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RISING TO THE CHALLENGE: Recruitment and Retention in State

Procurement Offices, a NASPO Research Paper

Moderator: James Staton (District of Columbia)

Panelists: Mary Cheryl Dorwart (Texas) Mike Richart (Pennsylvania)

Rose Svitak (Minnesota)

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Agenda

• Define the Generations

• Workforce Statistics

• Workforce Challenges

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Defining the Generations

4

Defining the Generations

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Defining the Generations

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Defining the Generations

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Workforce Statistics

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Workforce Statistics - Projections

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Procurement’s Generational Distribution

Gen X Gen Y Boomer0

5

10

15

20

25

30

24

6

17

10

Procurement’s Generational Distribution

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Attrition by Generation

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Challenges• Recruitment• Communication• Training• Retention• “Corporate Structure”

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Silver Tsunami

Final Thought

“Managing multigenerational workforces is an art in itself. Young workers want to make a quick impact, the middle generation needs to believe in the mission, and older employees don’t like ambivalence! Your move!”

Harvard Business School “Working Knowledge” Newsletter - April 17, 2006:! “Can you manage different generations?” 14

Turnover and Retention Rates

Total cost of replacing and hiring new staff (including training and loss of productivity) can be as high as 90% to 200% of an employee’s annual salary. (Society for Human Resource Management, 2008 Executive Brief: Tracking Trends in Employee Turnover)

Tenure among public sector employees was 7.8 years in 2012, almost double the median tenure of private sector employees.

(2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employee Tenure Summary)

Older employees have longer tenures than their younger counterparts. (2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employee Tenure Summary)

Employee engagement increases with the employee’s age, tenure and time spent performing their current role. (2014 BlessingWhite Research)

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Turnover in State Procurement Offices

The majority of state central procurement offices has turnover rates of 10% or less.

less than 5%

6 – 10% 11 – 25% 26 – 50% more than 50%

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1011

6

4

0

Source: 2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and Retention Survey16

Retention in State Procurement Offices

Less than 1/3 of state central procurement offices have retention rates between 8 and 15 years.

Nine states have really long average retention periods of more than 15 years (CT, ME, MN, MO, NE, NJ, NV, OK, SD).

No state central procurement office has average retention rates shorter than 3 years.

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Addressing the ChallengesTop reasons for separations: retirement and opportunities for career advancement.

Return to SchoolPoor Management

Lack of Workplace FlexibilityWorkload

OtherWrong Fit

New Job with a Private Entity

Better Compensation/Bene-fits

Transfer to another PositionCareer Advancement

Retirement

0 5 10 15 20 25

111

44

56

1217

2122

Reasons Employees Give for Leaving(2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and Retention Survey)

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Addressing the Challenges

Government employees continue to be asked to do more with less.

40% of state central procurement offices described their offices as understaffed, as compared with growing workload expectations.

Less than half of the states have a formal training program for procurement professionals.

Major challenges to hiring:• Limited pool of qualified candidates• Non-competitive salaries• Budgets

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Specific procurement knowledge and professional certifications are important to performing the procurement function.

Most states (72 %) use procurement-specific interviews to evaluate candidates’ procurement knowledge in addition to their critical thinking skills and personality traits.

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Procurement Experience Required for Procurement

PositionsSource: 2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and Reten-

tion Survey

Yes

No

Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions

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Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions

Successful recruitment practices used by central procurement offices:

• Job postings on the organization’s web site• Job postings on other web sites• Employee referrals• Job postings on the NASPO Network • Job postings on LinkedIn• Internship programs• Hiring people with limited procurement experience,

but high potential and good academic records 21

Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions

Talent management strategies used by central procurement offices:

• Training• Orientation and Onboarding• Knowledge transfer• Mentoring

Incentives used to retain state procurement professionals:• Flexible working hours and telework• Retirement benefits• Internal promotion opportunities• Reward systems based on merit and work performance• Salary increases based on seniority and/or length of service

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Thank You!

Questions? 23