Supply Excellence — IACCM Chimes in on the Talent Crunch

IACCM Chimes in on the Talent Crunch

August 3rd, 2006 · by Tim Minahan · No Comments · contract management, skills rectruitment and development

Supply Excellence’s series on skills recruitment, development, and retention has inspired much interest. Earlier this week Tim Cummins, President and CEO of the International Association for Contract and Commerical Management (IACCM), dropped me a line on the issue. IACCM is the leading industry association for corporate professionals involved in the contract management lifecycle. I have been fortunate enough to participate in IACCM’s annual conference and regional forum for the past several years and have found them to be the best events for networking and exchanging best practices on contract management issues. (IACCM is also a fellow sponsor of the Contract Management RFP industry initiative aimed at arming enterprises with a best practice RFP template for evaluating and selecting contract management automation solutions.)

In addition to their events, IACCM has become a leading source of research on commerical contracting and contract management issues. For the past several years Tim has stepped up IACCM’s benchmarking and research of critical contract and supply management issues. I have asked him to guest blog on some of the early findings from IACCM’s latest and ongoing study into talent recruitment and retention among contract and supply management professionals:

IACCM’s recent talent survey had nearly 700 individual responses. They represented contract, negotiation and sourcing professionals, primarily from North America and Western Europe. The study will result in an in depth report looking at the regional as well as functional differences, but in the meantime here are some highlights from the survey:

42% of respondents are over 45 years of age

60% say there is no clear career path or a very limited career path for contract professionals

78% either like or love their job

55% view the job market as good or excellent

Location is what respondents like best about their company

Challenging work is what they like best about their job

Failure to invest in people is what they dislike most

Communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving are cited most frequently as the skills needed today

The ability to work on a cross-functional team is the number one skill needed for the future according to respondents

The issue of retention is not seen as a major challenge in most geographies (Japan, China, UK are exceptions)

The challenge of finding and attracting new recruits is seen as a major challenge in most geographies / industries

If you would like to contribute to the study (all participants will receive the on-going reports) simply go to http://www.iaccm.com/surveys/talent/

Thanks, Tim. Very telling findings, raising many questions about the future of the contract management profession. It seems that we may soon be facing a talent crunch as elder statesmen retire from the workforce and companies struggle to secure new recruits. Some answers to these questions may lie in a Denali and SupplyStaff study on employee retention that was recently profiled here. The study recommended the following tips for retaining your top talent:

Keep your team’s work challenging

Reframe your department to nuture highly-skilled candidates

Encourage and allow balance between work and life

Develop mentoring programs to encourage advancement

Considering the concerns voiced in IACCM’s latest survey, these points seem like very sage advice.

Email Forward & Bookmarks