Angela Hills spends a lot of time with HR leaders, helping them get the best possible talent through the door.
Hills, an executive vice president at Cielo (formerly Pinstripe & Ochre House), a global talent acquisition and management partner, sometimes encounters issues that raise alarms.
Once such scenario is what she calls a growing "dangerous disconnect" between HR and Procurement.
In part, that trend is happening because employers often are not structured in a way that allows HR to lead conversations with Procurement; there needs to be more of a balance.
The good news is Procurement functions in large organizations have become more sophisticated over the years and, in some organizations, find their home within the financial department, which will dedicate specialists to serve as business partners to work with HR.
"We have worked with some organizations where the Procurement team has deeper knowledge of RPO [Recruitment Process Outsourcing] models and how to engage in these partnerships than HR, and vice versa—it all depends on tenure and past experience," she tells HR Dive in an interview. "But, ultimately, you need both departments to be knowledgeable and strategic thinkers in RPO to be successful."
But those situations are the exception, not the rule. Hills explains that HR and Procurement leaders often appear, on the surface, to have differing goals. HR needs to attract and hire high-performing talent, while Procurement is asked to maintain or lower costs, mainly in the form of reducing the cost of hire.
"While talent has always been crucial to an organization's success, some business leaders haven't always put as much emphasis on their talent as they do today," she says.
This "tension" has the potential to serve as a catalyst for conflict between the two divisions, especially when an organization is sourcing a large quantity of talent within a designated timeframe.
Recent statistics reflect Procurement leadership's dissatisfaction with their workforces. For example, according to Deloitte's Global CPO Survey 2014, 57% of chief Procurement officers surveyed say their existing teams do not have the necessary skills - including leadership, influence, communication and relationship building - to deliver their organization's Procurement strategy. That is up from 48% in 2013.
Hills offers three key ways in which the HR-Procurement gap can be narrowed or, even better, closed completely.
Get out of the comfort zone
When working with HR, Procurement executives must to go beyond their comfort zones and adopt a creative, candidate-centered approach to recruitment and retention. Taking a candidate-centered strategy is quickly becoming a critical success factor in recruiting.
"The understanding that the right talent is crucial to sustained business performance now goes beyond the walls of the HR department," she says.
Drive success with communications
Hills says that for its part, HR must be assertive in conversations with Procurement to ensure the candidate experience isn’t lost in large-scale processes that focus on cost-reduction and shortening time to hire.
"Keeping the line of communication open is imperative," she says, adding that as soon as a significant talent gap is identified, HR must work with Procurement to clearly define what the need is and both the short- and long-term impact it will have on the organization.
That way, HR also can provide greater context on the scope of the current recruitment need—for example, can HR handle in-house recruiting or is an RPO partner the most efficient option for streamlining, sourcing and hiring a large volume of candidates?
Effective communication also gives Procurement a better look into a function they are not as familiar with, enabling them to add value by evaluating the total costs associated with internal ownership of the recruitment function versus the investment needed to engage an outside partner.
Often times, entering into an RPO partnership can be more cost-effective than the traditional "in-house" model and can also glean the organization better talent—helping the company realize greater market success through increased efficiency, competitive advantage and profits.
Mutual respect will bear fruit
Finally, during HR and Procurement's conversations, both teams should strive to show respect for each other's areas of expertise—acting as true business partners. Yet, the ball typically will be in HR's court.
"Ultimately, HR must lead the conversation," she says, adding that HR must emphasize that the overall goal is to focus on the high-level business outcomes the organization is trying to achieve: namely, to secure the best talent for the company's current and future needs, while remaining conscious of the bottom line.
"The key issue that needs to be discussed among HR and Procurement leaders centers on the balance between cost-reduction and the investment needed to source top talent and deliver the outcomes that the business needs," she says.