2021 Salary Survey: Satisfaction in a job well done

As in years past, this exclusive research project is conducted by Peerless Research Group (PRG) and serves as the foundation of our best-read editorial feature and the most downloaded report that PRG produces. In fact, watch your e-mail over the next couple of weeks for your invitation to access the full 2021 LM Salary Survey.

This also marks the 12th consecutive year that executive editor Patrick Burnson has written the summary of this popular report. This year, Burnson has team up with PRG’s new research director Brian Beaudette to make sense of all of the data. After 25 years of keeping an eye on a dynamic global automotive market, we’re thrilled to have Beaudette now applying his analytical skills across the supply chain markets for PRG.

I think you’ll find that this new collaboration offers shippers the clearest, most comprehensive snapshot available of logistics management salaries and employee development needs—insight that’s based on data from more than 400 logistics professionals in charge of moving our nation’s freight. We thank all of the LM readers who took the time to complete this year’s survey.

So, what did our research team find? I guess it comes as little surprise that the majority of respondents told us that they witnessed fairly stagnant salary growth over the course of this unsettled year—but that fact didn’t seem to faze them. “Thanks to unemployment benefits and government relief checks, most managers seemed reconciled to the flattening salary picture,” says Beaudette. “However, what impressed us most was the confidence reflected in a rebound.”

Indeed, as Burnson shares in this year’s summary, our findings tell us that shippers are feeling a renewed sense of purpose and are now concentrating on building more resilient careers due what they just experienced. This is a group that has always taken pride in what it does—and this year certainly validated their roles and raised their self-assurance.

“When we began interviewing researchers, educators, executive recruiters and industry consultants for this feature, we were expecting to hear a lot of horror stories related to the pressures put on logistics managers coping with the pandemic,” says Burnson. “Instead, we learned that this crisis brought out the very best in our practitioners, who realized how vital their work was during the pandemic and also now through recovery.”

As they have been over the many years, the “job satisfaction” numbers remain surprisingly high. This year we found 44% saying that they’re “very satisfied” and 45% saying they’re “somewhat satisfied.”

As Michael Gravier, associate professor of marketing and supply chain management at Bryant University, shares with Burnson, these high numbers would be expected given the fact that this older demographic has just been jettisoned into the spotlight—and that intrinsic feeling of accomplish has certainly washed over them.

“We find a lot of career professionals who have been in the industry for decades,” adds Gravier, “and even in a challenging year, there must be some satisfaction derived from the fact that logistics management is now in the news, and society realizes more than ever its importance.