The Talent Gap
Article from MHI Solutions Magazine
Rick McDonald, recently retired chief supply chain officer (CSCO) at Clorox, remembers the days when finding workers to fill job openings—workers with technical skills who would stick with the company for a while—was as easy as walking out the front door of your manufacturing plant.
“You could look to your left and right, and there were people who had worked in somebody else’s plant, or they had worked on a farm, or they were a shade tree mechanic, or they did HVAC repair, or they were a diesel mechanic,” the 32‑year Clorox veteran said. “There were a lot of those people around.”
McDonald isn’t the only CSCO nostalgic for simpler times. Talent shortages have become endemic for enterprises globally, a perennial issue cited in survey after survey of industry leaders, including the 2025 MHI Annual Industry Report, which identified talent as the second‑leading supply chain challenge after economic uncertainty/inflation…
