Navigating Staffing Constraints in Public Procurement

A hot topic from the CAPPO 2023 Conference that continues to persist are the staffing challenges and competency gaps in public procurement.  Hiring into procurement positions appears to be getting more difficult by the week, as the workload and expectations continue to mount.

In a lively conference panel discussion with three public procurement leaders from the Golden State - Jennifer Alford, M.A., CPPO from Delta College, Theresa Harris, Ed.D, CPCM from the University of San Diego and Angelic Davis, MPA, CPPO, NIGP-CPP from Mount San Antonio College – we addressed the unique challenges surrounding hiring and retaining talent.

Below are some of the topic highlights the panelists covered in the discussion:

1. Reclassifying job descriptions and incorporating training to bring up the resources
2. Cross-training across multiple spend categories and expanding team collaboration
3. Adding new operating procedures to maximize the value of each touch
4. Utilizing employees in other divisions who are interested in procurement
5. Tapping into student workers and professors in a higher education setting
6. Creating shared resources in concert with specialized skills for departments such as IT
7. Issues related to incorporating hybrid and its impact on hiring
8. Using technology to reduce manual processes and have better access to data
9. Being as efficient as possible with the staff they already have to ensure that new staff requests are successful
10. Changing the "hamster wheel" instead of simply running more quickly
11. Asking "why" multiple times in the review and redesign of processes
12. Leveraging temp resources
13. Incorporating "Procurement as a Service" - A pool of highly qualified staff as a new delivery mechanism

Click here to listen to the condensed audio of the session and reach out to Learn more about how Civic helps through Procurement as a Service!