First post about The European Institute for Purchasing Management (EIPM). EIPM has developed and is offering free on its website a powerful internet based “skill self-assessment tool” for purchasing and supply management positions called “the Bee Resource“. You can use it on a individual basis, to check your own skills, or on a company base, to assess the skills of a purchasing department.
I’ve tested the Bee Resource and found it very interesting for the following reasons:
- A flexible job profiling capability (you select only the activities you perform)
- Questions relevancy and specificity
- benchmarking comparisons
- the individual or group assessment capabilities
- the anonymity for users
In its presentation EIPM says:
This self assessment process allows the organisation to discern clearly the strengths/weaknesses of individuals and the purchasing population, to identify areas of improvements that can be made and to indicate existing competency gaps. Finally the process culminates in the recommendation of appropriate training package for the group.
The way it works
The Bee Resources profiling and assessment tool is structure around a job position schema, activities linked to the job, and competencies that are identified to best perform the activities.
The user first selects his job then selects the activities that are relevant and pertinent to this job. This is followed by the actual self-assessment itself,. Duration for completion varies according to the number of activities selected by the user. It easely takes an hour to go through it. The questionnaire is structured in different formats, including self-evaluation scales, multiple-choice questions, quizzes and scenarios. The objective is to measure the buyer’s knowledge, expertise and behaviour to determine his professional level of competence.
The six categories of competencies or skills tested are:
- management
- leadership
- communication
- decision making
- purchasing technical skills
- external skills
The results are displayed on spider-chart format, based on six axis representing the six competencies necessary to perform the activities. Last but not least detail about anonymity and confidentiality: individual users have access to their own result report while managers (if any) receive the overall average score of the group.
Dear Mr Massin,
It is reallly interesting to have read your blog, & it is really refreshing to read on the Skills Assessment & Salary Survey. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments & explicit description of the tools.
I am working today on the Skills Assessment which we are rolling out for multinational companies to assess the skills gaps of buyers in different geo zones, there are close to 1000 people who have been evaluated, from Europe, N & S America, Asia, S Africa.
If you wish I would be pleased to give you a presentation on the features. We’re working on the V2 (version 2) which would contain more dynamic scenario questions.
Concerning the Salary Survey, today there are exactly 2024 Participants based on the 2006 Salary Survey, the 2007 Salary Survey will be up & running this Monday. Please send me your email address so I may send you a link.
I would love to site your blog on the EIPM Website as a Testimonial, but first I would like to know your opinion about this. Please feel free to inform us your agreement.
And before concluding, should you wish to pursue any of our Training courses & or Conferences at the EIPM, you can count on me to ensure you get a special priviledged fee. This is the minimum I could do.
Please feel free to email me on your thoughts,
Warm Regards,
Mrs Kay Bayen
Mobile: +33 (0)6 30 76 75 21
Tel.: +33 (0)4 50 31 56 86 – Fax : +33 (0)4 50 31 56 80
The European Institute of Purchasing Management
F- 74160 Archamps
http://www.eipm.org
P Before printing, think about the environment
Hi Kay. Thanks back to you!
1) I’m definitly in favor of knowing more about your skill assessment survey amd about promoting the salary survey for 2007.
2) About mentioning my blog on your website as a testimonial, feel absolutly free.
Let me know of anything new arising so I can share it with SS|E readers.
Dear Mr Massin,
Here is another Kay. It’s just a coincidence.
I’m just found Samurai Sourcing, Inc. to introduce combinenet’s optimization and to widen strategic sourcing concept in Japan.
This is a good blog and I’ll visit again.
I got here to find “12 skills required for sourcing professionals.” Do you know of them or any reference?
The attached website is a book I wrote with other 6 buyers in the Japanese leading manufacturers. It is about how we are behind in strategic sourcing but some buyers are struggling to bring novel management concept beyond strategic sourcing. Except our poor English, it should be fun to read.
BTW, I’m a graduate of Ernst&Yound Japan. It is long ago and before its acquisition by CapGemini. Such a small world.
Kay:
You might want to check out the e-Sourcing Wiki, http://www.esourcingwiki.com.
It has the following wiki-papers:
Strategic e-Sourcing Best Practices
http://www.esourcingwiki.com/index.php/Strategic_e-Sourcing_Best_Practices
Strategic Sourcing Decision Optimization
http://www.esourcingwiki.com/index.php/Sourcing_Decision_Optimization
Sourcing Leadership
http://www.esourcingwiki.com/index.php/Sourcing_Leaders
… and 27 more.
I would also ask that you check out, if you haven’t already, Sourcing Innovation. It has an entire category devoted to optimization.
Onegai Shimasu
Thank you, Doc.
Those are good information sources.
Arigato Gozaimashita.
-K