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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

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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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Procurements Generational Distribution
30

25 24

20
17
15

10
6
5

0
Gen X Gen Y Boomer 10
Procurements Generational Distribution

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Attrition by Generation

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 Challenges
Recruitment
Communication
Training
Retention Silver
Tsunami
Corporate Structure

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 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 dont like ambivalence! Your move!

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

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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
employees 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 employees 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.
12 11
10
10

8
6
6
4
4

2
0
0
less than 5% 6 10% 11 25% 26 50% more than 50%
Source: 2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and Retention Survey
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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 Challenges
Top reasons for separations: retirement and opportunities for
career advancement.
Reasons Employees Give for Leaving
(2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and Retention Survey)
Retirement 22
Career Advancement 21
Transfer to another Position 17
Better Compensation/Benefits 12
New Job with a Private Entity 6
Wrong Fit 5
Other 4
Workload 4
Lack of Workplace Flexibility 1
Poor Management 1
Return to School 1
0 5 10 15 20 25 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
Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions
Procurement Experience
Required for Procurement Specific procurement
Positions knowledge and professional
certifications are important
Source: 2013 NASPO Staff Recruitment and to performing the
Retention Survey procurement function.

Yes Most states (72 %) use

10
No
procurement-specific
interviews to evaluate
candidates procurement
knowledge in addition to
22 their critical thinking skills
and personality traits.
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Current Practices, Available Strategies and Solutions

Successful recruitment practices used by central

procurement offices:
Job postings on the organizations 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

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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?

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