A mixed picture of steadily increasing salaries for UK procurement jobs and worries among employers in the sector about a lack of relevant skills and experience has been painted by the latest CIPS Salary Guide.
Scott Dance, a UK procurement engagement director within the recruitment sector, said at the launch of this year’s CIPS Salary Guide and Procurement Insights Report that 51% of organisations had struggled during the past year to hire the right candidates for their procurement teams.
“A lot of movement in a short space of time”
Dance observed that while 70% of managers expected to recruit over the coming 12 months – a 6% rise on the year before – 50% of employees planned to leave their jobs in the next two years, and 71% wished to progress to more senior roles.
This, he said, represented “quite a lot of movement in a short space of time and, with a shortage of talent, we need to address the gap this type of movement creates.”
It may not be such a great surprise, then, that so many organisations seeking to fill procurement jobs are feeling the need to offer higher salaries. The survey of more than 4,000 UK procurement staff over 25 offices found that the average level of increase in pay this year was 5.3%, following a 5% rise in 2016.
Dance said that such rises reflected confidence in the industry despite economic and political uncertainty, stating:
“While an increase from 5% to 5.3% doesn’t look like much, when you take into account that the national average is 2.2%, then you’ll realise that it’s a pretty significant rise.”
Salary isn’t necessarily the only factor attracting candidates
While such pronounced and continued rises in salaries for procurement jobs may seem to indicate that employers looking to add to their procurement teams have little choice but to throw more money at candidates, Dance insisted that this was not necessarily the case. He commented:
“A lot of candidates we speak to are often not just interested in salary but [in] the overall benefit package. So I’d suggest recruiters consider if there is any flexibility around this. It doesn’t always mean throwing money at it, especially considering budget restraints, but is there working from home, flexitime, gym memberships or other incentives that can change throughout their career?”
However, with employers having cited a lack of sector skills and experience as their top worry when recruiting staff for procurement jobs – up from third last year – there can be no doubt of the many very real challenges currently facing firms in the industry.
If your own organisation is struggling to find the most suitable procurement staff, why not get in touch with Bis Henderson Recruitment today? Our dedicated procurement recruitment team has a fantastic track record of finding great candidates that fit, so contact us now to learn more about how we might be able to help you to beat the industry predictions.
