Building Up Your Procurement Team in the Time of the Great Resignation

Procurement has arguably never been more important than right now. With global events such as the COVID-19 crisis and Brexit having significant and negative impacts on supply chains, the business of accessing suppliers has become much more complex.

However, the industry is also being challenged by a second crisis - one made of flesh and blood. The procurement business, like many others around the world right now, is struggling to hold onto staff. To compound the issue, it's also finding it difficult to attract new talent to the field.

The workforce is ageing and young people, fresh out of education, are not gravitating towards procurement as a career choice. What, then, can the industry do to make sure it better retains its existing people while simultaneously making itself more attractive to the hottest young talent?

The Scale of the Issue

The latest statistics from the careers experts at Zippia may provide some insights into some of the reasons for the issue when it comes to attracting new talent to the industry.

55.5% of all procurement officers in the US are men compared to just 37.1% which are women. This proportion disparity has actually gotten more pronounced over time as well. In 2018, the proportion of male-to-female procurement officers was fairly equal, sitting at 50.56% and 49.22% respectively, which suggests women are finding the industry less attractive today than they did just a few years ago.

The procurement business also has a diversity problem across ethnic lines. 71.7% of current US procurement officers identify themselves as white, compared to just 10.5% who identify as Hispanic or Latinx, and 8.8% Black or African American.

As our societies become ever more ethnically and culturally diverse and traditional gender roles are eschewed, the onus is on businesses to make themselves more attractive to people of all genders and from all ethnic backgrounds.

This should never be carried out as a politically correct box-ticking exercise, but rather with the understanding that a more diverse workforce means more diverse thinking among your procurement officers. People bring a lot of themselves with them into a role and homogeneity of ideas can lead to your business stagnating while others innovate and pull ahead.

Young people coming out of university today are used to working, living, and socializing with people from a range of backgrounds and want to begin their careers in places which reflect their experiences of life thus far. They are also largely more cognizant of the issues of discrimination and privilege and will seek out career paths with brands which are also aware of and combatting these problems.

Women in Procurement

One issue which needs to be addressed is why the proportion of women working as procurement officers has fallen over the last three years.

One answer may be found in the gender pay gap. According to Zippia, the average earnings of a female procurement officer during 2021 was 87% that received by their male counterparts, revealing a gender pay gap of 13%. This is only slightly better than the US national average pay gap where women earn 84% of what men do.

While the national gender pay gap is improving among young people, the fact women would have to work around 40 extra days to earn the same as their male colleagues is a fundamental problem which needs to be addressed. With the average age of a procurement officer being 48, young people clearly aren't entering the business, however, and it may be the case that women are leaving the industry to seek fairer compensation for their work elsewhere.

Therefore, procurement should work to eradicate the gender pay gap and try to find new ways to make the industry attractive to young people and those from a range of genders, ethnicities, and other backgrounds. Most people agree they want to live in a fairer and more equal society and there's no reason why that ethos wouldn't carry into their choice of career.

Final Thoughts

Of course, issue of diversity and fairness won't be the whole picture when it comes to procurement's talent attraction and retention issue.

However, these are some of the most well publicized problems in society today and it seems highly likely that addressing them within the procurement business would make the industry far more attractive to more people, helping it move into the future with a healthy pool of talent and a more diverse reservoir of thought.

Recruitment and retention are set to be hot topics at ProcureCon Indirect West 2022, taking place in April, at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, Phoenix, AZ.

Download the agenda for more information and insights.