Of all the trends in procurement today, there’s one that’s particularly heartening: the profession is increasingly a highly valued function that can make a huge impact on the outcome of any organisation.
Data from the CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025, in partnership with Hays, shows that procurement professionals themselves want to add value – and want to be seen to add value by those beyond their departments.
Across every country and region included in the salary survey, a majority of respondents said procurement was valued within their organisations. And better yet, they also said they have seen its reputation improve in the last year.
Most of the respondents that we surveyed said the value of the profession lies not just in its impact on the bottom line, but also in its role in making the world a better place.
Across the surveyed regions, and particularly in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, respondents said that they see procurement as a strong force for positive social change in areas from broad environmental and governance issues to specific problems such as social inequality.
In South Africa, which has one of the highest and most persistent levels of inequality in the world, 89% of respondents agreed that a career in procurement and supply gives them a chance to influence equality, diversity and inclusion – and 69% said the profession offers a career path for people from disadvantaged social backgrounds.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the figures are just as strong, with 91% of respondents believing that procurement and supply can enable positive social change and 63% saying it opens the door to people historically excluded from professional opportunities.
The same trend is visible across every region in the CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025.
The overall picture, then, is of a profession whose leaders and workforce are keen not just to embrace positive social change, but to lead it.
To achieve this, procurement leaders must:
- Keep raising procurement’s profile in their own organisations
- Become more visible at board level
- Make sure that other leaders and teams understand what contribution procurement makes
- And get involved with projects from the very start in order to take ownership of the results.
One particularly optimistic figure jumps out: 60% of respondents predicted that in the next 10 years procurement and supply will enjoy a similar status to accountancy – a function whose value to organisations in all sectors is beyond question.