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Value Match Introduction
Author: Brian M
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Value Match has strengthened its team with the appointment of Terence who joins to develop our partnership programme across public and private sectors.
Value Match has organically grown primarily based upon the quality and consistency of services we deliver and the exceptional professionalism of our team. As part of our development we are building a partnership programme built around our Values and build long lasting relationships built upon integrity and mutual understanding.
Terence brings a wealth of experience in building long term collaborative relationships across all sectors and in particular within the public sector. He has supported numerous organisations in building greater capacity and capability within their procurement functions and has supported numerous events that bring together buying organisations with suppliers and especially small or medium size enterprises.
Terence has served in a number of voluntary positions such as a Charity Trustee, Board Member of a Housing Association and is currently a School Governor.
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This article will explore the best ways to improve your professional persona to further progress your career and help you to get recruited and discovered by recruiters actively looking for procurement and bid management professionals. If you’re currently seeking new opportunities in procurement, be sure to check out our latest roles and follow us on LinkedIn.
Make yourself known
Making yourself known within your professional space is crucial, it will put you on the radar for headhunters. If you are currently in role you still have the options and opportunities in place to progress your career further.
- Speak at events – Speaking at an event is a win/win for everyone involved. As the speaker, you’ll be given the opportunity to talk to event attendees and network among other professionals within your field. It also gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and experience.
- Publish articles – Publishing articles across industry websites is a fantastic way to place your content in front of new audiences that wouldn’t have been aware of who you are or what you can offer.
- Target seminars that recruitment consultants speak at – Attend local and national seminars and events where industry recruitment consultants are actively speaking at. These are also great places to network.
- Get involved with industry networking groups – a fantastic starting point for anyone looking to network with professionals.
Demonstrate your skills
Demonstrating your skills makes you desirable to headhunters and recruiters. It shows your expertise and that your passionate about your field.
- Run training courses – Whether it’s an online course or offline, running a training exercise or course looking at specific topics within procurement and bid management is a great way to get your name out there.
- Volunteer your skills – There are many organisations within procurement and bid management you can volunteer your skillsets to, Social Value UK and Contract for Change are fantastic organisations you should look getting involved with.
- Start a podcast speaking on your field – By utilising podcasts you will be able to reach a large audience of like-minded people, sharing your opinions and being open to debate will show your experience and give you platform to learn from others.
- Share your knowledge and make your services desirable – LinkedIn is a fantastic way of publishing documents and podcasts to your network who’ll then share your posts with theirs.
- Discuss the achievements you’ve accomplished.
Network
Networking is one of the most important ways of getting your name out, maintaining good rapport with colleagues is vital in creating a well-rounded professional persona. Networking online is just as important as face to face contact. It allows you to reach a larger audience and gives you complete control of the image you portray for future employers.
- Build valuable face-to-face relationships – There are numerous places you can do this- local events, national events, webinars, online meetups via Zoom. When attending events make sure your name, title and company is on the attendee list. Check these lists to target specific professionals, businesses and organisations.
- Start with current or former colleagues. Networking can often feel daunting, start by simply speaking to current and former colleagues as they can introduce you to new connections.
- Maintain an ongoing professional rapport – whether online or offline, whether LinkedIn or Facebook, and always ensure you keep your professional profile updated. Employers and headhunters often check social media. Keep your privacy settings up to date.
Do your research
Doing your research into who has headhunted you is key; in gaining a deeper knowledge of where the headhunter is coming from allows you to ask insightful questions and will make you seem interested and engaging.
- Identify which headhunters are specialists in your field and connect with them on LinkedIn.
- Once you’ve found the relevant headhunter use every excuse to build a relationship.
- Headhunters are not recruiters- they want to ensure you’re the right person for the role. So research the role and show knowledge and interest.
Say yes
If you are asked to meet a headhunter always say yes, you can get deeper knowledge and experience of what they are looking for. This will keep you on the radar and get your name more well known.
- Headhunters want to get to know the candidate, if they ask you for a coffee say ‘yes’.
- Even if the role isn’t suited to you, you can still gain valuable information.
- You’ll stay on their radar.
Be available
Showing you’re available and committed is exactly what headhunters are looking for- a driven and dedicated individual that makes themselves readily available is always a plus.
- If you’re meet with a headhunter, ask questions.
- Show commitment
- Stay relaxed.
- It’s about networking and building connections.
Define your personal brand
Set yourself apart from the rest. There are thousands of people trying to get noticed, show them what makes you special.
- Ensure you solidify your personal brand as this is what the headhunter will perceive
- Demonstrate your experience and knowledge of your field
Know when your being Headhunted
- Headhunting is subtle nothing like being recruited by an agency.
- Recruiters get into contact over the phone, via email or LinkedIn.
- Executive-level recruiters / Headhunters are very accommodating and will work around your schedule and locations.
- You will also be able to tell by the quality of the questions being put to you.
Being able to differentiate between recruiters and headhunters is critical, and you need to adapt the way you approach these situations and understand who you are meeting and why.
Stay up-to-date with the latest roles we have to offer acrossr procurement and bid management on LinkedIn.
For further information, contact Stuart Donald
T: 07741 411 110
E: Stuart.Donald@value-match.co.uk
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Are you hiring?
Value Match are happy to announce we have appointed Emily Stewart as our Procurement Recruitment Manager.
Emily has a level 4 CIPS Diploma in Procurement and Supply and will be taking a leading role within the shared service team at Value Match.
Emily has procurement experience in both the public and private sector, she started out as a procurement apprentice within Durham County Council and progressed to Category Manager at Believe Housing where Emily continued to develop experience of embedding social and environmental criteria as part of the procurement process.
Emily has previously managed teams of procurement professionals responsible for the end to end process, ensuring a customer focused approach to deliver to deliver a wide range of customers across Central Government, Local Government, Education and NHS.
With Emily’s procurement experience, Value Match continue to expand our resourcing team’s procurement expertise to match high quality procurement resource to our customers’ requirements.
For more information on our resourcing support offering, contact us on 0800 917 7884.
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What is Social Value in Procurement?
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In the past profit and value for money has more often than not been at the forefront of most organisations’ procurement decision making, however this is no longer the case. With the increasing power of technology and social media we can see the effect we are having in real time and we are realising that something needs to be done.
In recent years there has been a shift in understanding how value for money should be calculated, growing support for the idea that should include social environmental and economical requirements. This led to the Public Services Act (2012). This began significant steps to understanding and embedding social value in procurement practises. It marked the first time Public bodies were required to consider how procurement might improve social, environmental and economic wellbeing. The act aims to give procurement officials freedom to establish the types of value that’ll benefit their local community.
However, one fundamental problem with social value is the ambiguity of the term. Each organisation can have a different interpretation of what adds value. The reason for this vague definition is that each local community is different and has its own unique issues that need to be treated as such. This can cause issues as there is no clear-cut definition or a proper way to measure social value.
Social value effects all walk of life, but it can be roughly broken down into three categories. Social, Environmental and Economical. Social Value is not only essential for increasing moral and being accountable for your staff, stakeholders and investors, but by measuring social value we’ll be able to target which areas will need improvements for specific communities. To change the way the world accounts for value by reducing inequality and environmental degradation and improve well-being based on principles and transparency.
Social value is about the welfare of the population. Our actions affect peoples’ lives and our lives are affected by the actions of others, but our current accounting system does not take this into consideration. Social Value looks at the changes people experience in their lives because of the activities of business and values. We must view the changes from the perspective of people who are most affected by them. This allows us to understand what is valued. The process of social value is a gradual one some organisations are further ahead than others, the key to social value is increasing the awareness of the possibilities that can be achieved.
We have partnered with Social Value UK and Contract for Change. Social Value UK is the national network for anyone interested in social value and social impact. Working with members such as Value Match to increase the measurement, management and accounting of social value through Social Value Principles.
Value Match have developed two CPD accredited, online Social Value courses. Explore our courses that look at what Social Value is, the Socially Purposed Procurement Cycle, the Pillars of Social Value and understanding your legal obligations. Discover our social value courses here.
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) Resources
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As the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continues and new measures and guidelines are being introduced, Value Match continue to operate business as usual during this period. Our team has been working tirelessly with talented candidates to ensure that businesses across the UK have access to the expertise they need given the current crisis, it’s imperative to have the right talent to manage your current on-going bid management and procurement requirements.
It’s important for organisations to support each other and Value Match will continue to support our current and new clients as opportunities can be missed or lost. Given our remote status, we have always been able to offer support to our clients that ensures a real ROI.
Useful links and resources:
Coronavirus: What you need to do. – Information and resources to as to what to do during the coronavirus.
Compliance, safety and the Coronavirus (PDF) – Summary in relation to the Compliance, safety and the Coronavirus, collated by the Association of Gas Safety Manager (AGSM) & Association of Electric Managers (AESM).
Procurement Policy Note: Responding to Covid-19 – Cabinet Office’s Procurement Policy Note – Responding to the Coronavirus (Covid-19)
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Are wildfires destroying your supply chain?
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There have been 74,155 fires reported in The Amazon rainforest (supplies 20% of earth oxygen). This is an increase of 85% since last year (2018), according to a Washington Post report. The fires have caused a dramatic spike in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions over the last 12 months. The emissions which then increase global warming.
These fires aren’t natural and are directly effecting the supply chain while trying to meet increasing demand for various products. One of the most common falsehoods is that “deforestation is only driven by food and packaging supply chains”. This is simply not true, if we look at it in a broader sense the risk can be found in numerous sectors; rubber, leather and timber just to name a few.
Organisations are starting to take note of the primary and secondary effects these fires will have on their supply chains. CDP have used a questionnaire to discover how many suppliers source from the Amazon. The data collected in 2019 showed “35% of suppliers responding to CDP’s forests questionnaire are sourcing from one or more of the 9 countries touching the Amazon rainforest. Of these, just 18% have a commitment to ‘no land clearance by burning or clearcutting”.
On September 9th, 2019, large organisations such as H&M and VF Corp have acted quickly to reduce the risk of leather sourced from the Amazon being included in their supply chain’s and have suspended contracts with sources from Brazil until sustainable assurances are met.
KLP is Norway’s largest pension fund who have over $80B in assets, say that they’ll “divest from transnational commodities traders operating in Brazil such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge and Cargill, if they work with producers who contribute to deforestation”. KLP are also reaching out to other investors requesting they use financial influences to curb Amazon deforestation.
Vitor Gomes who’s an environmental scientist at the Federal University of Pará in Brazil stated that “According to the results of our studies, even in the best-case scenario, half of Amazonian tree species will be threatened in the future. The trends we’ve seen today could be beyond our worst-case”.
As procurement professionals we should ensure we have transparency and assurance within our supply chains and pro-actively address areas of environmental and social concerns, such as modern slavery. This will require resourcing, expertise, training and allocating resources away from sourcing to supplier and contract management.
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Updated Procurement Guidance Public Sector
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With the UK leaving the European Union (EU) last week, the Cabinet Office have updated their procurement guidance for Public Sector organisations;
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-procurement-after-a-no-deal-brexit
In short, there are no planned changes to the way Public Sector organisations must buy their goods and services. They must continue to follow the EU Public Procurement Directives and UK Public Procurement Regulations until 31st December 2020. This will allow for the transition period as the UK exits the EU.
What happens after the 31st December 2020 is currently unknown and will ultimately depend on what is developed as part of the “agreement” to exit the EU and how the government intends to take forward public procurement and necessary reform. Public Procurement isn’t one of the highest prioritises currently being discussed as part of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, so it may be sometime before the changes are finalised and implemented into UK law.
In the meantime Public Sector Organisations who are bound by the Public Contract Regulations 2015, must continue to follow them and the EU Treaty principles of being fair, open and transparent when procuring goods and services. Value Match will continue to monitor guidance and relevant publications to ensure you are all up to date with the impact.
For suppliers responding to Public Sector tenders we do not anticipate any major changes to key processes or documentation that you are currently already responding to. However, we do believe there will continue to be changes in approaches to areas such as social value and local economic development. Value Match are specialists in supporting suppliers successfully compete and win Public Sector contracts.
Our team at Value Match are built up of experienced Public Sector Procurement and Bid Management Professionals who have worked with Buyers and successfully helped Suppliers win work in the Public Sector.
We understand the Public Sector bid/tendering process and have achieved demonstrable results by implementing best practice and by helping our clients win new or retain existing business in both the Private and Public Sector. Please take a look at one of our Case Studies where we supported one of our Clients to score optimum marks on the qualitative questions in their next tender submissions after a series of unsuccessful attempts at bidding.
Value Match provide; Bid Writing, Bid Review, Bid Training and a variety of Bid and Procurement Consultancy and Recruitment support services to provide you with expert resource and additional quality assurance (QA) to support your organisation through any stage of any live or previous bid/tender process.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk
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Are you aware of the new changes that will impact the Procurement Thresholds in the UK Public Sector from January 2020?
The European Commission have recently published the new procurement thresholds which are to be adhered to from 1st January 2020. This update follows on from the previous thresholds which were updated and released on the 1st January 2018.
| Type of Contract Authority | Type of Contract | Threshold as of 1st January 2020 (exc. VAT) | Threshold as of 1st January 2018 (exc. VAT) | Increased Amount |
| Central Government | Goods & Services | £122,976.00 | £118,133.00 | £4,843.00 |
| Sub Central Authorities | Goods & Services | £189,330.00 | £181,302.00 | £8,028.00 |
| All | Works | £4,733,252.00 | £4,551,413.00 | £181,839.00 |
| All | Light Touch* | £663,540.00 | £615,278.00 | £48,262.00 |
* Social and Other Specific Services (Regulation 74)
The thresholds represent the aggregate value of any Goods, Services or Works procured for, over the lifetime of a contract, and apply to all UK Public Sector organisations. The thresholds are reviewed and updated every two years.
Do you need support with getting up to speed with the changes or ensuring your Procurements are complaint with OJEU and PCR 2015?
Value Match have a wealth of experience of delivering effective procurements in both the Private and Public Sector. Our Procurement Consultants are experienced in delivering some of the largest procurements in the UK Public Sector and have a track record of delivering both cash savings and process efficiencies.
If you’re going out to market in the new year and would like your documents to be reviewed prior to publishing, ensuring its fit for purpose and compliant or would like any more information on how Value Match can support your organisation please check out the following links or contact:
G-Cloud 11 – https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/services/784475243349404
YPO – Consultancy+ – https://consultancyplus.org/
For any specific requirements relating to the recruitment of Interim or Fixed Term Contract staff did you know you can also engage compliantly with Value Match via the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) RM6160 Framework Agreement for the provision of Non-Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff? This Framework can be accessed by the entire UK Public Sector and provides you with a complaint route to engage with specialists such as Value Match to find the best in class talent.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk
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Bidding into the public sector can be a time consuming and costly exercise for businesses of any size. The number of documents and terminologies can become confusing, and at times frustrating while you juggle a day job as well as responding to a bid opportunity.
Given the headaches that suppliers face when bidding into the public sector, Value Match have come up with 4 key focus areas as, Top Tips for winning business in the public sector:
1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
Prior to entering any procurement processes, take the time to engage and understand your potential new or existing Customer. Building relationships with your customer helps provide insight into what they are looking to achieve, understand the current service provided, where they feel areas can be improved etc. which will overall help your organisation to shape your bid/tender responses. Ensure that you attend any and all market engagement events related to the procurement you are interested in, this will allow you to meet the Buyer (your potential Customer) and ensure you are in the best possible position to respond and win!
2. UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS
All Public Sector Organisation’s follow the same process for high value tenders as defined in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 therefore it is important you understand the process you are about to undertake. The principles of Public Sector procurement are to be equal, transparent, proportionate and provide mutual recognition for all suppliers whether they are in the UK or EU.
You need to be aware which process the buyer has chosen to use, for example, Open or Restricted and if a Presentation will be required, so that you can factor in and record key dates, to ensure those individuals that are needed are available.
It is also important to keep up to date on any changes that may occur in this space regarding Brexit, please check out the following: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-sector-procurement-after-a-no-deal-brexit for the latest information on what will change for businesses bidding into the Public Sector.
3. DEMONSTRATE YOUR CAPABILITY
To achieve the highest possible scores, always demonstrate your capability with evidence, evidence and more evidence (please ensure you stick to word count limits!). Case studies provide effective evidence of your ability to deliver against pre-defined success criteria therefore include them in your response.
Take the time to understand how the Buyer will evaluate your responses – make sure you find and review the Evaluation Criteria. Including marketing material, images etc. is only relevant if it has been asked for or relates to Case Studies, Project Plans etc. The bid/tender process in the Public Sector is not a sales pitch or a negotiation so make sure you answer the question the Buyer has asked and not the one you want to answer!
4. CONTINUALLY IMPROVE
Whether your successful or not, at the end of the process, always ask the buyer for feedback. Any feedback provided gives you direct insight into where you can improve your response next time around. Use that information and learn from it so you don’t make the same mistakes twice!
Our team at Value Match are built up of experienced Public Sector Procurement and Bid Management Professionals who have worked with Buyers and successfully helped Suppliers win work in the Public Sector.
We understand the Public Sector bid/tendering process and have achieved demonstrable results by implementing best practice and by helping our clients win new or retain existing business in both the Private and Public Sector. Please take a look at one of our Case Studies where we supported one of our Clients to score optimum marks on the qualitative questions in their next tender submissions after a series of unsuccessful attempts at bidding.
Value Match provide; Bid Writing, Bid Review, Bid Training and a variety of Bid and Procurement Consultancy and Recruitment support services to provide you with expert resource and additional quality assurance (QA) to support your organisation through any stage of any live or previous bid/tender process.
Find out how we can help support your bid management requirements.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk
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