Training Statistics Indicate Increasing Recognition of Purchasing's Value

Online, March 24, 2010 (Newswire.com) - PITTSBURGH, PA - For years, purchasing departments have been made up of cast-offs from other areas within a company and with a lack of appropriate skills they were unable to positively contribute to a company's bottom-line. A recent survey of over 2800 purchasing professionals around the world may indicate that the purchasing department is gaining recognition as a valuable asset as organizations demonstrate willingness to make investments into improving the skills of their purchasing staff.

An annual purchasing survey conducted by Next Level Purchasing in December of 2009 found that individuals received a record 21.3 average hours of training throughout 2009. This represents an 8.7% increase over the previous year and a 16.4% increase from 2004's average of 18.3 hours. The rise in annual training hours per purchasing employee was a result of both individuals getting more training, as well as more individuals being trained, as the percentage of respondents who reported receiving no training dropped to 22.3% from 24.7% reported the previous year. Additionally, the percentage of respondents reporting 80 or more hours of training annually increased significantly to 7.3% from 1.8%, between 2008 and 2009.

Despite poor economic conditions in 2009, companies are obviously recognizing the potential of the purchasing department to better support operations. There still remains room for improvement though as many respondents indicated that their organizations had either limited or no funds appropriated to training for the purchasing department.