You'd think that with the economy on the weak side that the job market would be awash with talented purchasing/supply people. Actually just the opposite is true. Talented purchasing professionals remain in scant supply these days.

That's the reading of PURCHASING Magazine's most recent executive poll on employee recruitment and training. In company after company covered by the poll, senior purchasing/supply managers voice concern about their inability to attract and recruit qualified senior grade purchasing executives, sourcing specialists, commodity specialists, and engineers. As a result, many (particularly small- and medium-sized) companies say they are woefully behind in upgrading their staffs. This, in turn, appears to be handicapping corporate efforts to implement advanced supply, sourcing, and purchasing strategies called for by corporate planners.

Perhaps the most significant finding to emerge from the poll is the way most managers respond when asked to point out the most critical and difficult jobs to fill in their purchasing/supply operations. Rather than rattling off strings of shortages in specific job descriptions many (maybe most) managers these days are thinking more in terms of fundamental weaknesses or lack of the character traits they're looking for to fill specific job slots.

Most of the weaknesses fall into one of three categories:

• Lack of understanding about what strategic thinking is (especially the principles behind supply chain management),
• Lack of leadership capabilities, and
• Lack of analytical and technical skills not traditionally associated with buying and sourcing.

Particularly worrisome to many managers is an apparent lack of rounded business understanding, inability to relate to various pieces of the supply chain, and inability to grasp the full competitive picture and understand where specific operations fit. In many cases, senior purchasing executives' concerns suggest serious dissatisfaction with the kinds of training that people in the procurement field are receiving.

Unfortunately, says Al Galiviz, purchasing manager at Sybase, Emeryville, Calif., many "old school" purchasing department types are out looking for jobs and many show up with a complete lack "understanding of what supply base management is all about."

In making these observation, Galiviz has plenty of company. Daniel W. Benin, purchasing manager at Circle Seal Controls, for instance, complains that many of the people he's interviewing these days are "old school...not really supply chain...often quota-driven paper handlers."

But even more than knowledge skills, recruiters of purchasing managers and directors say they are having serious problems finding candidates with needed leadership skills. For example, R. David Nelson, vice president of worldwide supply management at Deere & Co. says there is little doubt that leadership qualities are at the top of most recruiters' shopping lists. "In fact," he says, "I get several calls a week from companies and headhunters who are trying to fill their leadership positions." But the basic problem for most recruiters is that purchasing managers with good professional and leadership skills are as scarce as hens' teeth.

In addition, finding recruits for purchasing/supply organizations with management and leadership skills isn't enough these days. Recruiters also are searching for people who possess strong analytical skills. "Getting candidates with these skills, plus common sense, and above-average intelligence, can be next to impossible," says the human resources person for U.S. Steel. Deborah Lynch, CPO, Toro Purchasing Co. remarks that "There are just very few people who have needed strategic skills combined with solid managerial ones."

While filling top positions in purchasing, sourcing, and supply is difficult, the situation is more mixed for lower level positions. On the one hand, notes the purchasing director for a small capital goods producer in Ohio, jobs in the purchasing department are often "highly visible" and, therefore, attractive to new hires. On the other hand, many recruiters find themselves in positions similar to that of one particularly irate purchasing manager in northern Ohio, who finds his recruitment efforts are meeting with "terrible results" because of "terrible wages," and "bad benefits." As a result, he feels he is left with a purchasing group that is understaffed and without a mission or goal.

Gene Richter, former chief procurement officer at IBM, offers a more balanced view of recruitment. As Richter sees it, companies that recognize the need for outstanding procurement also recruit well, train well, and pay well. "It's difficult—and expensive—to get good people to leave their jobs and come to your company, especially if your company has only recently recognized the need for outstanding management."

The economy is perhaps the most important reason for slow reaction to recruitment efforts this year. The PM for a high tech company in Connecticut puts the situation succinctly: "From what I can see, many purchasing managers are not willing to make changes right now because they risk being in a 'last in-first out' situation if the economy doesn't improve. It can be particularly dangerous at the lower levels." On the other hand, a human resources director at Ford, notes, "we are able to fill positions, but, we also are finding a higher than normal turnover in these positions."

The hardest-to-fill positions these days fall into three groups:

• Jobs requiring a great deal of knowledge about and experience with foreign buying,
• Jobs requiring a great deal of technical and/or engineering background, and
• Commodity management positions requiring specific product knowledge and people and marketing skills.

Many purchasing executives see the biggest shortages ahead for people with foreign purchasing know-how. Lance Dixon, executive director JIT II, Education & Research Center, Bose Corp., for instance, says that, by far, the most difficult positions to fill in the procurement/supply area are for senior managers with hands-on offshore sourcing and buying experience. "These are business men or women with the ability to identify partners and conclude business agreements that take into account worldwide business conditions and opportunities."

Finding procurement managers with technical and/or engineering backgrounds is also a growing need and one that is demanding a great deal more time of senior purchasing executives and the human resources people serving them. Frank Rice, purchasing vice president at IT in Pittsburgh says it often takes six months or more to land a person with the appropriate degrees, experience, and background. Many recruiters place the time needed to bring in persons with intimate supply chain knowledge and skills at seven to 10 months.

Commodity managers with specialized skills are especially prized these days. And despite much talk about keeping to budgets, many commodity managers, especially those with supply chain skills, can often call the tune on salary.

Without a doubt, the most popular recruiting path for purchasing/supply operations is development from within. In fact, nearly 80% of the senior purchasing officers interviewed for this story have training programs that furnish a gradually growing percentage of their managerial, leadership, technical, and professional needs. Some companies, Harley-Davidson, for example, say their training programs are so successful that they rarely need to recruit outside the company. Cessna Aircraft, Ford Motor Co., U.S Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and a host of other companies cite similarly successful training programs.

Deere & Company's Dave Nelson goes so far as to pronounce that developing needed leaders from within is "by far the very best approach companies can take in building technical and leadership strength." By way of backing up his pronouncement, Nelson notes that Deere has developed an intern program that produces almost all of its new hires. "We get the best," he says, "because we donate $12,500 to each school/profession we recruit from" (12 schools in all). "We give $1,500/year scholarships as necessary. We also have a senior research program where we pay $2,500/week plus expenses and a fully paid MBA program with Arizona State University for 35 employees/year.

"This is just part of what we do," says Nelson. "We also have an internal development program for the first two years. It includes three different jobs—then we take the best from these trainees and mentor them into leadership positions."

The real bind for recruiting, however, is not on the shoulders of the Deeres, Fords, or Cessnas of this world. Judging by PURCHASING's poll participants, recruiting falls hardest on companies with annual sales totaling less than $1 billion. The purchasing manager for a small manufacturing plant outside Pittsburgh puts it this way: "To begin with we're limited in the training we can afford. We have a limited budget for recruiting, and because are small, we really have to scramble when a good manager leaves. There's no backup so we can't afford to wait six months for a replacement. As a result, we often settle for less talent than we need."

The purchasing manager for a small West Coast controls firm puts the recruiting problem in very personal terms: "I have five buyers...all very good, but all are limited in their vision and people skills. I'm looking for people who can think critically and provide good guidance. These are difficult qualities to come by—internally or externally.

Does this mean that small- and medium-sized firms will find themselves ultimately squeezed out of the recruitment market? It doesn't need to happen that way says Michael R. Katzorke, vice president supply chain management at Cessna, noting that companies can start fairly modestly using the resources of professional organizations and college programs and work up from there. "But first you have to convince the people you want to keep that it pays to stay and improve."