Focus on Procurement – human relations expert Kaye Ronald
Kaye talks us through what the conditions in New Zealand were like when they were part of the team setting up a career structure in strategic procurement including development pathways and making it an attractive career field.
As a HR professional in the public service, Kaye spent her early career recruiting the talent NZ needed to deliver public procurement.
Where are you from?
Invercargill.
What did you train in and where did you study?
There wasn’t a specific human resources course as such. At the time my career was developing there was law governing workplace practices, but not down to the detail of the everyday occurrences HR professionals come across. We’re often the first to find out the conditions people are working in. And we had to build structures around those circumstances to support people until the law caught up and issues could be addressed that way. What could lead to change, early on, was a lot of collaboration with peers. We’d find out how colleagues in other workplaces had dealt with issues and worked through what we could implement in our workplace.
What attracted you to work in procurement?
I was working in human resources at the Ministry of Economic Development before it became the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. I was there when the Government wanted to build up its procurement capability, including the creation of New Zealand’s first team of strategic procurement professionals. This involved sourcing the appropriate people to set up this project and then deliver it. People often came from outside New Zealand as we didn’t have the level of strategic procurement capability within the country.
What are 3 things the public do not know about the role of procurement in their lives?
That everyone does it. If you’re buying for your household—you are procuring. That what you procure matters and has real impact on others. And that it’s an obtainable career. In terms of procurement in the public sector this was about creating significant efficiencies, capability, and supporting local suppliers. It can have a sizeable economic impact.
Can you please detail your top 3 achievements from your time in procurement?
- Helping create the first team of strategic procurement professionals for the country including getting a bunch of talented people into the country.
- Enabling hiring managers to hone their interview techniques to get the best out of candidates who would help shape the early specialist procurement team. Helping them say no when it wasn’t going to work and enabling that "yes" with candidates that would help them reach their goals.
- Setting up a career structure and development pathways to build our strategic procurement capability to create an attractive career field.
How big a job was your initial engagement with procurement? This was a time before New Zealand Government Procurement let alone MBIE existed. What was it like introducing people to procurement as a specialist area?
It was huge. We weren’t starting from nothing, but we really did work hard to find the right people to get the Government what it needed to help create a specialist function. And it’s helped shape how all the government ministries and smaller entities purchase and use items. It’s great to see it growing.
Do you have any ideas how small agencies without large procurement teams, where procurement might fall to the same person doing the accounts, can do procurement well and maybe build the argument for the expansion of their teams?
Ask for help. Form relationships with peers and collaborate where possible. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call people for assistance.
In an ideal world where you are not confined by a budget, what would you introduce to procurement that could help the industry function and develop?
Education. It doesn’t necessarily have to be procurement focused as such, but I would have people upskilling across all fields and especially in those soft skill fields. This was a bit missing in our early set up phases.
In your opinion, what is New Zealand’s greatest contribution to the procurement community here or overseas?
Its people. New Zealand has some great people working in procurement and they have a positive effect on the public each day they show up to work.