Finding experienced people for large Regeneration projects is increasingly difficult, and having the right contacts and knowing who to talk to is crucial. At Edbury Daley we have a strong network of contacts particularly in Regeneration and Social Housing. We use over 25 years of market knowledge to identify experienced professionals in the industry.

Property Advisors are evolving too. In tandem with established service offerings, a number have found new areas of growth in full life cycle consultancy to public and private sector clients in areas such as education, social housing, mixed use and regeneration schemes. The need to manage consultancy projects, multi-disciplinary teams and client relationships over a number of years requires multi-skilled and very talented property professionals. Identifying those who can combine all these facets is critical in a changing property advisory marketplace.

We’ve observed these and many other trends and adapted our methods to suit today’s market. Our experience of focusing on this industry since 1998 enables us to add value to your recruitment methods in a number of crucial areas.

We know who’s developing the best people, embracing technology most effectively, where the innovators are and how best to find and attract the right people for your business.

Procurement has a special role to play in modern industry, and we can find the people to enhance your team’s capability and achieve your objectives.

85% of housebuilding professionals surveyed so far prefer applying directly to employers than through recruitment agencies

89% of respondents so far prefer specialist job boards like www.careersinhousebuilding.co.uk to the leading generalist job boards

Over 70% find social media like Facebook & Twitter helpful to keep up to date with job news

We plan to publish all the findings from our research early in the new year so if you haven’t contributed yet, please find 5 minutes to complete the 11 multiple choice questions here.

105 Consulting Perspectives
We set out on this survey with the intention of assessing the trade-off between systems and skills in Procurement, and did not find what we had expected! The combination of tough economic times, requiring business functions to be evermore effective, and the history of systems investment that has taken place over the past five or more years, intuitively indicated that many organisations would be leveraging their technology investment, and operating at a less tactical level than before.

Why might we have expected that outcome? Three simple reasons.

1. The basic expectation that systems improve efficiency, and enable better performance;
2. Systems help ensure consistent and compliant adherence to processes and policies;
3.  The data captured by systems provides more accurate information with which to make better decisions for the future.

Rather surprisingly we appear to have stumbled upon an area where the deployment of systems is much more ad hoc than we expected; the value they add to the enterprise is regarded with more scepticism than we would have predicted; and the up-skilling that we thought would have been made possible by the existence of enabling technology, is not widespread. The bulk of the value from the technology deployed appears aligned to improving transactional efficiency and compliance. We are intrigued that only a minority of respondents felt the technology supports them on their strategic procurement agenda. This perhaps supports our view of the need to build improved procurement capability through skills development, in parallel with technology.

Read more in the full report. Download here.

We have recently been the recruiting partner for several transformation projects where large PLCs have driven procurement to the forefront of their business.  Such opportunities are always attractive to strong candidates so this has enabled us to identify some outstanding talent in the following areas:

Graduates with 3-6 years procurement experience

At Edbury Daley we appreciate the importance of  identifying the Procurement Leaders of the future. We specifically target ambitious candidates coming through graduate schemes from the leading developers of procurement talent.  The competition for such people is strong in the current climate, particularly as the salaries represent excellent value for the broad range of skills they offer.

Category Management – Indirect Spend

In the aforementioned transformation projects, several of the organisations in question have looked for accomplished Category Managers with experience in classic areas of indirect spend.  We have identified some outstanding candidates as a result of these searches, particularly in Marketing, HR, FM and Professional Services.

IT category expertise in particular is in much greater demand than 12 months ago.  This article is quite interesting: Global IT spending to rise

Senior Sourcing Managers / Global Category Leads

With so many businesses still seeking to effect real change in how their procurement function operates, the need for “heavyweight” Category Leaders with the gravitas and credibility to influence senior stakeholders remains strong.  The ability to develop and implement a sourcing strategy at senior management level is not as easily available as many perceive but we have had great success in this area recently.

Supplier Relationship Manager

As previous readers of our research know Supplier Relationship Management has become increasingly high profile in recent years.  In fact, relationships with suppliers are more important than ever.  There are currently several outstanding candidates looking to move, ideally to an organisation seeking to develop its SRM capability.

If your business needs to identify the best available talent in Procurement or SRM, then it’s time to talk to us about how we can have a positive impact on your recruitment.

The firm sold 4,922 homes up from 4,595 and achieved an average selling price of £175,613 (£163,175).

Chairman Howard Dawe said: “The Group’s average weekly reservation rate rose during the early part of 2011 and did not fall until the summer months – a typical pattern for a normal housing market. Reservations in the first nine weeks of the new financial year are almost 11% ahead of the same period last year.”

Analysis: Most housebuilders are publishing positive results with increases in turnover and profit now that their businesses have been slashed in size and the remaining offices are operating at full capacity. By way of example, the new turnover figure for Bellway is only half the figure posted for 2007. Nevertheless, solid improvements in financial performance will sure up confidence and encourage expansion plans.

Gentoo Group has been granted approval for a new home purchase plan which will allow first time buyers and people renting long-term to buy a home without needing a deposit or mortgage.

The plan, named Genie – approved by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – lets buyers acquire an increasing share in their property over a 25-year period. The purchaser will have the same rights as a traditional home owner and will pay a monthly residency fee, adjusted every five years, Gentoo explained.

Buyers can opt out of Genie at any stage and sell their accumulated shares back to Gentoo. Alternatively, they can put the property on the open market.

Following a successful pilot in May 2010, Genie will initially be rolled out across North East England, but Gentoo plans to take the home plan nationwide.

“Genie has been in development for two years and we genuinely believe that our home plan addresses one of the major housing issues of our generation,” said Peter Walls, Gentoo Group’s chief executive.

Analysis: This is a variation on the split equity model widely available through housebuilders and Housing Associations nationwide with monthly payments buying a share in equity and also paying rent. It offers greater flexibility in allowing the purchaser the opportunity to increase their payments to buy a 100% stake which they can sell on the open market and has the advantage over traditional mortgage products that it requires only a small set up fee rather than a substantial deposit. It will be interesting to see how comfortable the house purchasing community will be with a new and relatively complex way of buying property and if Gentoo are successful in raising the finance to roll this out on a substantial scale.

House purchase lending enjoyed a rise in August, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders released today (October 11).

In August, there were 52,000 loans advanced at a value of £7.9 billion, up from 48,700 (worth £7.2 billion) in July.  In August 2010 51,000 house purchase loans were advanced at the value of £7.7 billion.

CML said that lending to both first time buyers and home movers (the two groups make up the home loan total) was at its highest for more than a year. Loans to first time buyers rose 5% both from July 2011 and August 2010. The value increased 4% on July 2011 and 9% on August 2010. Loans to home movers rose 8% (10% by value) on July 2011 and 1% (2% by value) from August 2010.

Director general of the CML Paul Smee said: “Even though it is impossible to ignore the knocks to confidence emanating from the Eurozone, August lending showed welcome signs of life.

Analysis: A positive story which is not easy to attribute to anything happening in the real economy. However, anecdotally, Sales Directors are saying it is getting slightly easier to get mortgage approvals for customers with lenders showing a hint of flexibility. Also, financial advisors are reporting a steady increase in the number of mortgage products on the market which will be creating some competition amongst lenders to secure business.

House prices dipped 0.5% in September, Halifax’s latest data has shown.

The average price of a UK home is now £161,132. Prices in Q3 were 0.1% higher than in Q2, the first quarterly rise since Q1 2010. Prices in the three months to September were 2.3% lower against the same period last year.

Housing economist Martin Ellis said that house prices had been a “mixed monthly picture” throughout 2011 and reflected a market where prices were “lacking genuine direction”.

Ellis commented: “Greater uncertainty about economic and personal financial circumstances, together with pressure on householders’ finances from weak earnings growth, higher inflation and increases in taxes, are likely to be constraining housing demand.”

However, he added that low interest rates and rising employment over the past year had been supporting the market. “We expect little change over the remainder of this year.”

Analysis: In short we have the basic economic conditions of low demand (with mortgage finance restrictions, inflation and economic uncertainty being the key factors) and low supply (housebuilders producing half the volumes of 2007 and second hand sellers reluctant to come to market) leading to a steady price. However, the longer prices remain stable the greater confidence the mortgage lenders will have in offering higher Loan to Value products and therefore give first time buyers greater access to the property market.

Edbury Daley Viewpoint: The culmination of all the current housebuilding news is a stable recruitment market operating at relatively low levels. Sales positions dominate the recruitment instructions from negotiator through to regional department heads as housebuilders need the very best sales people in the prevailing market conditions. Greater mortgage finance would be the key to rapid housebuilder expansion and a potential glut of job vacancies across the disciplines.

Simon Edbury is a specialist in the UK housebuilding job market.

Chris joined Edbury Daley in the summer of 2010 following his graduation in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester. Chris has been a key member of the project team working on procurement assignments with salaries up to £150k across numerous sectors such as Financial Services, Electronics, Professional Services, Transportation, FMCG and Special Events.

Chris has already developed an excellent track record of sourcing high calibre candidates for numerous UK and global procurement positions. He is extensively networked within Indirect Spend categories, and has worked on assignments from Global Procurement Director to Procurement Analyst. He relishes particularly challenging client projects, repeatedly proving his ability to succeed where other recruiters have failed.

David Ryan

David is the newest member of the Edbury Daley team having graduated from University of Manchester with a degree in Linguistics in the summer of 2011 and started with Edbury Daley shortly after. David is both supporting existing teams and working independently across all areas of the business with sourcing of candidates and with candidate management. David is also responsible for the co-ordination, expansion and development of Edbury Daley’s social media activities and campaign management including developing new strategies for reaching candidates.

Recruitment activity remained strong despite the summer holidays

Is there a skills shortage in procurement?

This time last year we reported a noticeable improvement in job market conditions for the procurement profession and associated areas including SRM, P2P and e Sourcing. As regular readers of this analysis will know, we have observed positive trends in both the interim and procurement markets throughout this year.

Furthermore we have evidence from senior HR figures that procurement departments have more success gaining approval for new recruits than other functions in organisations with head count restrictions. This is undoubtedly due to the benefits that strategic procurement brings to major organisations and the recognition of this at board level.

Category & Sector Trends

Salaries for Marketing category specialists appear to have stabilised. This is an area that has traditionally had a premium on category expertise in the last 10-15 years but has been quiet throughout the economic difficulties of the last 2-3 years and this does appear to have impacted upon salaries.

The demand for IT category expertise continues to grow and we are seeing some shortages for strong candidates with expertise in telecoms and software.  We anticipate some salary growth in this area in the next 6 months.

Expertise in the classic areas of indirect spend remain in strong demand and we’ve been particularly active sourcing candidates with deep category knowledge in Marketing, HR, CapEx, Facilities & Property. Basic salaries for Category Lead roles can vary from £40k to £85k depending on regional and industry variations.

The FMCG sector is particularly busy with our specialist Hannah Jackson constantly sourcing the best talent in the sector. As usual the key category areas are ingredients, raw materials and packaging but we have also seen an increase in demand for new product development and logistics focused roles.

The Consulting sector, often a useful barometer for the health of the market, is very active in both strategic transformation projects and the more savings delivery orientated engagements leading to a healthy recruitment market which is up by 17% in the last 12 months based on our activity in the sector.

As mentioned earlier this year the gradual recovery in the interim market continues and there is noticeably less interim resource available currently.   Upward pressure on day rates is growing as a result and we envisage 2012 will see a strong interim market.

Candidates unable to gain roles on a day rate basis have the option to consider fixed term contracts which have become increasingly popular in the past 12 months as they represent a cost effective method to employ temporary staff for those organisations with head count issues.

Skills Shortage?

We have commented in the past about a scarcity of strong candidates in certain key areas of the profession.  Interestingly Supply Management have recently published an article looking at the findings of a survey by Accenture and focus on the question of whether a talent shortage exists.  Supply Management – Talent shortage

The Accenture report raises a range of interesting points impacting upon the profession and covers there findings on the subject of attracting and retaining the best talent.  In their survey Accenture report that only 41% of the most advanced procurement departments have a formal career opportunity programme to help attract, retain and develop their best people.  This figure falls to 5% in organisations where procurement isn’t as well established. The full Accenture report can be read here

Our view remains that there is real competition for the very best procurement talent and these are the key areas that even the leading functions can find it hard to identify the skills and experience they need:

Ambitious graduates with 2-5 years experience in procurement. Basic salaries range from £25k to £40k at this level.

Category Managers with highly valued transferable skills, stakeholder engagement usually being top of the list for most hiring managers.

Experienced functional leaders who can demonstrate a track record of delivering a step change in procurement’s capability and influence across large corporate organisations

P2P & e Sourcing specialists with experience in driving greater compliance and developing systems which require greater use of recent technology

Experienced candidates with the ability to adapt to different corporate structures and reporting lines e.g. matrix based environments present particular challenges

What are we doing to address this for our clients?

We work closely with key clients to help them refine how they can improve their recruitment processes and improve their ability to attract the people they need.

We advise on prevailing market conditions for every relevant niche area we operate in enabling clients to understand the availability and cost of the skills they need at any given time.

Chris McGowan is specifically responsible for identifying the very best of the emerging talent in the profession and closely monitors the progress of those on the leading graduate schemes.  We know which organisations have a track record of producing the procurement leaders of the future.

Andrew Daley maintains regular contact with a wide range of experienced leaders with experience as Procurement Directors and equivalent.

Hannah Jackson continues to work exclusively in the FMCG sector and has an outstanding network of professionals with both industry sector expertise and relevant transferable skills from associated areas.

The team works together closely to enhance our ability to find the best talent at all levels, particularly in areas well suited to transferable skills like Category Management and Vendor Management.

Through our extensive networking and advanced research techniques, each of our team is constantly striving to identify strong candidates in the less obvious areas missed by other recruiters.

Summary

The permanent market is in a healthy state with opportunities available at all levels from graduate to CPO in the last quarter whilst the interim market is edging towards full capacity again resulting in some improvement in day rates.

As the market continues to improve we believe the existing issues around skills shortages in key areas will only be exacerbated as demand grows, particularly at middle management level whilst the growth in supply is clearly constrained.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the points raised here, or how to identify the talent you need for your team, please contact Andrew Daley on 0161 776 4603 or via andrew@edburydaley.com

If you are looking for a new role please contact Chris McGowan chris@edburydaley.com or David Ryan david@edburydaley.com

Anyone wishing to discuss opportunities in the FMCG sector should contact Hannah Jackson on 0161 776 4608 or via hannah@edburydaley.com