Women in Procurement

Towards the end of 2019, I launched several Women in Procurement initiatives for Heads to do just that; provide women with a safe space to openly share their experiences and come up with solutions that can help them address this in their workplace.

We launched a series of workshops and round tables for women at different stages of their procurement careers, supported by Julie Smith, a People Change Lead and trained Coach and Mentor, who has spent her entire procurement career in both male-dominated procurement functions and industries.

The common themes to come out of these discussions were:

• Imposter syndrome and how to silence it – that feeling of being a fraud or feeling not good enough to do this job; leading a new team; returning to work after a career break or going through a career transition.
• Putting your job before your career – links to the “disease to please” and being stuck in the day to day and not pay attention to your overall career and the long-term view.
• What we can learn from men – claiming their achievements; leveraging relationships rather than just building them; less of the “disease to please” and not falling into the perfection trap (eg is the approach to job descriptions).
• Understanding your values and what is important to you – it helps you understand yourself better, they influence the decisions you make and your priorities, they shape your ability to grow and learn as well as what your future is going to look like both personally and professionally.
• Finding your communication style – learning how to communicate effectively and not feel like you have to be a man in a man’s world.
• Dealing with difficult leaders – and what that teaches you.
• Finding the balance between work and parenthood/home life – building the plan to make it work.
• Elevating women around you to increase our representation – talk, share and really support other women; have a think about what you feel is missing from your workplace and can you spearhead a new program or initiative; offer to mentor young women in procurement and in doing so encourage them to map out their career, help them build their confidence, help them build their network and be open to giving things a go.

As a result of this, we have set up ProcureMentor, a mentor programme for people who have been carefully matched according to their needs and stages of their career, as well as a LinkedIn networking group for women which enables them to have their say in a safe environment.

There are lots of highly skilled and capable Women in Procurement and by constantly talking to the procurement community and highlighting some of the most influential women in the profession, we will see the gender gap close not only at the top but will actively see more women wanting to join the profession at the grassroots level.

Established in 2009, Heads Resourcing Group encompasses three brands: Executive Heads, HR Heads and, specialist procurement recruiters Procurement Heads.

We are passionate about procurement and our broader value-add proposition sees us hosting roundtables with subject matter experts, profiling senior procurement leaders, and championing sustainability and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion within the profession.