane wherever you get your podcasts.
And a reminder that Logistics Matters is sponsored by Signode. You designed, tested, produced. We'll protect it from here. The Signode team of technical and service professionals will be on site at Pack Expo International in Chicago. Come see how the Signode process and products deliver optimal outcomes for customers, protecting their automation investments. Visit Signode in Pack Expo booths S-3742 and N-6015, October 23rd through 26th.
We'll be back again next week with another edition of Logistics Matters, when we look at the expected impacts on transportation from peak shipping season. Be sure to join us. Until then, have a great week.