Why Your Last Procurement Hire Didn’t Work, and What to Do Differently This Time
The post-mortem nobody runs
Most businesses that have tried full-time procurement and been disappointed do not run a proper post-mortem on why it did not work. The person leaves, the role gets quietly absorbed back into finance or operations, and a year later the same conversation comes round again. Different name on the JD, same outcome.
I want to make this slightly uncomfortable, because the honest answer is usually structural, not personal. The hire failed because the conditions for success were not in place before they arrived. They were set up to underperform, and they did. Until you separate the structural causes from the individual ones, you will run the same play and get the same result.
Why procurement hires actually fail
I have seen six recurring reasons. They show up in different combinations depending on the business, but at least three of them are usually present when a procurement hire has not delivered.
1. Hired too early for the spend level
A senior procurement professional needs enough addressable spend to generate meaningful impact. Bring them in at £3m of spend with a fragmented contract base and they spend their first six months doing buyer-level work because that is what is in front of them. They get frustrated. The MD wonders what they are actually doing. The role unwinds.
2. No clear remit beyond “fix everything”
The JD says “transform procurement” and the conversation at interview confirms it. What that actually means in practice is never agreed. No priority categories, no first-year outcomes, no decision rights. The new hire has to define their own job while doing it, which is a slow way to start and an easy way to be judged on the wrong things.
3. No executive sponsorship
Procurement only works when someone at the top blocks for it. Without a credible sponsor, every supplier challenge becomes a political negotiation inside the business. Budget holders push back, sponsors go quiet, and the procurement lead either accepts the loss or burns relationships trying to win it. Neither is sustainable.
4. Sucked into operational firefighting
If the function has no infrastructure, the new hire becomes the infrastructure. They chase POs, fix invoice queries, handle escalations from suppliers nobody else wants to talk to. Six months later they have done a great job keeping the wheels on, and zero strategic work. That is not what they were hired for, but it is what the business needed in the moment, and nobody pushed back.
5. Mismatch between seniority and authority
A Head of Procurement with no sign-off authority over contracts is not a Head of Procurement. They are a coordinator with an expensive title. If the MD or FD still signs everything and decides everything, the procurement lead has responsibility without power, which is the fastest way to lose a good one.
6. Wrong reporting line
Reporting into the wrong place sets the tone for the function. Buried two levels under finance, procurement gets treated as a back-office cost. Reporting into operations alone, it becomes a fulfilment function. Strategic procurement needs a line into the FD or MD, with visibility at the leadership team. Anything less and the function gets sized down to fit its perceived importance.
What usually goes wrong vs what good looks like
It is worth seeing the contrast across the dimensions that actually shape outcomes. The table below is the short version of the post-mortem I run with clients who have been through a failed hire and want to make the next one work.
| Dimension | What usually goes wrong | What good looks like |
| Scope | “Fix procurement” with no boundaries or priorities | Three to five named outcomes for the first 12 months, with categories prioritised |
| Sponsorship | No executive owner, MD signs off when reminded | Named sponsor at FD or MD level, weekly steer in early months |
| Authority | Senior title, junior decision rights, sign-off still sits elsewhere | Defined commercial authority, contract sign-off thresholds documented |
| Outcomes | Vague references to savings, no baseline | Baseline spend, target savings, contract coverage targets, agreed before day one |
| Measurement | Annual review, gut feel, anecdotes | Quarterly scorecard with savings, coverage, supplier performance, risk |
| Onboarding | Desk, laptop, good luck | Stakeholder map, contract register, opportunity list ready on day one |
What to do differently next time
The good news is that failed procurement hires are largely preventable. The work happens before the JD goes out, not after the offer is accepted. Four moves matter most.
First, get clear on the outcomes. Decide what good looks like in 12 months. Three or four measurable outcomes are better than a long list of vague ambitions. Coverage of contracts under management, savings against a defined baseline, supplier performance against agreed criteria, and a governance framework signed off by the board. That is a real remit.
Second, size the role to the actual workload. A £5m spend base with thirty contracts does not need a full-time Head of Procurement. It needs senior thinking, applied selectively, with operational support. A £40m spend base with hundreds of contracts and active M&A activity almost certainly does justify a permanent senior hire. The difference is not just the salary, it is whether the role has enough work to keep a senior person engaged. For businesses where the workload sits above what a part-time lead can sensibly absorb but a permanent hire still feels too risky, an outsourced procurement function is the third option worth pricing alongside the other two.
Third, consider whether fractional fits the gap. This is not a sales pitch, it is genuinely the right answer in a lot of mid-SME cases. I have written about the decision between fractional and full-time procurement leadership in more detail at https://www.pro-outsourcing.co.uk/fractional-procurement-vs-full-time-head-of-procurement/, which sets out when each model fits and the questions to ask before committing to either.
Fourth, set up the function before hiring into it. Get the contract register built. Define the categories. Document the governance. Identify the top opportunities. Then hire someone to run a function that exists, rather than asking them to build one while also delivering it. This is exactly the work a fractional engagement is designed to do as a precursor to permanent recruitment.
Final thought
If your last procurement hire did not work, the temptation is to conclude that procurement does not work for your business. That is almost never the right conclusion. The function works, the role works, the impact is real. What did not work was the setup. Fix the setup, and the next hire has a fair chance of delivering what the last one was set up to fail at.
If you would like a candid view of why the last hire did not land and how to structure the next move, get in touch for a free 30-minute consultation at https://www.pro-outsourcing.co.uk/contact-us/.
great resources:
CIPS – Leading global excellence in procurement and supply