The CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025, in partnership with Hays, has revealed that on a global basis, more than half of those responsible for hiring procurement professionals have struggled to find the skilled talent they need in the last year.
At the same time, more than a third of procurement employees worldwide expect to move job in the next year.
These findings indicate that there is something of a skills gap in the job market – one that ambitious procurement professionals and take advantage of by seeking and gaining the competences and experience that hiring managers badly need.
One of the biggest opportunity areas is IT and digital, where organisations’ needs are moving almost as fast as the technology itself is developing. CIPS spoke to Linda Todd and Kate Langham, business directors at Hays, about the role digital skills are playing in the procurement job market.
What digital skills are procurement employers most keen to see in potential hires?
Linda Todd: From our public sector experience, we are seeing demand in all-round IT: IT vendor management, IT Contract management and high-volume complex tech programmes, as well as experience around systems implementations.
Kate Langham: We’re seeing new enterprise resource planning systems being implemented across our client base, so expertise around P2P systems such as Ariba, Oracle, Coupa is a significant advantage to organisations. Understanding the mechanisms and end user functionality of these systems is crucial to ensure a smooth integration.
The Salary Guide survey found that procurement teams often struggle to find the skills they’re looking for in the employment market. When it comes to digital skills, which ones do you find to be in especially short supply?
LT: Digitalisation, AI, and then I think general IT as opposed to specialist. They’re often looking for someone that’s done a bit of everything.
KL: We hear more and more about “data literacy”, where organisations are trying to optimise every part of their supply chain through detailed analytics. In order to help them with this, we are being asked more and more for candidates with analytical skills who can identify cost savings and provide deeper insights into supply chains.
AI in its various forms is driving enormous change in every area of the economy. As far as procurement is concerned, how is it manifesting in the recruitment process?
KL: We actually are not seeing AI skills themselves at the forefront of recruitment briefs yet. I think because we are still in the comparatively early days of AI adoption, many businesses are upskilling existing staff members to adapt to potentially new AI systems. We are therefore not yet seeing companies seeking candidates with pre-existing AI knowledge. I think this will come in the next 24-36 months.
LT: As for recruiters themselves, I think AI has been really useful in helping to create job specs and briefs, but we are starting to see the other side of it now. There are lot of AI generated CVs belonging to individuals that don’t have the experience, and AI is being used to write application questions which can make a resourcing teams’ lives difficult. At Hays, we try to combat this by meeting all our prospective candidates in person to double check they are who they say they are and their CVs are their own.
Let’s talk about generational differences. Are younger/early-career procurement candidates arriving into the workforce with fresher digital skills than older counterparts, or are employers struggling to find candidates with these skills even among “digital natives”?
LT: I think this is still balanced across procurement. I think a lot of the digital programmes are still fairly new, so individuals are evolving with them.
KL: In terms of general digital skills, yes, the younger generation I would say are consistently more capable in this area. However. you do get very seasoned professionals who have made it their career specialisation, so you do get experienced hires with strong digital skills. This is seen perhaps more commonly in the financial services world, where functions are much more mature and long-standing.
How can the most senior influencers and leaders in the procurement profession upskill themselves to help set a standard for the profession?
LT: I think taking time out to keep up to date is really important – as is linking up with organisations such as CIPS to ensure continued professional development.