Power Your Procurement and Acquisition Workforce with the Right Competencies

  • PSF Editorial Staff

    • These seven competency areas will take your procurement organization to the next level

    Government procurement requires a good deal of knowledge. From government specific requirements to understanding the purchasing process, there are a lot of procurement competency areas to perfect. Luckily, we’ve broken down some of the areas you’ll want to focus and grow your knowledge in.

    Here’s a quick roundup of what we’ll talk about in this article:

    The Public Procurement Workforce Competency Model

    The Public Procurement Workforce Competency Model (PPWCM) was developed from four years of work that was originally initiated and led by our teams here at the Public Spend Forum. This collaboration included various experts and stakeholders across the public procurement community, including resources at the federal, state, and local levels.

    Together, we developed this new model that is available for anyone in the public procurement workforce. It can be used to further develop a plan for ever-changing acquisition processes and the skills of employees. By defining the key competencies needed for effective public procurement, we hope to educate procurement professionals and improve government spending.

    Why The PPWCM is Important

    Often times, the role of procurement in the government space is overlooked and thought of as a clerical role. But when you consider these individuals are responsible for purchasing goods and services that total $2 trillion a year in government dollars, the importance of the role becomes much more obvious.

    Government procurement professionals are an essential part of a well-functioning government and affect the lives of citizens because they are working with taxpayer dollars. People who are in these roles support public policy from infrastructure improvements to ensuring national security.

    They are constantly looking for ways to save taxpayer dollars — something that benefits all Americans.

    So, it is important that people who fill these roles are fully trained and educated to make the best purchasing decisions. Beyond industry training and seminars, there is not always a clearly defined education route.

    This is where our model comes in. Since these roles can often fall to the back burner or may become overlooked, training and education can be minimal for government procurement professionals.

    But with $2 trillion government dollars at stake, why wouldn’t we be training them to make the best possible decisions? That’s where the model comes in to play.

    How would you feel if you were in charge of the government’s money? That’s why procurement professionals need proper training.

    How is the Model Used?

    As previously mentioned, the PPWCM is open to the public and can be used by anyone who seeks to benefit from it. This includes public procurement leaders, experts, and practitioners. The model itself is designed to address the full cycle of public procurement competency management.

    Here is what the model will help you understand:

    Once you have an understanding of each of these levels of the procurement life cycle, you will be better equipped to develop and hire well trained and educated professionals.

    Core Competencies by Division

    In this section, we are going to take a look at the seven competency groups the PPWCM takes into consideration. Each section has core competencies that need to be considered when completing a job for maximum results. So, let’s dive in!

    Strategy

    The strategy competency is broken out into three smaller divisions. These include mission and public benefit, transformation and vision creation, and social responsibility alignment. Let’s take a quick look at each of these to understand how they guide procurement professionals.

    Clearly, this grouping is about building a solid foundation for government procurement practices. Having a clear understanding of how these three section work, will help you to fully understand the entire procurement process.

    Policy, Legislation, Program Oversight

    Once you have your foundation, now it’s time to start moving a little deeper into the cycle. In this grouping of competencies, we will focus on learning more about policy, legislation, an program oversight.

    Here are the main areas to focus on in this stage:

    Once this stage is complete, you now have a basic layout of what the program itself looks like. From here, you are moving into the planning stages.

    Planning and Analysis

    The planning and analysis in procurement are where the program begins to take flight. Knowing the respective competency areas is important to a successful venture. For this section, we’ll point out multiple of the competency areas that stand out when looking at the planning and analysis stage.

    Fully understanding and preparing yourself for the project ahead will put you in a better place in many aspects. From knowing the potential risks to clearly identifying the customer needs in terms of cost — you’ll be better off by implementing this stage.

    Sourcing and Solicitation

    We’re getting deeper into the process, now it’s time to finalize the information you need to start drafting up the contract. Again, this section has multiple areas that you’ll want to fully understand, but we’ll focus specifically on a few.

    Once these areas are mastered, it’s time to move on to the actual contract.

    Contract Execution

    Alright, we’ve made it here. Now it’s time to spell out what will fall under the contract. This section of the cycle is important to understand because, without the proper knowledge, it could leave you promising something you didn’t mean to. Let’s take a look at the competency areas for the contract execution phase.

    The contract has been approved and you’ve taken the time to make sure all logistics and inventory requirements are met. From here, the cycle takes a turn and begins to focus on leadership skills and business-related functions.

    Leadership Skills

    When you are in charge of ordering and obtaining products or services for others, you need to have leadership skills. From making the decision on what the best price to finding new options, it takes a leader to provide quality procurement services.

    Here are a few of the key competency areas related to leadership skills:

    These skills are a few of many that a public procurement professional will want to practice, improve, and perfect to excel in the industry.

    Business Principles and Operations

    Finally, we are going to look at the competency areas that you will want to focus on related to business principles and operations. Without these competencies, the daily operations of business would be much more difficult.

    And that’s it! You’ve gone through the entire cycle of government procurement processes. Are you ready to expand your knowledge and become an educated procurement professional? Follow these principles and you will be off to a great start!

    0