Talent Drive features Guest Bloggers from time to time, to keep the tone of voice varied, and encourage a mix of views and opinions from professionals within the Procurement and Recruitment markets. If you have a topic you’re passionate about and would like to be featured, get in touch – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Author: Faye Fletcher
Faye is a Procurement Manager with over 20 years’ experience gained in the Aviation, Insurance and Print industries. Faye is looking to return to work after having a family and is looking for the holy grail of a part-time role in Procurement.
Flexible working is fast becoming a management philosophy with businesses recognising its benefits including generating and sustaining competitive advantage, achieving greater productivity, improved staff morale and retention. Procurement as a profession embraces flexible working but only to a limited degree, from my experience. Working from home and flexing hours are acceptable but part-time working is taboo.
Procurement functions are not embracing flexible working to the same extent as our other corporate counterparts such as HR, Finance and Legal where part-time working is accepted and normal. These functions are critical to a business, yet companies can still operate with these employees working on a part-time basis, but not Procurement it seems.
Is it possible this lack of flexibility will mean Procurement as a profession will start to become less favourable? Will less people choose Procurement as a profession and start to choose other professions which offer greater flexibility? Maybe this has started already. There is a general awareness of a current lack of talent within Procurement. Talent shortage and management were again major topics of discussion at the World Procurement Congress in May 2019. Could this have been impacted by Procurement professionals who have many years’ experience and a proven track record moving to other more flexible professions which offer a better work / life balance? Does working in Procurement mean having to choose between being a full-time employee or having a better balance to fit around life outside of work?
There are many benefits to offering part-time working, one such benefit being staff retention. Businesses spend time and money recruiting the perfect person only to lose them once their circumstances change, such as having a family and wanting a balance by working part-time. If the lack of part-time working continues, will parents leave the Procurement profession to achieve a better work / life balance, resulting in less diversity in the market?
There is also the benefit of cost savings. As budgets and staffing costs become more restrained, part-time working offers organisations the ability to employ experienced employees who are positive and motivated to work hard in return for part-time working but are paid less than their full-time counterparts.
What does the future hold for the Procurement workforce? It seems that unless Procurement can move with the times, its workforce will fall behind in terms of diversity and inclusion and create an environment where staff retention suffers.
