Skills considerations across the Process Steps

The competencies required by leaders and supply chain workers should include the skills needed to manage the relationship with the outsourced partner. The technical and managerial competencies necessary to manage an outsourced partner can differ from an in-house approach. The Skills pathway assumes that:

• workers apply their skills as appropriate at every level of the supply chain
• supply chain workers have leadership skills within their sphere of operations, that supply chain workers understand their roles and responsibilities in the supply chain system
• the steps and competencies required to undertake supply chain tasks are known, and that each position within the supply chain has defined roles and responsibilities.

Effective supply chains require all supply chain management staff to use their skills to fulfil their job description at every supply chain level. A weak link or inability to perform a job description will result in a break in data flow or commodities flow. Some elements of skills are cross-cutting across all four Process Steps. These include managerial competencies such as effective leadership, oversight, coalition building, relationship building and management, communication and negotiation, and the ability to operationalise/mobilise both financial and human resources (list not exhaustive). In addition, the senior staff managing the outsourcing provider should have experience in public and private sector health supply chains to bridge the two.

Consider throughout the process the linkages with Policy and Advocacy.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Staffing

You can use the following KPIs to measure progress towards achieving expected outcomes (see the People that Deliver library of competencies and designations for more KPIs).

• Percentage of staff appraisals with a rating of satisfactory or above in 12 months.
• Percentage of staff who are competent in leadership competencies listed in their job description.
• Percentage of staff who meet 80% of the required competencies to complete their job.
• Competency frameworks, which define the knowledge, skills, and attributes needed, are available for all supply chain cadres.
• Percentage of supply chain positions for which a job description exists.