With all the justified concern about finding the right people for a fast-changing procurement profession, here is a suggestion from the marketing world that could well make sense: try and buy.
With all the justified concern about finding the right people for a fast-changing procurement profession, here is a suggestion from the marketing world that could well make sense: try and buy.
Marketers of everything from cars to consumer magazines to software to toys use that strategy to lure customers. In procurement’s case, CPOs could turn the concept around and combine it with a rigorous internship program; give candidates a chance to find out what procurement is really like by handing them some real project responsibility and seeing how they perform without committing to hiring them full time until the end of the project. Pay them for their work to show that you are serious.
Internships are nothing new, of course. But in a field such as procurement, where soft skills are as important as hard skills, they can be revealing. Companies such as Whirlpool, Daimler Chrysler and others have offered internships. One web development company, Automattic, uses what the company calls "auditions" to find new employees.
Founder Matt Mullenweg says the system, in which candidates get actual work assignments, has worked well for his company. It doesn’t replace the need to review resumes, but it certainly can shed more light on a person’s skills, instincts, willingness to learn and work, and passion for excellence than a mere list of previous employers and responsibilities.
This isn’t meant to denigrate resumes, advanced college degrees or such things as certifications from professional associations. Certainly, they are all important and CPOs should be sure to check them. But by themselves, they can’t tell you how someone will actually perform or interact with the rest of your team. Nor can an interview or reference checks do that. A cynic might say that an interview - even several interviews - tests a candidate’s acting ability as much as anything else, and a reference could be no more than a testimonial from a friend. Interviews and reference checks are important, but can give only a partial glimpse into a candidate’s analytical ability, project-management skills, change-management skills, or customer orientation, all things that procurement executives across Procurement Leaders Forums report as important. And, interviews don’t fully reveal a candidate’s passion for continuous improvement or ability to work cross-functionally, all attributes that Videojet Technologies director of procurement Ryan Hartz, who I spoke with at length about the subject a couple of months ago, and others insist are critical.
You can’t really know a person’s ability or personality until you give them a job. A try-and-buy internship will give you that insight - and it will give candidates a chance to know if they want to work with you.
from Procurement Leaders Blog http://ift.tt/19ovIig
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The views expressed in this post and throughout the series are the autor's own and not intended to reflect the views the YQ Matrix platform, its users or any associated organisations.
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