TOP 10:
Tips for Building Procurement Capability

Procurement leaders are increasingly asked to achieve more with less.

To do this, we see capability development as a core aspect of driving procurement performance. Here are our Top 10 tips to help increase your team’s capability.

By using a structured set of knowledge, skills and attributes, you can define what excellent looks like, establish the baseline and measure results. You can then set a vision for your team. Do you want them to be the best in the region? The industry? By aligning team development to the goal, you can gain additional buy-in from individuals.

This will allow you to target investment in the right places. You should also understand your priority areas – there is no point investing in a gap if it’s not important! This will also help you hire people to fill gaps you may have.

By allowing individuals to coach on their area of strength, you are reaffirming and stretching their own skills. It is different to teach than to know.

(Bonus tip – don’t always use the more senior people to act as the champions).

The 70:20:10 methodology states that 70% of the learning you do is on the job, 20% through mentoring and coaching and only 10% is through formal channels. Even following a face-to-face training session, you should make sure you embed the learning on the job. There are some key aspects to ensure informal programs effective – protect the time for these workshops, set clear objectives and know what topics should be covered and measure the outcomes.

You can gain a lot more by strengthening a strength. Some people will never be good at certain things – play to their strengths. This has the additional benefit of building confidence (we all like doing what we’re good at).

Your team can learn a lot from other organisations, stakeholders, suppliers and networking events. There are many inexpensive networking opportunities available.

This development plan should link to their career goals. Obviously you will still need to guide through budget constraints and practicality but by empowering individuals to own their development means they are invested in it.

Encourage team members to seek mentors and experience outside of procurement.

Participants learn more when they can relate to the training – using case studies and activities which can be implemented back at their desks. eLearning is a great way to embed the training and can be used for a refresher.

This should link your competency framework to your skills analysis to your team and organisational goals.