- December 21, 2015
- 2:50 pm
- John Caltagirone
- no comments
A Match Made in Heaven – Procurement & Millennials
Millennials have a tendency to be idealists. On average you find articles on millennials wanting to make a difference and work for organizations and companies that are creating positive changes in the world. For that reason, it is no surprise that millennials are beginning to pick up on procurement.
Anyone unfamiliar with procurement, it is the section of a company that deals with acquiring or buying goods and services from external sources. Often the single largest impactor on the bottom line in companies that rely heavily on sourcing materials and services for their business. It is stated by finance departments that almost 90% of savings are made by the procurement departments.
Anyone unfamiliar with procurement, it is the section of a company that deals with acquiring or buying goods and services from external sources. Often the single largest impactor on the bottom line in companies that rely heavily on sourcing materials and services for their business. It is stated by finance departments that almost 90% of savings are made by the procurement departments.
Value management is also a spurring topic and millennials have caught on to how it allows them to become game changers in their company. Procurement work allows them to familiarize with the entire business line and supply chain, building understanding of what folks need and in what capacity. It allows for interaction with higher up’s and be involved in a capacity in which they find fulfilling.
As millennials enter the business world and create significant generational change, procurement is in similar transitional phase, beginning with metrics and measuring performance. According to the 2015 Return on Supply Management Assets Performance Check study, Building a Bolder Legacy: The Procurement Mission is Under Way, found that procurement organizations improved their performance in the last year by 10 to 15 times returns. It also indicated that performance varied based on the key value drivers (i.e. spend coverage, sourcing program velocity, operating costs, etc).
Zero-based budgeting has recently entered the space as a new way to improve shareholder value performance. It forces companies on creating savings and not simply projecting a budget based off previous costs thus truly aligning resources and expenses. This method allows for enhancement of the procurement process and most importantly provide transparency.
Circling back to millennials, these types of performance measurements and implementation of practices allow for transparency, accountability and recognition – all of which are uber important to millennials. So want to recruit more millennials? Want to improve your supply chain and reduce costs? It is pretty evident that the two seem like they work hand-in-hand and a win-win in the end to fill the job space with fresh ideas of millennials and build a value focused supply chain organization.