Beewise Talent

Given how suppressed the procurement market has been in 2024, you'd expect recruitment to be pretty straightforward, right? Surely there are suitably qualified people queueing up for new opportunities..? Well, not exactly. You see, it's not quite as easy as that. I've spoken to several clients over the last week - here's what is actually happening in the market: * Some clients have been inundated by responses, and have struggled to shortlist interviews given many high-quality applications. * Some clients have had roles open for several months, struggling to gain traction and receiving minimal applications. * Some clients have been inundated by irrelevant applications, spending significant time wading through the reeds to uncover a diamond in the rough. * Some clients have got to offer stage with promising candidates (several times), only to beat by back by counter-offers, competitor opportunities, or candidate rejections. * Some clients have even scaled back their hiring ambitions, struggling to identify niche or local talent that meets their requirements. How can this be? To quote Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan - "it's like searching for a needle in a stack of needles". Yes, there are a lot of active jobseekers in the current market. Talent is available in almost every industry, location, and category. But client requirements are also getting more and more specialised. Every search we have been engaged in recently has been for a unicorn candidate. They needed niche experience, in a specific location, with a highly specialist background. Within this, there are two distinct hiring mindsets - 1) You hold out for the perfect candidate. It could take months to find them, or you might never. You'll likely incur additional recruitment, relocation, and compensation expenses. 2) You slightly flex your requirements, focussing on the core non-negotiable skills that you need and accept the fact that there may be some time involved in developing skills in other areas. You go back out to market with a reframed search and a new perception of what a good candidate looks like. I'm not saying that one approach is better than the other here. Both approaches are valid under different circumstances. Sometimes, unicorn candidates really are necessary. That said, I do know is which client is more likely to reach a successful conclusion to their recruitment challenge the quickest. Hiring managers, don't just presume that recruitment will be easy because of the current market. It won't be. Yes, there are unfortunately several procurement professionals out of work currently. But they're unlikely to be your unicorn. You need to adapt to the market and think about your selection criteria and your offering. Think - do you really need to go unicorn hunting? Let's help people back into work rather than putting up barriers for their return. P.S. Did I mention that Beewise Talent are expert unicorn hunters?

Branding is being discussed a lot these days. Personal branding, corporate branding, employer branding. Everything is about branding nowadays. It’s a key pillar to success for modern organizations and individuals. It’s spawned a whole industry of ‘influencers’, catapulting careers, and businesses into the spotlight. I’m sure we can all agree that the impact of branding is undeniable. So, how does this apply to you? Firstly, everyone should focus on their brand – personal branding is the future of career-building and employer branding is the future face of recruitment. I’m not the first to say this though – you already know that. But have you every stopped and thought about functional branding? Let me give some context – imagine you’re a highly regarded, successful CPO at a large multinational corporation. You attend (and maybe even speak at) industry events regularly. Perhaps you’re also a member of Procurement Foundry, SIG, ISM, or other procurement groups. You’re a LinkedIn user, but you’re more of a lurker. You comment and engage on posts, and you occasionally share company or industry news that you find relevant and informative. But you don’t focus much time into building your personal brand – you’re not posting consistently and cohesively. And why would you? I get it, you’re a busy CPO, it’s not high up on the priority list. Let’s look at your corporate brand now. There are several people dedicated to managing this – we’re talking about a team of communications and marketing experts delivering a carefully curated brand image. If you’re lucky, they’ve worked closely with internal recruitment and have built a strong employer brand too – one that is recognised, respected and well-revered. You know – those rare businesses that you look at and think ‘Wow, I’d love to work there’. You’re now at the point you could define your organisation as an employer of choice. Now imagine you could become that employer of choice but specifically within your function. Imagine that procurement within your organisation was well-revered externally, respected as an industry-leading function and recognised as a place to build a strong, successful career. Just think of the benefits from a talent POV – increased inbound job applications and decreased attrition rates would be two huge impacts. Never mind the impact this would have on reducing times to hire, decreasing recruitment costs, and increasing productivity. Functional branding is one of the most powerful and impactful investments that any leader can make. But it’s also an area suffering from chronic under-investment and is rarely labelled a strategic priority. Want to begin exploring and unravelling the untapped potential of functional branding? Arrange a call with the Beewise Talent team today – https://lnkd.in/gTVzYhCs

On Monday, I posted an overview of the procurement recruitment market. Several people found my conclusion confusing. How can it be both an employers and employees market? It's because of opportunity distribution. Let’s start with location - 12,109 roles advertised in California vs 6,125 in New York. 4,566 in Georgia vs 7,109 in Florida. 11,317 in Texas vs 3,459 in Massachusetts. 5,026 in Illinois vs 2,918 in New Jersey. Traditionally strong professional services recruitment states like New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are experiencing a significant decrease in opportunities. In contrast, demand has increased in manufacturing-heavy states including Texas, Illinois, and California. The industry stats explain this better – 19,544 roles in manufacturing. 18,374 in construction and civil engineering. 8,255 in healthcare. 8,241 in technology 4,729 in energy and utilities. 2,925 across banking and financial services. How about by category/specialism? Opportunities for general indirects professionals have decreased sharply. Most roles now require category and industry subject matter expertise. That said, we have seen a slight increase in the number of greenfield opportunities in which breadth of category experience is valued. However, this is often countered by industry hyper-specialization. Demand remains high within technology, though opportunities have decreased when compared to ‘23. Technology roles and expectations are becoming increasingly sub-specialized, with the most demand for SaaS, cybersecurity, and data category experts. Marketing remains one of the most challenging indirect categories to recruit. Many of these roles look for prior functional marketing expertise which significantly decreases the talent pool. Traditional demand areas such as FMCG, retail and entertainment have been supplemented by increased hiring in financial services, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. There have been several changes within direct procurement. Nearshoring, supply security, and sustainability focuses have ensured consistent demand across the manufacturing sector. There are notable spikes within metal commodities, EV components, and chemicals. In summary, the market dynamic you’re experiencing as a client or candidate ultimately depends on your situation. Here’s a couple of examples – There will be high demand if you’re hiring a Director of Procurement for a Pharma company in California (especially within directs). As a hiring manager, you will likely experience challenges relating to the limited talent pool and salary inflation. This situation favours an employee-biased market. There aren’t many opportunities for New York-based Procurement Analysts working in Financial Services currently. Job searches are compounded by a strong talent pool, swinging the market in the employer’s favour. Want more detailed information? You can book a call with me below – https://lnkd.in/gTVzYhCs

The number 1 question I'm being asked right now is: "How is the procurement recruitment market?" It’s more complex than you'd think… Unemployment in the US rose by 231k in early May. This is the highest increase since August '23. There are currently 1.785mil people receiving unemployment support across the US. 8.75mil new job openings were advertised in January '24, vs 8.49mil in April, continuing a declining trend since early '22. Now let's get specific about procurement - The total volume of advertised opportunities remains steady, with around 125k roles on LinkedIn alone. How does this compare to May '23? Director and Executive roles: 2024 – 5,212 2023 – 5,832 - 620 decrease. Mid-senior level and associate roles: 2024 – 72,300 2023 – 64,753 + 7,547 increase. Entry-level roles and internships: 2024 – 32,210 2023 – 35,754 - 3,364 decrease. What does this reflect? * Senior-level hires have decreased slightly. There was a notable talent shift, especially around the Head of, Director, and VP levels in 2023. This followed a couple of years of subdued recruitment activity because of the pandemic. Most functions have now stabilized their leadership teams. The vast majority of Director and Executive roles advertised are new greenfield roles, strategic additions, or backfills following either retirement or internal promotion. General attrition rates at this level have mostly levelled out. * Entry-level roles and internships have decreased moderately. Fewer procurement leaders have been allocated funds to hire entry-level talent in '24. '23 saw an increase in P2P, analyst, and procurement technology roles as procurement operations functions grew – directly fuelling demand for early careers talent. This figure also follows the declining trend in hiring US-based entry-level procurement talent, with an increased number of junior employees being recruited in lower-cost of employment countries. * The decrease in entry-level roles is balanced out by a significant increase in associate and mid-senior positions. Attrition at this level remains slightly higher than average, fuelling particular demand at the Category Manager level. However, this is segregated and siloed to peaks in demand across particular categories – I.E. technology, metals, or marketing. Despite the above, if you were to analyse a cross-section of the procurement recruitment market, you'd observe two things - 1) Several procurement professionals are struggling to actively secure new opportunities. 2) Many employers and hiring managers are struggling to hire procurement professionals. How can both dynamics coexist? It’s all down to opportunity distribution. I'm going to break this down further on Wednesday, but if you'd like more information or role/location specific data and advise, please reach out. [email protected] +1 646 397 196

Procurement is experiencing an acute talent crisis. Deloitte, GEP, McKinsey, The Hackett Group, Proxima, and Gartner all list talent as one of the top challenges facing CPOs. Not just for 2024; but for several years running. It’s not just recruitment. It’s also retention, development, remuneration, and attrition. Talent challenges impact every level within every procurement organization – from grads to CPOs. And every industry – pharma, banking, manufacturing, and hospitality. The list goes on. Everyone is fighting over the same core talent pool. But procurement is growing, adapting, and developing quicker than new talent can be brought in, and sometimes even quicker than existing talent can keep up with. Procurement professionals wear several hats in 2024. They must be confident negotiators, digitally minded, sustainability champions, data aficionados, salesmen, risk managers, and contract experts. And that’s just a baseline. It’s hard to keep up. So, what can we do? Let’s not sugarcoat things. Unfortunately, this isn’t a talent crisis that can be fixed overnight. It requires a concentrated, concerted, and consistent effort from the community. Every company needs a well-thought-out short-, mid-, and long-term strategy to retain and develop their current talent while simultaneously positioning themselves as an employer of choice within their talent demographic. This must be a strategy that welcomes new talent, perspectives, and experiences. It must empower employees to own their development journey, embrace new technologies, and shun the rigid approaches of the past. This won’t be an easy journey for any company or executive. It’s going to take time, effort, and money. But it’s a journey that we can go on together. Want to discuss your approach to talent? Drop me a note, or schedule 30 minutes with me using the link below - https://lnkd.in/gTVzYhCs

I am proud and excited to finally announce the launch of Beewise Talent! Specializing in procurement appointments across North America, Beewise was born out of my desire to make a real difference in the global procurement recruitment landscape. But where did all this begin? Well, I sort of fell into procurement recruitment, to be honest. In fact, before my first recruitment role, I didn't even know what procurement was. Okay, that’s a lie. I did have *some* perception of the function… As transactional buyers who placed orders for the materials and equipment that businesses need to operate. Not quite, Aaron. But good try. Over the years, I’ve developed an admiration for the procurement industry. Witnessing the adaptability of the function through economic and political crises, a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and just about everything else the world could throw at it. You need only spend a short amount of time on LinkedIn to see how the global procurement community comes together with a strong sense of unity and camaraderie. I’ve learned a lot too. I find it fascinating speaking with procurement professionals from all walks of life, working in all different types of roles across many different industries and covering every continent. I’ve been lucky to recruit in the UK, USA, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Canada, France, Poland, Italy, Morocco, Hungary, and the Netherlands. I’ve recruited CPOs, graduates, managers, analysts, and directors. I’ve worked with Fortune 500 companies with 100s of thousands of staff through to scale-ups with under 100 staff. I’ve spoken with procurement professionals covering almost every conceivable category – from carrots to cobalt, private jets to high-end real estate, software to pencils, and almost everything in between (my favorite anecdote is of a trip to Bologna, Italy to procure a fleet of Lamborghinis for a high-end rental company). Pretty exciting stuff, right? What excites me most, however, is the future. This is just the beginning. PS – Follow our company page for more updates. Link in the comments.