According to a Gartner survey, organizations are investing heavily in new technology to advance supply chain planning, spending on average $4.8 million on their most recent SCP transformation projects. As organizations look to deploy new technology, the planner’s role is set to dramatically evolve.

Supply chain planning leaders are expecting their teams to increasingly take on value-added tasks, from plan generation to evaluation, from administration to orchestration, and from a focus on precision to one of resilience. Leaders also want digitally dexterous planners, who showcase a willingness and adaptability to adopt new and emerging technologies to support business outcomes.

Many planning leaders today though are frustrated with the pace of this change. According to the Gartner Digital Adoption in Supply Chain Planning Survey, only 39% of supply chain planners have migrated to new tools that have been deployed. 

When considering adoption, planning leaders often assume slow progress is a result of their resistance to change, or not having the required skills. Most overlook an important question they should be asking themselves: “Am I enabling my planners to learn and change at the required pace?”

In the same Gartner survey, only 36% of planners stated they “strongly agree” that management encouraged them to try new things and innovate in digital tools adopted by their function. Additionally, a mere 37% strongly agree that management treats errors that they make in that new tool as learning opportunities.

While many recognize the need to upskill and reskill planners, most are not placing enough emphasis on building their planners’ confidence and giving them the space to innovate and learn.

It’s not too late though to take steps to create a climate that helps accelerate digitization. Consider the following actions:

Reconfigure planners’ roles. To increase planners’ motivation, start by automating manual tasks and focusing planners’ efforts. A planner who’s buried in generating manual reports, aggregating data and correcting master data errors can’t be expected to exhibit strategic behaviors or evolve into more value-adding tasks. Also, aim to 

match employees to new roles based on their motivations, and design those roles to be more flexible. For example, ensure that 85% to 90% of the workload of every planner is fixed, while making the remaining portion variable. This strategy can help build planners’ motivation and develop their skills.

Build a community of learning. Planners are more likely to thrive in an environment where they feel comfortable sharing their vulnerabilities, learning needs, viewpoints and failures with their managers and teams. To create this type of community, encourage practice, in the form of brainstorming sessions or hackathons, to establish a space for planners to come up with new ideas and test solutions to problems, without fear of consequence. Also, senior leaders should discuss their own failures and encourage employees to share what they’ve learned from the experience.

Align rewards and recognition with change behaviors. Avoid the urge to reward short-term, last-minute problem solving. While this skill is appreciated, it’s best to shift planners to identifying risks to the plan earlier, and aligning actions to solve for the risk impact, rather than waiting for the risk to occur. Also, when possible, quantify the impact of good planning. Examples include the cost avoidance of an identified risk, or avoiding lost sales through an identified opportunity.

Gartner research has found that the number of change initiatives within enterprises has grown from two in 2016 to 10 in 2022. It’s important to keep in mind that today’s planners are being pressured to learn and change at a faster pace than ever. To advance change, your planners may need your encouragement to feel safer and accepted so that they can step into their future role.

Cristina Carvallo is a senior director analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice.