A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of moderating a panel discussion on talent management at Ardent Partners’ CPO Rising 2018 Summit in Boston. My expert panel included Ryan Murray, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer, New York City, Vincent Pernetti, Deputy Director of Contracts, New York City and Christopher J. Dwyer, VP of Research, Ardent Partners. The ‘official’ title of the session was “A New Approach to Procurement Talent Management” but the session quickly turned into a discussion on how procurement organizations can do a better job attracting and retaining talent. The session was very interactive, with attendees and panelists exchanging ideas and questions of one another. Some of you may be wondering why we are discussing procurement talent management in an ePayables column, and that would be a fair question. What I learned in this session is that the talent management challenges faced in procurement are very similar to those faced in Accounts Payable (“AP”). This probably does not come as a surprise to anyone who has worked in, or with, both AP and Procurement.
Very few people grow up dreaming about a career in AP or Procurement. I am not sure anyone as a kid says “when I grow up I want to work in AP or Procurement.” More likely they dream of being a doctor, lawyer, scientist, professional athlete, a baker, a builder or a million other things. And here in lies one of the major challenges facing both AP and Procurement organizations – how to attract talent to their respective organizations? In our session we discussed how there really isn’t a ‘feeder’ program in place at most colleges or universities that teach and prepare students for careers in AP and Procurement. A rare school may have a degree program in place for supply chain management, but these are much more likely to exist in a graduate degree program, which doesn’t really help with the challenge of finding a qualified entry level workforce. Rather, most enterprises are left to their own devices to find and develop talent to join their teams.
Increase Awareness of AP and Procurement Careers
The Talent Management session I hosted at CPO Rising 2018 had participants from both the public and private sectors and, not surprisingly, this challenge exists equally in both. As you might expect with a group of senior level procurement leaders, the conversation quickly turned to an exchange of ideas and a brain-storming session on how to combat the challenges. What can organizations do to increase the awareness of the careers that exist in Procurement and the supply chain? Many of the ideas centered on reaching out to and working with local schools and universities. What could be done to start to create a feeder program of candidates? We discussed how to best educate the student bodies and future talent pools about careers in Procurement. One of the ideas presented was creating internships in Procurement for students. Internships provide a great way for students to learn firsthand about the profession and gain interest in career opportunities. An internship program will take time to get started but over time it can be an effective method to increase the available pool of candidates interested in Procurement.
Another idea was for procurement leaders in the industry to do a better job reaching out directly to local schools and universities and offering to come in and present to classes and at career days/fairs. This kind of public outreach will help educate students about Procurement and the career opportunities that exist in the field. The more students know what Procurement, and all the areas of the organization it touches, the more likely they are going to be interested in exploring opportunities in the field.
Conclusion
Talent is often considered the number one competitive differentiator for today’s businesses, especially in the face of evolving organizational requirements and consistent globalization. For AP and Procurement functions alike, talent acquisition is an oft-overlooked component of a unit’s overall objective of achieving its goals. The ideas presented in this article are just the tip of the iceberg in what can and needs to be done to attract talent to AP and Procurement. As I mentioned at the start of this column, this session was not only about attracting talent but also how to keep or retain it once you have it. In a future column I will delve into that portion of our session as well. [Editor’s Note: You can read Part II of this column by clicking here.]
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