According to senior purchasing supply managers, the ultimate purchasing executive is hard to find. Successful companies offer tips on how to hire the right candidate.

A recent poll of executives by Purchasing Magazine have revealed that senior purchasing managers are in a pickle when it comes to attracting new talent to their departments. Qualified senior executives, sourcing specialists, commodity specialists and engineers seem to be far and few in between. According to the polled executives’ estimates, finding a person with the right combination of attributes can take from seven to ten months. Furthermore, the executives add, settling for lesser talent to fulfill short-term needs diminishes the effectiveness of long-term corporate strategies.

Interestingly, the poll suggests that the qualities managers find lacking in the new recruits are not specific deficiencies in job descriptions but rather a general absence of important character traits such as leadership skills, strategic thinking and analytical and technical know how. According to a human resources manager for U.S. Steel, “getting candidates with [analytical and technical] skills, plus common sense, and above average intelligence, can be next to impossible.” Instead of interviewing well-rounded professionals, many executives complain, they are finding more and more “quota-driven paper handlers” who lack the requisite understanding of supply chain dynamics that is necessary for making competitive choices. One of the positions that employers are finding the hardest to fill is that of a knowledgeable foreign purchasing specialist. Commodity managers with supply chain skills and procurement managers with technical/engineering skills are also becoming scarcer these days.

So where does the source of the purchaser shortage problem lie? According to those polled, it stems from either insufficient training or a lack of proper compensation or, in some cases, a combination of the two. Some of the respondents took the opportunity to sharply criticize their company’s lack of compensation. Without commensurate wages, these managers say, they are doomed to head understaffed, and under-qualified, purchasing departments. Offering solutions, the more proactive of the poll’s respondents stressed the need to address these matters. IBM’s former chief procurement officer, Gene Richter, says that the smart companies are the ones making moves to improve recruiting, training and wages. “It’s difficult – and expensive – to get good people to leave their jobs and come to your company, especially if your company has only recently recognized the need for outstanding management.” Recognizing this need, he implies, is the first step to putting together the right team.

Taking a related view are purchasing managers who advocate promoting from within. With nearly 80% of the polled executives saying they have training programs in place, this remains the most popular means of securing purchasing talent. Among this contingent are Harley Davidson, Ford Motor Co. and Bethlehem Steel. Harley Davidson’s managers believe so strongly in their internal training programs that they boast of rarely having to look beyond their own ranks for new people. Planting the seeds for future purchasing professionals is also a good idea. Firms like Deere & Company actively donate money to technical schools and colleges in return for fresh recruits. In addition, they offer paid business degrees from Arizona State University as a guarantee for new employees.

Of course not every company can look to such measures to solve purchasing shortage problems. For smaller firms, especially, expensive internal training and recruitment programs are prohibitive. In fact, the poll indicates that the companies having the most trouble rounding up decent recruits are those with total annual sales under $1 billion. To these companies, Michael R. Katzorke, vice president of supply chain management at Cessna, advises using the resources that are already available locally, such as colleges and professional organizations. Then, as these efforts begin to bear fruit, the smaller firms can work up from there. “But first,” he adds, “you have to convince the people you want to keep that it pays to stay and improve.”

Source: Talented Purchasing Pros are still Hard to Come By
James P. Morgan
Purchasing, March 7, 2002
http://www.manufacturing.net/pur/index.asp?layout=articleWebzine&stt=000&articleid=CA197997&pubdate=3/7/2002