Future of Sourcing - Training https://www.futureofsourcing.com/tags/training en Training and Developing Procurement Professionals https://www.futureofsourcing.com/training-and-developing-procurement-professionals <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Employee%20Upskilling.png"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Employee%20Upskilling.png" title="Training and Developing Procurement Professionals" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1465-gqmH6YlypTk"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Employee%20Upskilling.png?itok=aAgDmy44" width="624" height="325" alt="Training and Developing Procurement Professionals" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Training and Developing Procurement Professionals</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/4-major-procurement-trends-to-watch-for-in-2020">4 Major Procurement Trends to Watch for in 2020</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Training a company&rsquo;s team members is a foundational step in running a company, but it is often forgotten when busy times hit. This is a big mistake. Putting the time and effort into designing a training program that suits the unique needs of procurement will drive more effective results in less time. Employees will be better equipped to manage the various situations and surprises that sourcing across numerous categories brings about. The more they are trained, the more valuable they become and the better they can enhance the productivity and benefits of the company in the long run.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sig.org/job-postings" target="_blank"><img alt="Find sourcing and procurement jobs in SIG's Career Network." src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/SIG-Career-Network.png" style="width: 300px; height: 250px; float: right;" /></a></p> <h1>Identify Top Procurement Talent</h1> <p>One of the first stages in developing a solid procurement team involves navigating the landscape to <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/10-plays-to-win-the-sourcing-talent-game" target="_blank">identify the appropriate talent</a>. Depending on available positions and required experience, companies are often successful in finding this talent from hiring within their pool of college interns. Even though these employees are considered entry level and may require more attention, assign a mentor or project manager to help them learn the ropes. A formal mentorship program will reflect your investment in them and enable them to learn valuable best practices.</p> <p>For more experienced hires, the training and extra attention will ensure alignment from their prior work experience to the expectations of the current company and position. It is important for the company to have a dedicated recruiting team to bring in the talent. Retention, however, is at least equally important. Programs for continuous skill development must ensure that new hires evolve alongside your organization and within the procurement function itself.</p> <h1>Find Growth Areas and Cross-Train</h1> <p>As employees join the team, their interests and areas in which they excel should be assessed. By identifying these, management can place newly onboarded procurement professionals in a direct or indirect material category in which they will enjoy working and can add value. Organizations might also consider introducing rotational programs to provide new hires with a diverse set of experiences. Exposing new hires to procurement&rsquo;s broad range of responsibilities will encourage them to feel invested in their professional development as well as your organization&rsquo;s ongoing progress.</p> <p><em><a href="https://info.sig.org/sig-university-april-may-enrollment" target="_blank">&gt;&gt;Skill Up: Professional Development Opportunities for Sourcing and Procurement Professionals&lt;&lt;</a></em></p> <p>Setting the employees up for success means granting them access and properly teaching them how to use internal and external systems such as spend analytics tools, contract management software, ERP systems, and any other technologies that the company uses. Regular check-ins and clear development paths should ensure the new hires develop fluency in these tools as well as accepted policies and best practices.</p> <h1>Set Up a Professional Development Plan</h1> <p>Once the team is operating efficiently, management should schedule periodic meetings to evaluate the employee&rsquo;s progression, ensure the training process is effective and measure progress to confirm that the employee is performing to expectations. To further the employee&rsquo;s training and skill development, management can develop a growth plan that targets a specific skill category such as procurement and sourcing expertise, category management, strategizing and problem-solving, supplier relationship management, analytical and negotiation skills.</p> <p>The more an employee is exposed to these skills and practices them in their own work, the more valuable they become to the client and procurement team. Ultimately, when the procurement team achieves success, the company benefits. To ensure these programs remain effective, leadership should survey their participants for feedback. This will keep programs adaptable to emerging issues and trends.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://sig.org/blog/7-creative-hiring-strategies-build-your-procurement-team" style="font-size: 13.008px;" target="_blank"><em>&gt;&gt;Read More: 7 Creative Hiring Strategies to Build Your Procurement Team&lt;&lt;</em></a></p> <p>Training and developing employees is highly recommended and certainly applicable throughout the entire organization, however it is especially crucial to sourcing and procurement. If training and skill development programs are implemented correctly, companies and their clients can benefit from being well equipped with a knowledgeable team that can meet project deadliness and provide clients with faster and better results. Successful employees lead to a successful business.&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-acquisition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Acquisition</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/procurement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Procurement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/core-competencies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Core Competencies</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Training and Developing Procurement Professionals - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/training-and-developing-procurement-professionals"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 05 Aug 2022 02:00:00 +0000 Samantha Hoy 1465 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/training-and-developing-procurement-professionals#comments The Real Cost of Employee Turnover https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-real-cost-of-employee-turnover <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Cost_Employee%20Turnover.jpg"><a href="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Cost_Employee%20Turnover.jpg" title="The Real Cost of Employee Turnover " class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1477-gqmH6YlypTk"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Cost_Employee%20Turnover.jpg?itok=DYfvwk4o" width="624" height="325" alt="" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <div>Employee turnover is one of the most expensive and difficult workforce challenges facing organisations of all sizes and industries. According to the latest Gallup research the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee&#39;s annual salary.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Gallup found that 52% of employees leaving a company voluntarily stated that their manager or organisation could have done something to prevent them from departing. What&rsquo;s even more alarming is that 51% said that during the three months before their departure neither their manager nor any other leaders talked to them about job satisfaction. The often-neglected exit experience however, is more impactful than many organisations realise - employees who have a positive exit experience are <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/246203/ways-create-positive-exit-experience-employees.aspx" target="_blank">2.9 times more likely to recommend the organisation in the future</a>. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>It&rsquo;s not just about money&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Voluntary staff turnover accounts for over a trillion dollars every year in recruitment, hiring, training and productivity cost. LinkedIn&rsquo;s analysis found that the worldwide average turnover rate is <a href="https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/engaging-your-workforce/see-the-industries-with-the-highest-turnover--and-why-it-s-so-hi" target="_blank">10.9 percent, with technology (13.2%), retail (13%), media (11.4%) and professional services (11.4)</a> struggling with higher than average rates. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>When your best people leave, you are losing your most creative innovators and problem solvers. High staff turnover decreases team productivity, reduces morale and has a negative effect on recruiting, hiring, <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/training-and-developing-procurement-professionals" target="_blank">training</a> and <a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/attracting-and-retaining-talent-in-the-face-of-low-unemployment" target="_blank">retaining talent</a>. What&rsquo;s more, the organisation is losing knowledge and established relationships with clients, which can impact business profitability, together with potential damage to brand reputation or in some cases even increased risk of litigation. By understanding the reasons behind negative employee experience and high turnover, leaders and businesses can focus on what is required to change their approach to talent management.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>The critical role of the manager&nbsp;</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Managers play a key role in the overall employee experience. Effective managers build genuine rapport and relationships with their team and are in a good position to identify risk factors that can lead to an employee departure before it&rsquo;s too late. Whilst managers are responsible for their team&rsquo;s performance, 47% of employees reports that they only receive <a href="https://www.askacumen.co.uk/single-post/2019/04/29/How-to-give-feedback-that-sticks" target="_blank">feedback from their managers</a> a few times a year or even less &ndash; for some of them the conversation only happens during annual performance reviews. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>To prevent high turnover, managers need to focus on having frequent conversations with their employees and continuously coach them to improve their performance and motivation. Managers who avoid micromanaging, and instead give their teams the opportunity to <a href="https://www.askacumen.co.uk/single-post/2019/03/29/How-to-create-a-culture-of-creative-problem-solving" target="_blank">solve problems and be creative</a> on their own, can drive businesses forward. For example, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, known for her approach to creative problem solving, has given her team the permission to create new flavours of Lays crisps reflecting local flavour. This has led to the introduction of tikka masala crisps in India, seaweed crisps in China and cuttlefish crisps in Thailand.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Employee turnover will continue to be an issue unless companies pay attention to why employees are voluntarily leaving. Many employees leave when they feel that they don&rsquo;t have the opportunity to take on new challenges or master new skills and knowledge. By providing professional learning and development opportunities, keeping the lines of communication open, and listening to the reasons people are leaving, organisations can create new opportunities for employees to learn and advance in their roles. &nbsp;</div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-retention" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Retention</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/cost" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cost</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/savings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Savings</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="The Real Cost of Employee Turnover - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-real-cost-of-employee-turnover"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Wed, 19 Jun 2019 19:11:37 +0000 Simon Cartwright 1477 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/the-real-cost-of-employee-turnover#comments Doing more with less https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Several times throughout my career, people have queried of me, &ldquo;How do you manage to get so much done?&rdquo; I think there are a few factors, working in concert, that have enabled me to get more done, often with less, and for less. Much of what I have done and done well, I give credit to my mentors throughout my life. Many of them did not know the high regard in which they were held by me, and others. True leaders do not do it for the praise, they do it because it is inherent to their character. If you need to get more accomplished, the following things I have learned through the years may help you to up your game too.</p> <p><strong>Early to bed, early to rise&hellip;</strong></p> <p>If we could all be Marines, it wouldn&rsquo;t be the Marines. But we all can learn some good lessons from the Marines. Back in the 1980s, there was a TV commercial for the Marines that stated, &ldquo;We get more done by 9:00am than most people accomplish in an entire day.&rdquo; Marines often start their day about 0430 (that is 4:30am for the civilian types). Some days we would start earlier, occasionally we start later (typically on Sundays). Though I ended my active duty service 20 years ago, I still wake up at 4:30am. Even if I fail to set my alarm, my &lsquo;body clock&rsquo; still wakes me within minutes of this time.</p> <p>Waking at this time gives me a little more time to get things done, often without interruption. It is also a great time for exercise, like we did regularly in the Marines, rain or shine or snow. Though, instead of leading a unit of the world&rsquo;s finest fighting force, now I run with my faithful four-legged friend. His body clock is set for this time also. If I should hit the snooze button, his wet nose will surely wake me. Getting up early enables me to exercise to get my blood circulating and endorphins flowing to face the day with a positive outlook. By exercising each morning, if I have an opportunity to be active later in the day, that&rsquo;s a bonus. But at least I met my daily requirement at the start of the day. It also gives me time to eat breakfast, make my bed and clean up around the house. I find it more mentally relaxing to live in clean surroundings. It gives me time to check my email, pay bills, read, and even run some errands (post office, grocery shopping, fueling my car, etc). It provides me the opportunity to organise and prioritise what I need to get done each day. Turns out Ben Franklin was right.</p> <p><strong>&#39;Semper Paratus&#39;</strong></p> <p>Okay, that&rsquo;s the motto for the United States Coast Guard, but it is still good advice. In the business world, being prepared today started with preparing yesterday. Earlier in my career, as the owner of a successful executive search franchise, it was standard operating procedure in our office to prepare and print your call plan for the next day before you shut down and go home. This ensured that the next morning, if for any reason you could not access your files online, you could still do your job. As fate would have it, a few times each year, we would have a power outage, or construction in our building, and our servers or the internet would be inaccessible. We also maintained a clean desk policy. You are ready to leave when your work for the day is done, activity recorded, call plan printed and your daily &lsquo;To Do&#39; list was updated, so the next morning, when you came to work, you were ready to work&hellip;to be productive. A clean desk policy also gives one peace of mind that when you go home, there is not the leftover burden of today waiting for you in addition to what you need to do tomorrow. This also helps you to face the new workday with a positive attitude that what needs to be done today is achievable. This discipline enabled our franchise to be ranked among the top 10 of more than 220 Global Recruiters Network franchises worldwide.</p> <p><strong>&#39;To Do&#39; lists</strong></p> <p>Making a &lsquo;To Do&#39; list was a habit I started in my teenage years and I still do it today. I found it was a way to bring focus to my life, both short-term and long-term. It enabled me to make the most of the time I have available to me each day, each week, and each year. I even went so far as to write down the things I want to do, be or accomplish in my life, and updated this list each year. On a personal level, I maintain focus on my weekly &lsquo;To Do&#39; lists by limiting them to what can comfortably fit on a 3x5 index card. This size also enables me to keep it in my wallet. My daily &lsquo;To Do&#39; list is broken down to specific tasks that need to be done for larger items that may take days or weeks to accomplish. This ensures progress is made every day&hellip;even the yucky or mundane things I want to postpone.</p> <p>I decided to manage my life this way as a result of mentoring I received from a lifelong friend and mentor, Jack Crabtree. Jack was the head of Campus Life, a division of Youth for Christ International on Long Island. As a youth minister, Jack helped to shape, even transform, the lives of countless young people as they wrestled with the challenges of growing up during their turbulent high school years. Long before &lsquo;time management&rsquo; was in vogue business school speak, Jack was teaching legions of youth how to make better and more complete use of their time.</p> <p>So let&rsquo;s start with a 24-hour day&hellip;and break it down in 15-minute increments. We can devote eight hours each day to sleeping&hellip;leaving us with 16 hours per day of useable time. Let&rsquo;s say we need to make and eat three meals each day for one hour per meal&hellip;that leaves us with 13 hours in the day. Subtract another one hour each day for exercise&hellip;and we have 12 hours left each day. For working adults, we can subtract another eight hours each day&hellip;for five days a week. Each of those eight hours at work should have productive activities assigned against them. That still leaves four hours each weekday as &ldquo;free time&rdquo;. Maybe twice a week you volunteer your time, or go to the dog park, or practice golf at the driving range. By adding a certain degree of structure to your life, every day, you will soon find you have the time needed to do more than those who have no structure in their lives. Conversely, for those who are unemployed, follow this same methodology and you will find employment sooner than those who do not maximise their job search time each day.</p> <p><strong>Back to the basics</strong></p> <p>As we grow in our careers and advance, in some cases, into management positions, we can at times become content and complacent, slowly separated from the day-to-day hard work of what it takes each day to deliver the desired results. Even worse is when people are promoted to positions with responsibility for managing people for whom they have no first-hand knowledge of the roles of everyone reporting to them.</p> <p>Recalling my training as a US Marine, everyone is cross-trained to be able to perform the roles of others on the team. The gun crews in my M198 howitzer battery would routinely practice by switching roles to ensure we could effectively accomplish our mission if circumstances prevented us from having a full crew, or if manpower shortages required us to consolidate. As officers, we too performed every role too. Having been an enlisted Marine before I became an officer earned me the respect of the Marines I had the honour to lead. They knew without question, that I knew what it was like to be one of them. As Marine officers, we are cross-trained in the same manner so we can perform the roles of those serving under us, as well as those serving alongside of us.</p> <p>Later in my career, when I owned a successful executive search franchise, not every day, week or month was smooth. It was about as smooth as chunky peanut butter. During those times when things are going well, it is easy to get a little lazy and not do some of the things that are tedious, mundane, time-consuming, or otherwise undesirable. But that is like ignoring the requirement to change the oil in your car. When conducting performance reviews, there would be times when my top performers would find themselves going from being &lsquo;in the groove&rsquo; to being &lsquo;in a rut&rsquo;. After discussing the individual circumstances, I would pose this question to them: &ldquo;Are you doing now what you did when you were most successful?&rdquo; After some discussion and introspection on their part, they came to the honest self-admission that the answer was clearly, &ldquo;no&rdquo;. Getting back to the basics was needed. But this time, I reinforced for them the need to stay on top of the basics. As an owner-manager, I also worked a full recruiting desk, and used my performance each day to lead by example.</p> <p><strong>Everything cannot be a #1 priority</strong></p> <p>While this relates to making a &#39;To Do&#39; list, it differs in that the &#39;To Do&#39; list normally does not prioritise what needs to get done. When it comes to business, being able to properly prioritise is an essential skill. You cannot get everything done just by sheer force of will. Some activities have dependencies, so getting things done in sequence is essential. When building a home, you don&rsquo;t pour the foundation before you lay the pipes.</p> <p>One challenge in this regard is when it comes to marketing. For some strange reason, most companies for whom I worked or consulted invariably want to focus, unknowingly, on the high expense/low ROI tactical marketing initiatives. They focus incessantly on the tactical and tangible forms of marketing because they can see it and touch it and therefore feel they can measure it. Often these &lsquo;results&rsquo; can be achieved in a relatively short time, which is also attractive. While there is some truth to this premise, the unfortunate truth is the ROI will be lower than other forms of marketing that cost less, and because of their intangible nature they can be harder to measure, and often take longer to see a result.</p> <p>Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book,&nbsp;<em>Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,</em>&nbsp;uses a 2x2 graph to aid in prioritising activities. I will not go into it at length here as he rightly spent an entire chapter to the topic&hellip;and says it far better than I ever will. But to focus on the &lsquo;Important and Urgent&rsquo; activities and putting everything into that category is non-stop fire fighting. Similarly, focusing a disproportionate effort on &lsquo;Urgent and Not Important&rsquo; activities is to get mired in busy work that adds no value but creates the illusion of progress. Focus more time on activities that are: &lsquo;Important and Not Urgent&rsquo; for higher ROI and greater business value. If you have a lot of activities in the &lsquo;Not Urgent and Not Important&rsquo; box, then you need to question the role itself and how it is valued by the company.</p> <p><strong>Be a voracious learner</strong></p> <p>Having reviewed several thousand resumes in my career, it would seem the older we get, the better we were. But high performers know they must always improve. Learning is constant. They embrace learning and do not fear trying new things. Sir Richard Branson is a great role model in this regard. Try new things. Meet new people. Travel to different places&hellip;truly different. By exposing yourself to new things, you will see new opportunities and approaches. You won&rsquo;t always be right. But that&rsquo;s okay. When leaders stumble and fall&hellip;they fall forward.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/strategy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strategy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources-hr-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources ( HR)</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/leadership" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Leadership</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Doing more with less - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Fri, 02 Sep 2016 12:58:02 +0000 Thom Mead 778 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/778#comments oNexus Founder Interview: Tony Strong, Parseq https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/776 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><em>Tony Strong is the CEO of UK-based multi-channel service provider Parseq. Way back when we launched our oNexus platform, Parseq were one of the founding oNexus partners and we were promised an interview with Tony - and now our paths have finally aligned.... Outsource caught up with him at last to hear his thoughts on his new role as CEO, the invaluable importance of organisational culture - and consolidation in the customer contact industry.</em></p> <hr /> <p><em>Outsource: Tony, you were appointed CEO of Parseq as recently as last summer: what was it about the company that made you decide to take the role? And have any expectations you had prior to joining been borne out by your experience at the helm thus far?</em></p> <p>Tony Strong: From the off-set it was clear to me that Parseq had an impressive client base which could be built upon. I could see that Parseq had valuable assets which had room to grow and a management team which was passionate, ambitious and incredibly talented. There was an opportunity for me to lead this expansion and govern change across the company to enable the team to reach their full potential.</p> <p>My expectations before I joined have been more than borne out through my experience so far. We&rsquo;ve got a great team, a great proposition and the enthusiasm to achieve our goals.&nbsp;It feels like we have a huge amount of energy behind what we&rsquo;re doing. Since we revamped the way we position our services we&rsquo;re renewing contracts with existing clients, recruiting at a rapid rate and we&rsquo;re continually adding new clients &ndash; many very prestigious.</p> <p>At the heart of our new proposition was a desire to simplify the language we had used in the past.&nbsp;Every service we offer, function we develop and even how we recruit our employees has a sole focus and that&rsquo;s to achieve our clients&rsquo; objectives. Everything we do now relates to these objectives &ndash; to acquire, to retain and to improve.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s been received brilliantly by our employees and clients &ndash; old, new and prospective. Something which is evident in the number of new clients we&rsquo;ve brought on board, contracts we&rsquo;ve expanded and talent we&rsquo;ve attracted.</p> <p><em>O: How would you describe &ldquo;the Parseq culture&rdquo; as you see it &ndash; and how much, if at all, do you feel you want to shape that culture further from your position at the top?</em></p> <p>TS: I&rsquo;m really proud of the culture we&rsquo;ve created at Parseq. We&rsquo;ve grown through acquisition and in turn we&rsquo;ve had to tackle the challenge of blending a number of different company cultures into one. Integration is key, that&rsquo;s obvious, but sometimes it can be easier said than done. Thankfully we have a team of over 2,000 employees who have really embraced our vision.&nbsp;Overtime we have brought together the best elements of each of the businesses we&rsquo;ve acquired and enhanced them and I&rsquo;ve been impressed by the speed in which the business has adopted the changes we&rsquo;ve introduced.</p> <p>When I joined Parseq I could see that there was a strong sense of wanting to do the right thing for our clients. Every employee I met genuinely wanted to leave the office at the end of the day feeling proud of what they had given the business and their clients. They just needed this intention formalising and packaging up into a clear strategy.</p> <p>Our culture is really important not only to our HR and recruitment strategies, but it&rsquo;s at the very heart of everything we do. It&rsquo;s intrinsic to our vision of becoming the most trusted partner in the industry by delivering results, high performance, by being accountable and always transparent.&nbsp;I feel confident that each employee now understands their role far better and they&rsquo;re committed to playing their part whether they are acquiring new customers, retaining market share or improving processes on behalf of our clients.</p> <p><em>O: Staying on the topic of culture: how important do you see an organisation&rsquo;s culture being as a differentiator in a marketplace where differentiation is increasingly critical? And how can a company such as Parseq actually convey an idea of its culture to potential buyers in order to achieve that differentiation?</em></p> <p>TS: We relaunched our corporate brand identity and strategy. It was a bold move for the industry as we challenged the perception that an outsourcer should be a white label offering and purely as resource to tap into efficiencies &ndash; mostly focused on cost saving. It&rsquo;s a perception that I feel the industry itself has encouraged, but for us, it undermines what we do and just scratches the surface of the value, experience and expertise an outsourcer like Parseq can offer both to the client and our employees.</p> <p>Everything we do focuses on three core objectives; acquire, retain and improve. This runs through our entire operation from how we service our clients &ndash; for example, we help acquire new customers, retain market share and improve processes and efficiencies &ndash; through to how we recruit and train our employees and also our culture.&nbsp;Gone is the jargon that is often used within the industry. Instead, we&rsquo;re so confident in what we do, who we are and what we can offer that we&rsquo;ve simplified everything so it&rsquo;s more accessible and there is a direct link between our work and our clients&rsquo; objectives. My job has been to transform complexity into simplicity.</p> <p><em>O: What do you see as being other key differentiators of value in today&rsquo;s outsourcing landscape &ndash; and how well is Parseq achieving and portraying those?</em></p> <p>TS: The biggest differentiator for me is changing the relationship between outsourcer and client.&nbsp;For years the industry was viewed as a white labelled commodity. A service that was selected purely on cost and immediate convenience. It was a relationship which both the industry and client embraced, but does that really demonstrate true value? Not for me.&nbsp;By changing this relationship to one of a trusted partner, rather than a supplier we&rsquo;re able to get closer to our clients&rsquo; businesses and deliver genuine value through offering insight, expertise and perhaps even unlocking areas of a client&rsquo;s business they hadn&rsquo;t previously explored.</p> <p>Gone are the days of the somewhat cold, client and supplier relationships. Instead businesses want partnerships which allow access to experience, technology and insight which they may not otherwise be able to invest in or have access to.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s an approach which has seen us increase our client base significantly.</p> <p><em>O: BPO is constantly on the verge of one revolution or another, normally driven by emerging technology &ndash; yet it does seem like we&rsquo;re genuinely experiencing revolutionary times today thanks to the SMAC nexus and, going forwards, advances in automation technology. How are these factors affecting Parseq and the way your organisation operates &ndash; and plans for the future? More broadly, can you give us some thoughts on how these technologies have impacted the outsourcing space during your time in the business &ndash; and on where you see us going from here?</em></p> <p>TS: It&#39;s vital to stay ahead of the curve. As a trusted partner our customers look to us to advise on what technologies they should be taking advantage of and give them access to it so they don&rsquo;t have the hassle or the pressure of investing themselves.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s our role &ndash; we enable them to tap into a broad experience base, invest in the correct infrastructure for them, leverage economies of scale and improve service to the end customer.</p> <p>We have invested a significant amount to future proof our services using a common platform that brings leading edge multi-channel call centre technology. Going beyond this, we&rsquo;re helping our clients to build in-depth understanding of their customers&rsquo; worlds by drawing upon our analytical tools and real time insight to shape their future omnichannel strategies.</p> <p><em>O: We continue to read about various &ldquo;wars&rdquo; for, of and even on talent &ndash; do you feel that Parseq&rsquo;s talent acquisition philosophy is as strong as it could be? Could you tell us a bit about that philosophy in terms of what you look for in potential hires (and how, if at all, that&rsquo;s changing as a new generation enters the workforce) and in terms of how you attract and retain them?</em></p> <p>TS: I&rsquo;m not sure there really is a &lsquo;war of talent&rsquo;. If there is, it&rsquo;s not something we&rsquo;ve experienced &ndash; especially since launching our employer brand.&nbsp;Alongside launching our corporate identity, we also developed our employer brand and in turn a Training Academy and a &pound;1m pledge for employee training.&nbsp;Every one of our 2,000 workforce plays a vital part in our business and because of that it was critical that we developed an employer identity that attracted the right candidates, retain their skills, expertise and enthusiasm and creating opportunities for improvement. This reinforces our proposition again of acquire, retain and improve.</p> <p>Our change in business proposition has certainly been a weapon in our recruitment armoury. Especially during the recruitment of senior positions we&rsquo;ve found that this is a key differentiator.&nbsp;The industry has been crying out for change and so have those within it. By instigating these changes we&rsquo;re reaping the rewards from attracting some of the top talent in the market.</p> <p><em>O: Has a BPO provider such as Parseq had to adjust the ways in which it works with its clients over the past few years as a result of changing requirements and expectations on the part of buyers? Are you offering different contractual forms, for example, or seeing radical new governance structures being put in place around your agreements? Do you think there&rsquo;s been a shift in the power balance between buyer and supplier?</em></p> <p>TS: I think companies used to make the decision to outsource with an aggressive focus on cost rather than adding value, but things have changed and the approach is now more collaborative. It&rsquo;s a partnership structure where there is a unit price for the work you&rsquo;re doing, but often we can help a company unlock value they wouldn&rsquo;t be able to unlock themselves &ndash; a gain share model &ndash; which can only happen in a mature relationship and relatively long contractual agreement.</p> <p>Any reward for us is linked to a deliverable our customers set us and they will see the benefit in their business metrics. If our customers are savvy they will identify the pinch points in their business and make it part of the contract. They get to unlock a benefit they don&rsquo;t have the capability or wherewithal to deliver themselves &ndash; and we both share in the financial rewards.</p> <p>All this leads to a sustainable relationship that has quality, repeatability, partnership, innovation and continuous improvement at its heart.&nbsp;After all, no-one is going to enter into a ten-year contract and expect to be doing the same thing in the same way in ten years&rsquo; time.&nbsp;For me there is no longer a simple client and supplier relationship, it&rsquo;s all about gain sharing through partnership. That&rsquo;s the only way the industry will grow.</p> <p><em>O: Grab a crystal ball&hellip; Can you share with our readers some predictions for how the global outsourcing space will evolve over the next business cycle? What will be some of the big trends (or even specific events, if you feel that bold) that will determine the course of that evolution? Do you see, for example, a lot of market consolidation ahead?</em></p> <p>TS: I do see consolidation, I think there are 600 contact centre providers, we are 10th in the list and there is lots of acquisition activity with companies buying market share and I expect that to continue.&nbsp;The sector is growing five per cent year-on-year driven by onshoring of activity. Offshore used to be a cheaper option, but the standard of living has gone up in the countries we&rsquo;ve traditionally offshored to, so wages are going up at the same time as consumers in the UK are becoming more discerning.&nbsp;They want a good customer experience, they want their query to be answered by the person who answers the phone and we need to make sure the customer is treated fairly; ultimately having an experience that makes them happy &ndash; so I think the trend of work coming back onshore will continue.</p> <p>The other area of focus is business continuity plans; they need to be robust and tested with a client on a regular basis. If they are putting more volume through a partner they need to know their risks are managed and that is putting more of a burden on the BPO provider as the share of the risk increases.</p> <p>There is a huge opportunity for the sector to grow, currently only 26 per cent of the market is outsourcing and that&rsquo;s the big corporates. The mid-size businesses are now looking at it as well and that&rsquo;s where companies like Parseq will benefit ahead of the larger BPO providers.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s because of the way we approach our client relationships, the intimacy piece is missing from the larger providers. We&rsquo;re experts in our field and by combining this with our agility and flexibility we really do drill down to understand our clients&rsquo; needs. We&rsquo;re recruiting and retaining the best talent, and I think this will only continue, especially as we are beginning to witness the transfer of talent into the BPO market from completely different industries.</p> <p><em>O: Perhaps in a similar vein: if you could wave the proverbial magic wand and change one thing about the industry today, what would it be?</em></p> <p>TS: I&rsquo;d like to change the perception of our industry so we move from being a commodity provider to a trusted partner who adds value to our customers&rsquo; businesses.</p> <p><em>O: Finally, a question we often close with: what&rsquo;s your definition of &ldquo;the perfect client&rdquo;?</em></p> <p>TS: For me it&rsquo;s really simple and links back to our vision of working with clients who see us as a trusted, collaborative partner and recognise us as an extension to their business.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/human-resources" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Human Resources</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/offshoring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Offshoring</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/technology" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Technology</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="oNexus Founder Interview: Tony Strong, Parseq - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/776"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Tue, 30 Aug 2016 21:34:55 +0000 Tony Strong 776 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Five tips to grow your field service practice https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/753 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>&ldquo;Take your time&rdquo; isn&rsquo;t a phrase field engineers expect to hear when a client requests a site visit. These customers are looking for a rapid resolution, which is why a high first-time fix rate is crucial to a business&rsquo;s success. But simply fixing a problem quickly isn&rsquo;t enough. Clients want a positive customer experience. They want to feel the field engineer is listening to their needs, and they want assurance that the field service organisation is capable of fully meeting those needs.</p> <p>No matter what industry or country an organisation is in, the following five tips can help keep second site visits to a minimum and improve the overall customer experience.</p> <p><strong>Remember that prevention is better than cure</strong></p> <p>First-time fix rates are important, but preventing issues in the first place is even better. Avoiding system malfunctions is particularly important if the customer has recovery time objectives to meet for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes. To help pinpoint and resolve potential issues, you should consider using a remote management tool to monitor the customer&rsquo;s systems.</p> <p><strong>Have engineers cross-sell</strong></p> <p>To emphasise that your organisation is able to help your customers achieve benefits such as improving operational efficiency or increasing revenue, your field engineers need to be familiar with your service offerings. Even if the field engineer isn&rsquo;t directly involved in supporting all of the organisation&rsquo;s products and services, being familiar with them allows the field engineer to recommend solutions to solve the client&rsquo;s unique business challenges.</p> <p>For instance, an engineer for a managed service provider (MSP) might go on-site to repair a server and hear the client mention that the organisation is having trouble coping with data sprawl and is considering virtualising some of its environment. If the engineer is aware that the MSP offers cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS), the engineer can suggest that as a solution.</p> <p><strong>Invest in improving employees and processes</strong></p> <p>Even the most skilled engineers and most successful organisations can make improvements. For example, engineers can participate in sales training to improve cross-selling skills or obtain IT certifications that allow them to work on certain equipment or software.</p> <p>To generate fresh ideas and solutions for business challenges, your organisation could hold regular review meetings where heads of the department review the past month&rsquo;s performance and conduct real-time SWOT analyses on every aspect of the business. If your organisation has multiple locations within a country or even multiple countries, national or international teams can collaborate to offer one another new perspectives and promote a cohesive business strategy.</p> <p><strong>Manage spare inventory efficiently&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>Every time an engineer doesn&rsquo;t have the parts needed to fix a job on customer site, your first-time fix rate goes down. To address this issue, organisations should assign engineers to specific territories within the regions you service. There should also be easily accessible parts depots near each territory to preclude the possibility of engineers having to wait on parts to be shipped.</p> <p><strong>Keep on top of regulatory requirements</strong></p> <p>Because regulatory compliance is a pressing concern for organisations across multiple industries and countries, you need to be familiar with the regulations affecting technology and data processing in the region(s) your business serves. For instance, in the US, many organisations need to fulfil standards required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) and others. Businesses in the EU are required to meet the requirements of the EU Data Protection Directive. In addition, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) holds organisations across the world accountable for protecting cardholder data.</p> <p>To demonstrate that compliance is a priority, consider adopting a business continuity standard or undergoing a third-party accreditation process to achieve a certification. Examples of these standards include ISO 9001 (for quality management systems) and ISO 27001 (for information security management systems).</p> <p>By following these tips, your organisation will increase its first-time fix rate, improve its ability to prevent issues before they occur and help clients meet their business goals.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/talent-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Talent Management</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/managed-service-provider" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Managed Service Provider</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/inventory-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Inventory Management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Five tips to grow your field service practice - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/753"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div> Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:09:12 +0000 Matt Kingswood 753 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com Enter our writing competition to win a place at SIG University! https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/952 <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Are you a budding thought leader? Do you hunger for fame and glory &ndash; in the form of exposure on the world&rsquo;s leading outsourcing publication? And do you want a FREE chance to enroll in&nbsp;<a href="http://siguniversity.org/" target="_blank">SIG University</a>&rsquo;s Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) course (for yourself or a colleague)?</p> <p>That&rsquo;s right: a SIG U certification AND coverage in Outsource could be yours, thanks to our new writing competition in collaboration with SIG University&hellip;</p> <p>Here at Outsource we&rsquo;re always on the lookout for great content, from any and every corner of the sourcing, outsourcing and business transformation community &ndash; and we know there are countless great potential thought leaders out there who&rsquo;ve yet to grace our hallowed pages. So, we thought we should take steps to connect with as many of you as possible &ndash; and what better way than through the time-honoured medium of a writing competition, to sort the truly exceptional from the merely utterly wonderful?</p> <p>Moreover, if the chance of making it into Outsource wasn&rsquo;t incentive enough, we&rsquo;ve partnered with SIG University to offer our winner a place in the next semester of the Certified Sourcing Professional course. If the winner doesn&rsquo;t satisfy SIG U&rsquo;s entrance criteria, he or she can transfer the prize to someone within his or her organisation who does, thus earning priceless kudos internally (which never hurts&hellip;).</p> <p>In launching this unique competition with Outsource, SIG U&rsquo;s Vice President Mark Pollack says: &ldquo;This is an exciting competition where we hope to find Sourcing&rsquo;s Next Top Talent and follow their journey into SIG University and beyond. We are confident that this global competition will bring forward a host of creative writers and innovative industry experts, and give them the very best global platform from which to showcase their cutting-edge thinking. We are proud to be co-sponsors of this event with Outsource, and look forward to hearing from and getting to know the budding thought leaders who will help redefine sourcing and governance.&rdquo;</p> <p>So, what do you have to do? It&rsquo;s simple&hellip;we&rsquo;re looking for an article of 1,000 &ndash; 2,000 words that answers the following question:</p> <p><strong>&ldquo;What will be the most important drivers of change in the global sourcing arena over the next decade, and why?&rdquo;</strong></p> <p>Entries must be in English, supplied (in Microsoft Word format) to me at <a href="mailto:jliddell@sig.org">jliddell@sig.org</a>, with the subject line &ldquo;WRITING COMPETITION ENTRY&rdquo; by no later than midnight UK time on July 31st. Entries must include a photo and 100-word (exclusive of the total word count for the article) bio of the author. Crucially, nobody who&rsquo;s already been published on <a href="http://www.outsourcemag.com">www.outsourcemag.com</a> before can apply: this competition seeks to find and spotlight new talent, not those who&rsquo;ve already made a name for themselves. Articles must be vendor-neutral, non-promotional and absolutely original: no article that&rsquo;s already been published anywhere else online or in any other format will be accepted.</p> <p>All valid entries will be judged by our panel and a selection of the best will be published on the Outsource site prior to the announcement of the winning entry towards the end of August. (For full terms and conditions, see below.)</p> <p>We&rsquo;ll be promoting all published articles heavily on this site and throughout our social media channels &ndash; and there&rsquo;s even the chance of the winner appearing on an Outsource Talks webinar later in the year. What greater exposure could there be for any aspiring sourcing thought leader?</p> <p>So, what are you waiting for? Editorial immortality awaits! Get your thinking caps on and, when you&rsquo;re ready to tackle that deliciously appetising question, start writing: a headline spot in Outsource and a place in SIG U&rsquo;s CSP course could be only a couple of thousand words away&hellip;</p> <p><strong>About SIG University</strong></p> <p>SIG University was developed by and for sourcing and outsourcing professionals and academics to supplement real-world experience with the knowledge seen as lacking in the industry today. Based on the theory of Vested relationships, SIG University is designed to give you the soft and hard skills necessary for today&rsquo;s sourcing professional.</p> <p>SIG U is transforming business one student at a time. Recognising that companies are desperate for innovative, analytical, transparent and customer-centric sourcing professionals, SIG U has taken guidance from the preeminent leaders in sourcing and created a curriculum that meets the needs of today&rsquo;s workforce for tomorrow&rsquo;s expectations.</p> <p><em>For more information please see <a href="http://www.siguniversity.org">www.siguniversity.org</a> or contact Mark Pollack at <a href="mailto:mpollack@sig.org">mpollack@sig.org</a> or on +1 904 304 6154.</em></p> <hr style="clear:both;" /> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Terms &amp; Conditions</strong></em></p> <p><em>1. This competition is not open to employees of Sourcing Industry Group, Sourcing International Group, SIG University or their relatives; nor to anybody who has previously been published by Outsource in any format and/or medium whatsoever.</em><br /><em>2. The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence shall be entered into.&nbsp;</em><br /><em>3. To qualify for the competition, all entries must be received no later than midnight UK time on July 31st 2016.&nbsp;</em><br /><em>4. Submissions must be supplied in Microsoft Word format, in English, by email to <a href="mailto:jliddell@sig.org">jliddell@sig.org</a> with the subject line &ldquo;WRITING COMPETITION ENTRY&rdquo;; each entry must be accompanied by a photo of the author in .jpeg format. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.&nbsp;</em><br /><em>5. Submissions must be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length including all annotations but excluding the author&rsquo;s biography of no more than 100 words which must accompany, in the same document, the article being submitted.</em><br /><em>6. All submissions must be completely original; no entry shall be deemed valid if it has previously been published in whole or in part anywhere in the world, in any medium whatsoever.</em><br /><em>7. Articles must not contain graphs, diagrams or any other type of illustration; no images other than the photo of the author will be published.</em><br /><em>8. All submitting authors will identify themselves and assert in the act of their submission that they are the sole authors of the article being submitted and that no other authors&rsquo; rights are being infringed in any way. Sourcing Industry Group/Sourcing International Group will not be held liable in any way for any copyright infringement resulting from the publication of any article submitted to this competition.</em><br /><em>9. All submitting authors will in the act of their submission transfer in perpetuity to Outsource and Sourcing Industry Group/Sourcing International Group the full ownership of the article being submitted and all rights to publish the article, along with or without the image of the author supplied as part of the submission, anywhere in the world, in any medium. Outsource and Sourcing Industry Group/Sourcing International Group will acknowledge the authorship of the article as and when it is published on every occasion. The Outsource editor reserves the right to edit any submission in any way he sees fit.</em><br /><em>10. The prize of one enrollment in SIG University&rsquo;s Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) course will be awarded to the author of the winning entry, who may take the course him/herself or, if s/he does not meet the criteria for eligibility, may transfer the prize to a colleague meeting those criteria. Eligibility shall be decided solely by Mark Pollack, Vice President of SIG University, and no substitute prize shall be given in its stead should the winner and/or any other proposed recipient of the award be deemed ineligible. Any winner deemed eligible and subsequently taking the CSP course shall be subject to the usual SIG University Terms &amp; Conditions.</em><br /><em>11. This prize has no cash value.&nbsp;</em><br /><em>12. This competition shall be held according to the laws of England and Wales.<br />13. All entrants will automatically be subscribed to the Outsource mailing list and their information may be shared with Sourcing Industry Group, SIG University and associated organisations.&nbsp;</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/certified-sourcing-professional-csp" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP)</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Education</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/competition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Competition</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/training" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Training</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/sourcing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sourcing</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Enter our writing competition to win a place at SIG University! - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://www.futureofsourcing.com/node/952"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Fri, 03 Jun 2016 12:51:57 +0000 Jamie Liddell 952 at https://www.futureofsourcing.com