Talent management continues to be a topic of interest for employers who face significant challenges dealing with the uncertainty of the supply and demand of talent in organizations. In particular, employers often speak of a talent gap that exists between the skills recent graduates possess and the skills needed in organizations. Supply chain management (SCM), an area that focuses on matching product supply with consumer demand, has several concepts and models that could apply to and help resolve issues related to the skills mismatch that exists between graduates and employer needs. We develop a comprehensive framework of Talent Supply Chain Management (TSCM), an area which applies concepts related to the field of supply chain management to managing the development and flow of talent, in order to address this issue of skills mismatch. We base our conceptual development on the CPFR model, a theoretical framework used in SCM that highlights four core processes of strategy and planning, demand and supply management, execution, and analysis. We further go on to describe how organizations can utilize TSCM to enhance connections with academic institutions to get their labor demands fulfilled with individuals who have the necessary skills for success.

Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan is an Associate Professor of Supply Chain and Operations Management in the College of Business Administration at The University of Akron, Ohio, USA. He has a Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management and a Masters degree in Business Logistics from The Pennsylvania State University and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pune, India. Mahesh teaches Supply Chain Management, Operations Management and Statistics courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level. His research interests are in supply chain event management, stochastic modeling and optimization of inventory systems, supply chain performance metrics and buyer-seller collaboration and partnerships. His research articles have appeared in numerous journals including The Journal of Business Logistics, Transportation Journal, Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal, Business Horizons Journal, Management Research Review, European Management Journal and International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems. He serves on the Editorial Review Board of The Journal of Business Logistics and Journal of Transportation Security. He was part of the Working Committee of President Obama’s initiative on Advance Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) 2.0. He also has over five years of industry experience working for a major German multinational company in addition to consulting with companies in the areas of Supply Chain and Logistics Management.