UK procurement teams face more work and fewer staff in 2011

Procurement teams in the UK will face increasing workloads this year as their departments take on extra responsibilities with no additional resources to cover it. 

Some 83 per cent of purchasers responding to the UK SM100 poll said their company was not planning to recruit more procurement staff.

Most poll respondents said the amount of activity done by the procurement team would increase but this would be divided up amongst existing purchasers.

Neil Dixon, procurement manager for LeasePlan UK, the Dutch financial services company focused on fleet management, said that although no additional buyers were being employed, the procurement team would have a “wider remit taking over full supplier management responsibility”.

In the previous SM100 poll, buyers stated that cost-cutting is the priority for their organisations in 2011. In this latest poll, purchasers said the decision not to recruit more buyers was influenced by a drive to reduce overheads in the organisation, particularly in the public sector. 

Most private sector buyers echoed the challenge of increasing workloads. “Sadly, budget pressures and workloads have and will continue to increase, but staff levels will remain the same,” said Steve Taylor, sales and marketing manager with purchasing responsibilities at ornamental fish supplier JMC Aquatics.

Gary Moore, commercial and procurement governance manager BAE Systems said: “A familiar theme in these days of austerity is – making the most of what we have got in terms of resources.”

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