Professional Development Professional Development Professional Development 
NASPO Events & Education NASPO’s Strategic Partnerships Shape a Strategic Future
What do you picture when someone says, “Oh! Here is a resource for you!”? Traditionally, most people imagine a tangible, physical item. But resources can take many forms, and often the most helpful resource isn’t books or paper, but people. Read more “NASPO’s Strategic Partnerships Shape a Strategic Future”
NASPO Events & Education Climbing the Summit: Government Performance and Innovation Recap
A couple of weeks ago (June 4th – 6th), I attended the Summit on Government Performance and Innovation in Minneapolis, which is organized by Governing and has been held annually since 2015. This is the second time I represented NASPO at this event to learn about the innovative initiatives of cities and governments around the country and bring that information back to NASPO members. Demographics, inclusive procurement and challenging the status quo were just some of the topics discussed. These innovative topics helped to set the tone for modernizing the way government does business. This conference highlighted the creative solutions governments are using to address a changing world. Read more “Climbing the Summit: Government Performance and Innovation Recap”
NASPO Events & Education Build Today for a Better Tomorrow
NASPO’s Higher Education initiatives are built upon our relationships with academic partners. After more than three years of working with these impressive academics and their students, the answer to a need of our membership often lies with one of our partner schools. NASPO encourages its membership to participate in academic partner career fairs, case competitions and many other events, but the ultimate goal is to build an example for the states to model when reaching out to their local institutions. NASPO has worked to establish relationships with top-tier Supply Chain Management programs across the country. Of course, the primary goal in everything we do is to serve our members, and these partnerships are no different.
Professional Development 3 Ways to Simultaneously Improve Employee and Customer Satisfaction
In the world of modern procurement, your office is constantly doing business with citizens, vendors, and government agencies. Leaving a lasting positive impression on your customers is a key component of your central procurement office’s ability to conduct its mission. Happier employees will help you accomplish those customer service goals. Customer service and agency relations is number one on the 2019 NASPO Top 10 Priorities, cementing that customer satisfaction is important to CPOs across the country. When the ultimate end user in every procurement transaction is the taxpayer, each step in the procurement process is important, including customer service. In 2003, two Canadian policy analysts conducted a study concerning public employee’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction with government goods and services. They discovered the relationship between employee and customer satisfaction is reciprocal in nature. By investing in employee satisfaction, you will simultaneously see improvement in your customer satisfaction and agency relations. That’s two improvements with one action – two satisfactions with one procurement stone. Read more “3 Ways to Simultaneously Improve Employee and Customer Satisfaction”
NASPO Events & Education Workforce shortage? Have you considered emerging talent?
Article by Dana Dembrow (State of MD), Intro by Olivia Hook Frey (NASPO)
Introduction by Olivia Hook Frey:
Many of our states have expressed concerns associated with their retirement-age workforce. Even more stress-inducing is not knowing where or how to recruit new talent to fill those gaps. As part of NASPO’s higher education initiatives, student recruitment at the college-level has been a priority. This emerging talent is oftentimes overlooked in the public sector, but NASPO is working to change that. Through our partnership with impressive colleges and universities across the country, we work to place these quality students in both internships and full-time positions within our state purchasing offices.
Read more “Workforce shortage? Have you considered emerging talent?”
Professional Development 3 Procurement Leadership Models for the New Year
Centralization and strategic leadership continue to be focus areas for state procurement offices around the country in the new year. This article recaps key takeaways from the 2018 NASPO Annual Conference townhall session on the leading role of the state central procurement office and three existing procurement authority models: centralized, decentralized/delegated and the hybrid procurement authority models. All three models create efficiencies and savings for the state. However, the centralized procurement authority model maximizes resources and outcomes while providing increased oversight, accountability and consistent application of standards and policies statewide.
Continue reading if you are a public procurement leader looking to improve your strategy in 2019!
Read more “3 Procurement Leadership Models for the New Year”
Professional Development Building a Sustainable Workforce Through College Student Outreach
Recruitment of emerging talent is an effort NASPO has focused on as an integral part of our higher education initiatives.. Since we began this project in 2017, we have attended supply chain management career fairs at each of our six academic partner schools. We take a two-pronged approach; at least one NASPO staff member attends to grab students’ attention and explain what public sector procurement is and why it is an excellent career opportunity; and state members attend to talk to students specifically about their state’s career opportunities.
We have learned so much from the first career fairs we attended in 2016. In order to gain students’ attention, we e have colorful pop-up banners, NASPO “swag,” and more of a visible presence on these campuses. Through our work with our internship and scholarship programs, as well as speaking in supply chain management classes and supply chain student groups, we have increased our brand awareness. Now, we often have a small handful of students at each fair who come up to our table and know what we do! We have come a long way from that first fair, we still have work to do.
Read more “Building a Sustainable Workforce Through College Student Outreach”
Technology & IT Procurement Building a Procurement Team for a Digital Future
Want your procurement staff to be ready for the next big thing? There is undeniable value in a staff that is savvy with current technology, but how do you prepare your staff to be ready to keep up with the digital trend that’s here to stay? In many cases, trends come and go, but sometimes they are the forces that drive innovation and success for businesses worldwide. Organizations of all sizes who embrace changing times are better able to develop strategies to manage change in a way that positions themselves for the future. Digitalization is achieved through the use of technology to strengthen existing processes and practices. It can also be looked at as the thread that is woven through multiple silos of information as means to integrate people, processes, and data throughout an organization. Outside of cost savings, there is value in digital efficiency, especially since procurement plays a vital role in shaping strategic models that support the execution of a multitude of contractual goods and services.
Read more “Building a Procurement Team for a Digital Future”
Professional Development