Lean and Six Sigma Talent Demand Trends
Powered by: The Avery Point Group, Inc.
"As an executive recruiting and search firm, we have a unique vantage point from which to track the latest trends taking place in industry. Trends in industry are often telegraphed into candidate requirements in job postings and they can serve as a window into the latest corporate initiatives."
Tim Noble - Managing Principal & Partner
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Alpharetta, GA 30022
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Seventh annual study by executive search firm The Avery Point Group finds Lean and Six Sigma talent demand Surges 90 percent over recession levels.
Companies flush with strong balance sheets after taking drastic actions during the recession are clearly making aggressive moves to bolster their internal talent pools by seeking both Lean and Six Sigma talent, according to the latest study of almost 6,700 recent Internet job postings reviewed by The Avery Point Group. The executive search firm’s seventh annual study found that the combined demand for Lean and Six Sigma talent has almost doubled, rising by over 90 percent versus last year’s recession levels.
“This year’s dramatic overall talent demand increase for Lean and Six Sigma skills may have more to do with insuring ongoing corporate performance and leveraging expected rising demand versus an early signal of overall hiring,” states Tim Noble, managing principal and partner of The Avery Point Group. “Companies are seeking Lean and Six Sigma talent as a way to help their organizations better leverage their performance during the ongoing recovery. They don’t want to add back one-for-one on headcount, inventory and operating cost as the economy recovers and volume returns. Rather, they see continuous improvement talent as an enabler to help them gain and maintain significant performance leverage.”
For the first time in seven consecutive studies by The Avery Point Group, this year’s study showed little to no year-over-year change on the relative balance between Lean and Six Sigma talent demand. This year’s study found that Lean talent demand continues to outpace Six Sigma by almost 35 percent, in-line with last year’s study. Nonetheless, this is still a dramatic shift from The Avery Point Group’s 2005 inaugural Lean and Six Sigma talent demand study that showed Six Sigma talent demand exceeding Lean by more than 50 percent.
Almost exactly in-line with last year, this year’s study found that for companies seeking Lean talent, only 41 percent require candidates to possess Six Sigma knowledge as well, a requirement that has continued to decline in The Avery Point Group’s previous talent demand studies. On the other hand, for companies seeking Six Sigma talent, almost 55 percent are now requiring candidates to possess Lean knowledge as well, a requirement that has steadily grown in previous studies.
“These results continue to show an overall bias for Lean skills, perhaps as an ongoing hedge against the challenges of today’s economic climate, which Lean’s more immediate and practical focus on waste, flow and flexibility may better serve,” states Noble. “It may also indicate that companies are continuing to balance out their continuous improvement talent stable with Lean candidates versus slightly more ubiquitous Six Sigma talent.”
Overall, Noble concludes, this sharp rise in talent demand for Six Sigma and Lean bodes well for candidates who possess these skills, as organizations seek them out as either a hedge against current economic uncertainty or as an enabler to leverage the emerging economic recovery.
Avery Point Group: Retained & Contingent Executive Search for Lean & Six Sigma Talent
The Avery Point Group is a global executive recruiting and search firm that assists companies in identifying, assessing and recruiting mid-level management to senior executive Lean & Six Sigma talent. Our firm leverages its principals’ decades of executive Lean & Six Sigma operations and staffing experience to provide the highest quality executive search services.
Visit our main website: AveryPointGroup.com
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How is Our Lean & Six Sigma Executive Search and Recruiting Firm Different?
With our team’s significant Six Sigma and Lean executive experience, we are uniquely qualified to help our clients find, assess and recruit the right continuous improvement and operational excellence talent. Our key principals are Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean trained by globally recognized industry leading Fortune 500 companies and have real-world executive experience leading their application in manufacturing, distribution and service-based industries. Our key principals have managed global operations and led key Lean & Six Sigma initiatives in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America and throughout Asia.
Our principals, with their global perspective, understand what it takes to find, assess and recruit talent for companies to succeed in today’s global economy. Unlike other Lean & Six Sigma executive recruiters and search firms, we truly speak the language of our clients and candidates.
How Critical is the Right Continuous Improvement Talent?
According to a leading business magazine study, only 2% of plants have reached world-class manufacturing performance, with an additional 23% making significant progress toward this enviable status. The common theme found among these superior operations was a fully implemented and effective continuous improvement methodology.
Of the plants that have made little or no progress toward world-class performance, 53% reported having some level of continuous improvement effort already in place. The study very pointedly suggests that these improvement efforts might be suffering from half-hearted and unfocused efforts or worse yet, disinterested or incompetent leadership.
The overall findings of this study point to the fact that most operations could dramatically improve their performance by having the right leadership talent in place. Our focus is to help our clients find the right talent to maximize their continuous improvement / operational excellence efforts and help them achieve world-class performance.
Leveraging Lean & Six Sigma in Executive Search & Recruiting
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4555 Mansell Road - Suite 300, Alpharetta, GA 30022 United States
Phone: +1 678-585-9804 Fax: +1 678-585-9832
Retained Executive Search Services - Contingent Executive Search Services
4555 Mansell Road
Suite 300
Alpharetta, GA 30022
United States
ph: +1 678-585-9804
fax: +1 678-585-9832