Learning & Development
Procurement Skills Assessment
Over the last 15 years we have assessed the procurement knowledge and skills of more than 20,000 people from over 1,000 organisations in almost 100 countries. The tool enables individuals and organisations to baseline existing procurement knowledge levels, identify the skills they need to develop, target investment and measure improvement over time. The database we maintain offers a range of benchmark comparisons so that procurement teams and individuals can compare their own performance against others in the same sector, job function, role level and region, either internally or externally.
Our on-line pQ tool assesses individuals in 13 key procurement competencies (functional leadership, category management, procurement strategy, strategic sourcing, contract law, finance, negotiation, sustainability, risk management). The assessment takes around 90 minutes to complete and comprises a range of multiple-choice questions. This makes the assessment both quick and cost effective to deploy whilst also being completely objective.
The findings are used to inform capability development initiatives and individuals receive a report highlighting their results and recommendations. Group reports enable development plans to be developed at either a team, regional, role or functional level and these can be aligned to specific roles and the competencies required.
Negotiation Skills Assessment
Our negotiation competence questionnaire (nQ) is a tool for assessing the negotiation knowledge and skill of individuals and teams.
The nQ offers a quick and cost effective way of measuring existing negotiation knowledge and skill. It enables investment to be focused towards either technical negotiation or personal and behavioural development priorities.
The nQ comprises 72 multiple choice questions across 3 levels (Foundation to Advanced) in 8 competencies:
- Persuasion and Influence
- Structure and Process
- Preparation and Planning
- Management and Control
- Tactics
- Relationships and Style
- Interpersonal Behaviours
- Cultural Aspects
Individuals receive an individual report highlighting areas of strength and development needs together with a suggested development plan. The output of the assessment can also be used to create a group or team learning footprint at a regional, role or functional level.
Skills Development and Learning
We offer a complete range of learning and development interventions targeting procurement, sourcing, contract management, supply chain, supplier and commercial management competencies. We have significant experience in helping procurement teams to reach their potential through a range of interventions including:
- Tutorial and classroom training
- Webinars and on-line class-based learning
- E-learning comprising short modules and end of module assessments
- Personal coaching and mentoring
- Project based coaching
- Customised and off-the-shelf courses
We design our learning and development programs in a modular, practical way to embed learning and accelerate behavioural change. We believe that training should be practical, interactive and enjoyable to aid application and retention amongst participants.
Our programs can operate independently or as a combined program. We can build the capability of your team around the 70:20:10 methodology, utilising a blend on the job learning, mentoring and formal training. We seek to leverage talent and technology in tandem and offer a wide range of behavioural skills based courses to ensure that your team has the right blend of personal skills to build successful relationships internally and externally.
Our approach seeks to help organisations develop a learning culture, to help teams to continue to develop and for individuals to constructively challenge each other to grow. We can also offer ‘train the trainer’ programs to enable your own resources to sustain ongoing development and roll-out of learning across the organisation.
All of our trainers are consultants who bring extensive experience of developing innovative and strategic solutions to every day challenges faced by procurement practitioners. We regularly update material in line with industry developments and seek to make the training practical through case studies which positively impact the participants’ business as usual activities.
Our workshops are designed to deliver real value to the individual and the organisation by being practical, thought provoking, challenging and fun. Our standard range of training programs offers several levels of development from awareness through to expert. All of our training is centred around the individuals and we encourage participants to bring their live workplace examples to the events to discuss. Our workshops use a range of delivery techniques and combine content delivery with interactive activities and facilitated discussions.
eLearning
We offer a comprehensive suite of eLearning across the end-to-end procurement life-cycle. With inhouse design and development capability, we can fully tailor, contextualise or brand your eLearning solution, providing a SCORM compliant package or access through our secure Procurement Hub – your online hub for procurement learning. Online learning offers a range of benefits, including accessibility, flexibility and lower cost of delivery than traditional learning methods.
eLearning offers a ‘right now’ approach to delivering cost-effective training. Learners can experience bite-sized modules from their computers or laptops, easily fitting into their daily work schedule.
Our e-learning and procurement hub platform offers secure access to:
- Over 90 modules of e-learning
- End of module assessments plus other assessment type exercises including short profiles and situational dilemmas
- A resource library containing a wide range of templates to help practitioners with strategic sourcing, category management, negotiation and contract management
- Access to videos and webinars
- Book reviews and other procurement related content
- A community section which can be used to collaborate with colleagues or ask questions to the tutor
