Consumer Packaged Goods Roles and Recruiting

There’s a lot of information out there right now about supply-side issues and how to fix them. We’ve rounded up some of the top information and extracted what we think is worth your time – and how we are responding at TZR.

Few roles hold a greater importance than consumer packaged goods at the moment. Impacted by the supply chain and changes in consumer behavior the market is evolving on a daily basis, and demand going into the holidays is skyrocketing; between labor shortages and supply chain issues, it’s going to require businesses to go above and beyond in order to keep up.

First, let’s start with what is a consumer packaged goods role?

Also known as CPG sales, positions include sales representatives and managers who are liaisons between a brand, its products and merchandise, and the retail stores that sell them. 

How is consumer behavior impacting consumer packaged goods roles?

What we are seeing from here:

• 50% of consumers are trying new brands
• 66% of those are likely to stay with the new brand

Operations including a global supply chain tailored to preempt raw material disruptions can reduce the cost to serve. There may need to be a balanced trade-off across operating models and a rethinking of use – especially in real estate.

How we are responding at TZR: we are looking for a more efficient, agile workforce.

Takeaway: Demand is high and manufacturers must keep up – consumers are looking for brands that stand out. Creativity, innovation, efficiency and, most importantly, supply are in high demand. Supply chain interruptions means manufacturer need to be agile and ready to shift strategies in the moment.

We like this summary of Trends to Watch in the consumer-packaged goods industry:

• Consumer behavior shifted during the pandemic; e-commerce retail achieved the equivalent of 10 years of growth during three months in 2020.

• A majority of CPG consumers are drawn to products they believe match four buzz words: clean, natural, sustainable, personal.

• More recently technology and changing food habits are fueling the rise of specialized, integrated, and value-added production and distribution networks.

Takeaway: The industry is undergoing a rapid shift and businesses need to keep up. Hiring the right people with the skills to help your organization to stay relevant is more important than ever. TZR can help.

What is leadership doing about CPG executive recruiting and retention?

A quote from this article highlights just how much labor shortages are top of mind and in most cases, executives said they have been able to find ways to navigate shortages. But the challenges, they said, are wide-ranging and extend all across the supply chain. Mark A. Clouse, president and chief executive officer of Campbell Soup Co., Camden, NJ says:

 “Of course, intuitively, you tend to go to wages right away as your primary lever to try to increase your competitiveness. But what’s been interesting is we’ve tended to have more success with — certainly, wages play an important role. I don’t want to diminish that. But there’s a lot of other elements that are going into our strategy for attracting labor, whether it’s work schedule, predictability, whether it is environmental things that we’re doing to improve benefits and other experiences. And especially as you think about younger talent that’s choosing from a variety of different entry points and hourly labor, those things are extremely important.”

TZR encourages you to think about what is your value proposition and considering just like you do with for your consumers – what are your employees looking for? Reflect on what Andrew P. Callahan, president and CEO of Hostess Brands, Inc., said here about how the Kansas City-based company realizes employees — like consumers — have a lot of choices. As a result, Hostess has an employee value proposition:

“We look at our value proposition,” he said. “The example would be our safety record. Our safety, our recordable incidents are 20% — or less than one-third of what the industry average is. We look at our labor schedules. So we look at, obviously, pay but we also look at benefits and the work experience for our employees, keeping them safe, giving them their liability. So all of that, we look at it on an ongoing basis. And we have to deal with it.”Takeaway: Hiring right the first time has never been more important. Whether you need us to help you level-set with internal benchmarking, help with a succession plan, or just get you the best fit today, we have already done the legwork for you and are ready to fast track your hiring process to find the most qualified candidate.