1

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) 2

Agenda Define the Generations Workforce Statistics Workforce Challenges 3

Defining the Generations 4

5

6

7

Workforce Statistics 8

Workforce Statistics - Projections 9

Procurement’s Generational Distribution 10

Procurement’s Generational Distribution 11

Attrition by Generation 12

Challenges Recruitment Communication Training Retention “Corporate Structure” 13 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) 15

Turnover in State Procurement Offices  The majority of state central procurement offices has turnover rates of 10% or less. 16

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. 17

Addressing the Challenges Top reasons for separations: retirement and opportunities for career advancement. 18

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 19

 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. Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions 20

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 22

Thank You! Questions? 23