Online networking tools help procurement execs recruit new talent
LinkedIn, Spoke and others help procurement execs recruit new talent and benchmark best practices
By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 11/18/2008 3:26:00 PM
Procurement professionals are networkers by nature. Finding and recruiting new suppliers and benchmarking best practices are certainly examples, in addition to the usual professional networking done at conferences and meetings. So it makes sense that in the web 2.0 world, purchasing and supply chain executives are making the most of online networking tools such as LinkedIn and Spoke or even Facebook to network and find new employees as well as benchmark organizational best practices.
For the uninitiated, online networking tools require you to sign up (most are free for a limited amount of access), create a profile and then start connecting with others in your field. There are industry-focused groups that allow users to zero in on those with similar backgrounds or experience.
Mike McHale, CPO at Atlanta-based financial services provider Invesco says he uses LinkedIn when trying to find new procurement talent. “I can use this tool to reach out to other procurement executives that I have built relationships with over the years,” he says. “Specifically I contact peers or former colleagues and inform them of the needs that I have and ask them if they know of people who might be interested.”
Jim Davis, vice president and CPO at television network Univision Communications in Miami, says he used LinkedIn to recruit Univision’s director of technology sourcing. “It was fast and I got multiple good references from people I trust instead of the usual references provided by the candidate,” Davis says.
Duncan MacDonald, vice president of procurement and inventory control at US Sugar Corp. in Clewiston, Fla. says he was introduced to online professional networking at a former employer mostly because others in his department had joined a site. MacDonaled used an online professional networking to recruit candidates when hiring for a recent spot in the procurement organization. While he says it was a fast way to see what backgrounds candidates had, he says those he found on the sites didn’t match the specific background he was looking for this time around. “In all I think it is a great tool to have in your repertoire,” he says.
Perhaps most unexpectedly, even professional recruiters have come to see the benefits online professional networking tools and gotten on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Kevin Rohan of procurement professional recruiter JP Canon Associates says as more and more people seemed to be using the tool and he started to ask people about their experiences.
“It became clear that LinkedIn was becoming a popular tool and one that we needed to investigate,” Rohan says. “Toward the end of last year, we dove in and started to use it intensively. It took a couple of months to figure out how we could best use it but we soon became more comfortable with it.”
Rohan has seen two primary benefits so far: networking and connecting with hard to find candidates, who are not actively looking. “It certainly helps in reconnecting with previous contacts who we may have lost track of. And one of the very pleasant surprises has been connecting with old friends and contacts.”
Mark Rubin, a senior purchasing agent at National Grid in Westborough, Mass., says he looked into online professional networking tools after he was laid off from a previous job and attended a training session on LinkedIn hosted by an outplacement firm. But even after finding a new job, Rubin says he’s found new value in tools like LinkedIn. In addition to the job search benefits of the site, he has been exploring the groups and forums that allow users to post questions or requests to a specific group.
“As buyer, I can ask sourcing questions to all of the members in a given group on how to handle an RFP process for something you have no experience with, or even a question regarding the quirks of a particular commodity,” Rubin says. “I see this area as one of the best tools and resources that these tools offer buyers. It’s a chance to compare notes and exchange ideas and information very easily.”
[Editor’s Note: All of the sources interviewed for this story were originally contacted through LinkedIn]
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Have you used online networking tools to recruit new talent, get a new job or benchmark? Maybe even find new suppliers? Post a comment here to share your experience.
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