Procurement Training—Who is Responsible?—I
A reputable source told me last week that a major U.S. corporation recently informed its procurement staff that the company will no longer pay for their professional membership in ISM. Is this another example of "penny wise and pound foolish" behavior?
Let’s do the math on this decision.
- Annual dues for ISM vary by affiliate, but average about $200 per person per year
- Assume the member attends 5 dinner meetings at $25 per event = $125 per person per year
- Potential corporate cost savings per procurement employee per year = $325
In terms of the total “investment” that a company makes in its human resources, $325 per person per year is a pittance. To put this in perspective: a new PC alone can run a few thousand dollars per employee every two to three years.
What about the value of the ISM membership? Here is a partial list of benefits: information exchange, best practices sharing, dinner presentations by experts on key subjects (without having to fly to a conference), discounts on other services from ISM, etc. For a more complete listing of the benefits, see:
http://www.ism.ws/membership/content.cfm?ItemNumber=5605&navItemNumber=5466
Anybody who has been an active member of ISM can generally attest to the career- and skills-building value.
Ok—so this particular St. Louis based corporation—if the report is correct—is actually demonstrating a view that their people are not really assets. On the contrary, they seem to view their employees more as costs. As a side note: this is a fairly common mistake among companies that ultimately develop serious health issues. See the book Beat the Odds: Avoid Corporate Death for an easy read on how companies kill themselves, and how your company can avoid that fate.
More on training accountability in my next post.
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