Procurement & Supply Chain Recruitment Outlook for 2021

With much of the Brexit uncertainty behind us, the vaccine programme gaining momentum and renewed awareness of the need for world leading Procurement and Supply Chain functions; we are confident that demand for good Procurement and Supply Chain specialists will increase as we move through 2021.

 

Putting to rest the high visibility issues raised by ineffective supply chains during the pandemic; has increased public and business awareness for the need for effective Procurement and Supply Chains, and we see this year as an opportunity for talented Senior Procurement Professionals to influence at the highest level in both private and public sector organisations.

 

Demand for proven Supply Chain Professionals who can build supply chains that minimize risk, build compliance and understand issues of demand scalability will be in very high demand and experienced specialists in any of these three areas should find interesting roles. Categories we anticipate most in demand will be IT Procurement (Software, Robotic Process Automation and Cyber knowledge in particular), Logistics, Supply Chain Improvement (Risk, Compliance, Environmental) and Professional Services.

 

Despite the latest lockdown, we have seen an increase in recruitment activity in January 2021; and we anticipate the rate to increase significantly as we move out of lockdown and into the summer. We would suggest that the ‘normal’ slow-down in August recruitment will be less marked than usual, as the vaccination programme allows businesses to ‘open up’ and catch up on lost 2020 revenues.

 

Our thoughts are that there are plenty of projects waiting in the wings to start up; and now that the vaccine programme is being rolled out and Brexit played out, we anticipate more interim roles appearing as we move into February/March. There are plenty of ‘hit the ground running’ interim specialists waiting for a more buoyant market, who possess proven project management, category management and influencing skills, that will be a cost-effective resource as we move into a growth economy.

 

We do not believe IR35 will get another reprieve and the new postponed IR35 legislation will be implemented in April accordingly. We can see a significant move towards Fixed Term Contracts (FTC) as companies are unwilling to take the risk of employing interim procurement resources on Limited Company basis. FTC rates offered will need to reflect the increased demand for exceptional Interim Procurement specialists.

 

As the market picks up in 2021, we will see Internal Recruitment Teams struggling to find the talent that their business’ need. Internal Teams will not have the network, knowledge and expertise to find and secure the best specialists their organisations require, as the demand for specific procurement and supplychain skill sets becomes much greater.

 

The Pandemic and lockdowns have highlighted the effect of modern living on Carbon Emissions. Environmental compliance and sustainability have become even hotter topics over the last 10 months and will remain so. Procurement specialist that have an expertise in environmental compliance, risk and shortening supply chains will be in significant demand.

 

 

Conslusions

The global covid-19 pandemic has highlighted to the public the importance of efficient and reliable Supply Chains and Procurement effectiveness. Governments across the world have had to work (with varying degrees of success!) with Procurement and Supply chain functions to deliver the myriad of commodities and categories to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and in the UK the challenges of Brexit. Sadly, it has taken the ‘perfect storm’ of Brexit and Pandemic to highlight the importance of efficient, compliant, risk mitigated, environmentally sound and volatility proof supply chains.

 

We believe that Procurement and Supply Chain will gain increased visibility across the board in 2021; as public and private sector decision makers look and learn from the challenges brought about by the Pandemic and Brexit.

 

This should be the year that Procurement and Supply Chain Professionals might well be heard the loudest and their contribution most appreciated, where their successes can be celebrated, and any high-profile public failures be learnt from and fixed.

 

With this increased visibility and a rapidly changing economic and trading landscape, we believe demand for exceptional and proven Procurement Professionals will increase significantly and other economic factor permitting, we will see a strengthening of Salaries and Packages in some if not all Disciplines and Categories.