Knowledge Gap: Supply Chain Students and Employers

........................................................................................................ 3 Background................................................................................................... 4 Data Collection Method.................................................................................... 5 Survey Format........................................................................................ 5 Subject Recruitment.................................................................................. 5 Survey Content............................................................................................... 5 Population Description..................................................................................... 7 Student Population................................................................................... 7 Employer Population ............................................................................... 8 Data............................................................................................................ 9 Summary Statistics – Importance of Attributes.................................................. 9 Summary Statistics – Student Competency of Attributes..................................... 10 Analysis.............................................................................................. 11 Implications.................................................................................................. 14 Limitations................................................................................................... 16 Conclusion................................................................................................... 17


Abstract
This thesis project aims to identify the gap(s) between supply chain students and employers for both the preparedness and relative importance of the critical job skills employers seek in graduating students. This research is relevant because students view college as an investment that will pay off through better job placement and higher pay upon graduation. The problem is that some employers feel students do not have the skills necessary to be successful on the job. While there has been extensive research regarding a skills gap in graduating students and common criteria employer's use to rank these students, there is minimal research analyzing the gap specifically within the supply chain industry.
The methodology of this study includes the analysis of existing research and original data collected from a sample of employers and students. The first step involves leveraging existing research to determine the top ten skills employers seek in recent supply chain management graduates. Next, an electronic survey will be created that seeks to identify both the feeling of preparedness and relative importance of the predetermined skills. This survey will be sent to a sample of juniors and seniors majoring in Integrated Supply Management and employers that hire students to fill supply chain-related roles from Western Michigan University. The results of the survey will be analyzed to establish if there is a significant difference in responses between students and employers. Finally, recommendations will be given that aim to bridge the gap(s).
The overall goal of this research is to help students understand employer's expectations and how they can capitalize on their time in college to meet those expectations. As mentioned previously, college is a large investment of time and money, and it is critical students can achieve the best return on that investment. 4

Background
In a 2014 survey, college freshmen were asked why they chose to attend college, and 86.1% of respondents said a very important reason was "to get a better job." 72.8% of respondents also shared they pursued college because they wanted to make more money. This number had increased by 28.3% from 1971 to 2014 (Rampell, 2018). These findings by the Higher Education Research Institute at U.C.L.A. clearly demonstrate that young Americans are pursuing higher education with the goal of attaining a better job with higher pay. Unfortunately, achieving this goal has become an increasingly larger investment for students as the cost of tuition continues to rise. The National Center for Education Statistics found that the average yearly cost of tuition at a public, 4-year institution has increased from $8,238 in 1984to $18,632 in 2015(U.S. Department of Education, 2015. With over a $10,000 increase in tuition costs during the past thirty years, it is vital students are being properly prepared for a postgraduation career that will provide a return on their investment. However, some employers feel students are underperforming in key areas they seek in job candidates. Employer research conducted by Maguire Associates Inc. found that recent graduates lacked skills such as effective communication, decision making, and analytical capabilities (Fischer, 2013). This indicates students are either not receiving coursework that enhances these skills through their college education, or students could be unaware they are not as proficient as employers expect in these areas. Rising tuition costs and the student-employer disconnect are the primary reasons backing this exploratory study.

Data Collection Method
Survey Format: All data was collected through an anonymous, online survey created by the student investigator using Qualtrics survey software. Although general demographic information for both students and employers was collected, the results were completely anonymous and cannot be linked back to the device used to complete the survey. The

Survey Content
This survey was constructed to collect data around common attributes employers use to rank recent graduates who apply to supply-chain related roles. These attributes were determined using data collected by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (Gray, 2017) and The American Production and Inventory Control Society (Supply Chain Manager Competency Model, 2014). Combining information presented by both of these sources, the following attributes were included in the survey: Skills, Ability to Work in a Team, and Problem Solving. Employers and students were asked to rank the attributes listed above based on the following statements: Student Survey: 1. "Please rank the following based on how important you believe each attribute is to employers when hiring supply chain management college graduates." 2. "Please rank the following based on how competent/prepared you feel you are in each of the categories." Employer Survey: 1. "Please rank the following based on how important you believe each attribute is when hiring supply chain management college graduates. " 2. "Please rank the following based on how competent/prepared you feel students are in each of the categories. " Please refer to Appendix A (Student Survey) and Appendix B (Employer Survey) to view the full survey.

Student Population
The sample of students that participated in this study is derived from the entire population of juniors and seniors majoring in Integrated Supply Management at Western Michigan University. The table below provides basic demographic information for both the population and the study sample.

*Population data based on Fall 2018 ISM majors at Western Michigan University
As seen in the table above, there is a slightly higher proportion of seniors represented in the study sample than there is in the true population. Additionally, the proportion of females represented in the study sample is over 20% greater than that of the true proportion. The difference in the proportion of females indicates the study results may not accurately represent the entire population.
The pie charts below indicate the proportion of students in the study sample with study abroad experience and/or with internship experience. Employer Population: The sample of employers that participated in this study is derived from all employers that commonly recruit students majoring in Integrated Supply Management at Western Michigan University. The exact number of employers in the true population is unknown. However, basic demographic information for the study sample consisting of 25 employers is outlined in the charts below.
The largest number of employers that participated in this study are in the manufacturing industry (6) followed by the consumer product industry (4) and the food/beverage industry (3). The high number of companies involved in the manufacturing industry is representative of the large number of manufacturing companies located in the Midwest that recruit from Western Michigan University. 72% of participating employers categorize themselves as a large company, meaning they employ over 1,000 people. Based on the mean rankings in the table above, students feel they are most competent in their teamwork abilities, while employers viewed students' highest competency as their internship experience. With the exception of study abroad experience, the student mean ranking for each attribute is higher than the employers mean ranking. This indicates students view themselves as more competent job candidates than the employers do. Additionally, 3 out of employers' top 4 mean rankings of student competency are for school-related attributes. This could be attributed to students' high perceived importance of these attributes reflected in the previous table. Students focus their efforts on improving themselves in these areas because they believe these attributes are highly influential in their chances of being hired in to a role upon graduation.

Analysis:
The bar graph titled, "Student Competency: Employer vs Student" displays the difference between students' mean ranking and employers' mean ranking of student's competencies in problem solving, ability to work in a team, and verbal communication skills. These three attributes represent employer's top-ranked attributes in hiring decisions for supply chain management roles.
Based on two sample t-tests with an alpha level of .05, the difference in the mean ranking between students and employers for each attribute is statistically significant (Appendix C). This data suggests students are not as prepared as they think they are in employer's top-ranked attributes for selecting job candidates.
The next chart compares students' mean ranking and employers' mean ranking of the importance of study abroad experience in employer's hiring decisions.
Although both students' and employers' lowest-ranking attribute is study abroad experience, there is still a noticeable difference in their mean scores. The data indicates Another notable difference between student's and employer's views on the importance of attributes can be seen in the bar graph title, "School-Related Attribute Importance." Students' mean rankings for the importance of school-related attributes is consistently greater than employers' mean rankings of the same attributes. Based on an alpha level of .05, a two-sample t-Test reveals all of these differences are statistically significant with the exception of internship experience (Appendix D). This indicates students are placing a greater importance on things like extracurricular involvement, GPA, and major than they need to. The data in this study shows employers actually value communication skills, teamwork abilities, and problem solving skills over these schoolrelated attributes.

Student Employer
The chart titled, "Competency Ratings" compares students' mean ranking and employers' mean ranking of student's competency in the listed attributes. This chart shows students feel they are more competent/prepared in areas such as problem solving, technical skills, and teamwork skills than employers believe they are.

Implications
This study was designed to be exploratory in nature, and there was no hypothesis it was trying to prove or disprove. Instead, this study aimed to capture students' and employers' opinions regarding popular attributes used to rank recent graduates in hiring decisions for supply chain management roles. Analysis of the data aides in identifying any gaps in these opinions.
Understanding where the gap lies is the first step to addressing the disconnect between students and employers in hiring criteria expectations. Based on the analysis, students tend put more importance on school-related attributes than employers do. These attributes include college major, college GPA, study abroad experience, and extracurricular involvement. A possible reason students think this way can be attributed to the atmosphere upheld around a college

Student Employer
campus. There is pressure to maintain high grades and display an above-average GPA at the top of one's resume. Additionally, posters, emails, and in-class presentations encourage students to join a multitude of organizations during their college career. However, the employer data suggests employers view skills such as verbal/written communication skills, problem solving, and ability to work in a team as the most important attributes for job candidates. Students may want to focus on developing these skills and conveying them to recruiters through their resume and interviews. Listed below are possible ways in which students can develop these skills:  Sign up for practice interviews in the Zhang Career Center to develop interviewing skills. This will both improve the student's ability to verbally communicate during the interview, and it can help them understand what skills they should try to convey to a potential employer.
 Apply for a case competition. Case competitions focus on solving a real-world business problem by collaborating with a team and presenting the results to a panel of judges. This experience requires a student to use all of the skills mentioned above and will help that student enhance those skills.
 Showcase examples of these skills to employers through work experiences or extracurricular involvements. Although internship experience and extracurricular activities are not at the top of employers' attribute rankings, they can be a good way to provide examples of how a student uses the soft skills employers seek to carry out their duties in that role.
Another implication of these results is that study abroad experience is not very important to employers in comparison to the other attributes included in this study. Studying abroad is heavily promoted at the business college, but can be costly for students and difficult to fit in their busy schedules. If a student is unable to go abroad when earning their degree, this data suggests employers will not take that into heavy consideration during their hiring decisions. For nearly every attribute, students ranked themselves as more competent than employers felt they were for that attribute. This implies students feel they are more qualified for certain positions than employers view them as. As a result, some students may not be actively trying to improve certain skills that could better their chances of obtaining employment upon graduation. A possible remedy to this problem is increased transparency between employers and students. Employers could be asked to complete an anonymous survey after the fall career fair regarding where ISM students exceeded their expectations, and what traits they believe students should develop.
Sharing a summary of the results with ISM majors and pre-majors would allow students valuable insight on how they can make themselves a better candidate for potential employers.

Limitations
There are certain limitations that may have impacted results of this survey.
Study Sample: The student study sample does not reflect the true population of all Integrated Supply Management majors at Western Michigan University. The proportion of female participants (45.2%) is much higher than the true proportion of females in the program (23.5%). Additionally, the true population of all employers that recruit from the program is unknown, so the study sample may not reflect the views of the entire employer population.
Survey Content: Participants may have interpreted the attributes in different ways. As a result, their ranking could have been influenced differently than another participant's ranking who held a different view on the attribute.

Results Comparison:
The analysis portion of this study compares employer results to student results for student's competency of hiring attributes. However, the employers may have never interviewed the individual students that participated in the survey. Therefore, their "student competency" ranking may not directly reflect the competency of the students who took the survey.
Response Bias: This survey was voluntary for all participants. The type of person that is willing to complete the survey may differ from those that do not take the time to complete a student survey. Therefore, the beliefs of non-responders may not be captured in the survey results.

Conclusion
Overall, this study shows some gaps exists between employers' and students' opinions around attributes used to rank candidates in hiring decisions. Students place greater importance on school-related attributes, while employers favor soft skills such as teamwork abilities and verbal/written communication skills. Additionally, students ranked themselves as more competent in each of the categories than the employer's ranking of students. This research aimed to increase transparency and demonstrated where the gaps exist between students and employers.
When these gaps are minimized, students will better understand the expectations of their future employers and can choose to focus their limited resources on improving the attributes employers view as the most important in their hiring decisions.

Appendices Appendix A -Student Survey
Please use the following definitions for reference as you complete the survey.
 Technical Skills -include, but are not limited to: Excel, SAP, statistical analysis tools, Access  Communication Skills -"Express information to individuals or groups considering the audience and the nature of the information (e.g., technical or controversial); speak clearly and confidently; organize information in a logical manner; receive, attend to, interpret, understand, and respond to verbal messages and other cues; pick out important information in verbal messages; persuasively present thoughts and ideas."  Ability to Work in a Team -"Demonstrate a commitment to the mission and motivation to combine the team's energy and expertise to achieve a common objective."  Problem Solving -"Demonstrate ability to map processes of possible consequences of decisions, to work out the importance of individual factors, and to choose the best course of action; Develop the capacity to think in a careful and discerning way, to solve problems, to analyze data, and to recall and apply information." *Definitions from APICS: Supply Chain Manager Competency Model