Procurement talent retention: why paying more does not reduce turnover

Procurement salaries rose 7.2% globally in the last twelve months. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the average increase hit 14%. In MENA, professionals who got raises saw a 12.7% bump. In Europe, MCIPS-certified professionals gained 11.3%. And still, 40% of procurement and supply professionals plan to change employers within the next twelve months.

The assumption that pay solves retention is wrong. The data from the CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025, based on 5,786 professionals globally, tells a different story. The top reason to stay in a role shifted in 2025: from "I enjoy my current job" to "need for additional training and development." Professionals are using organizations as stepping stones to acquire skills they cannot get elsewhere, then moving on. If your retention strategy begins and ends with compensation adjustments, you are funding your competitors' talent pipeline.

The development gap: what the CIPS data actually reveals

The CIPS Salary Guide 2025 asked 5,786 procurement and supply professionals why they stay and why they leave. The results contradict the standard compensation-first retention playbook.

In 2024, the top reason to remain in a role was straightforward: people liked their jobs. By 2025, that had flipped. Professionals now stay primarily because they need additional training and development before they feel ready to move. They are not staying out of loyalty or satisfaction. They are staying to extract skills, certifications, and experience that make them more marketable. When they get what they need, they leave.

"The top reason why they choose to stay in their role is a need for additional training and development — whereas, in 2024, it was that they enjoy the job they are in now."
— CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2025

The same survey reports that 68% of professionals say procurement is "very much valued" within their organization. The profession is respected, well-compensated, and strategically positioned. None of that prevents 40% from planning an exit. Value and respect are not the same as growth and development.

Where the skills gap actually sits

Gartner surveyed 111 procurement leaders and found that fewer than 20% believe their teams have adequate talent for future needs. Only 4% see no gap in technology and data skills. Meanwhile, 68% of procurement leaders said technology and data skills became more important to their function in the past year. The gap between demand and supply is widening, not closing.

The profile companies need is hard to fill: someone who understands data analytics, digital tools, AI, and ESG procurement, combined with traditional commercial and negotiation capability. These hybrid profiles are scarce. According to Gartner, 72% of procurement leaders now see talent shortages as a major roadblock to achieving their objectives.

The UK market illustrates the problem at scale. A CIPS-Hays survey found that 58% of UK hiring managers struggled to find the right procurement talent in the past year. ManpowerGroup's broader 2025 survey found 76% of UK employers report difficulty filling roles. The shortage is not cyclical. It is structural.

The AI hiring freeze that will cost organizations 15% or more by 2030

Gartner delivered a specific, quantified warning at its 2026 Supply Chain Symposium: 75% of supply chain organizations that pause entry-level hiring in 2026 will end up paying more than 15% extra for early-career professionals by 2030. A separate Gartner survey of 509 supply chain leaders found that 55% expect entry-level hiring to decline because of advances in agentic AI.

The logic seems reasonable: if AI can automate transactional procurement tasks, you need fewer junior buyers. The problem is that every organization making this calculation is simultaneously raising the bar on required skills while shrinking the pipeline that produces those skills. Procurement already struggles to attract university graduates. A Talent Drive analysis noted that procurement "remains poorly understood outside specialist circles" and that "university graduates rarely consider procurement as a first-choice career." Cutting entry-level roles now guarantees a bidding war for the few people who do enter the profession later.

What the top-quartile organizations do differently

The Procurement Leaders Strategic Planning Guide 2024 found a consistent pattern among top performers: they allocate more than 15% of procurement headcount to shared services and Centers of Excellence. These organizations outperform their peers on cost savings, procurement ROI, and operating costs.

This finding is counterintuitive. The instinct is that centralized units add bureaucracy and slow decisions. The data shows the opposite. Shared services and COEs focused on data, digital, risk management, and ESG create career paths that retain talent while improving procurement performance. They give professionals a reason to stay that compensation alone cannot provide: progression into specialized, high-value roles.

To meet new procurement priorities, teams are becoming increasingly specialized. Roles in data and digital, risk management, and ESG are replacing generic buyer positions. Organizations that do not create these roles lose their best people to organizations that do.

What this means in practice

• Build development pathways, not compensation bumps. The CIPS data shows professionals stay to acquire skills. Sponsor MCIPS certification, create visible career tracks with milestones, and make development conversations a quarterly cadence, not an annual review footnote.
• Allocate at least 15% of headcount to shared services and COEs. This is not bureaucracy. It is the structural mechanism that top-quartile organizations use to outperform on savings and ROI while retaining talent through specialization.
• Protect entry-level hiring, even as AI adoption accelerates. Gartner's 15%+ pay premium projection for 2030 is not speculative. 55% of organizations are already cutting. Being in the 45% that maintain the pipeline is a competitive advantage with a measurable cost differential.
• Upskill existing staff in data, digital, and AI fluency. Gartner found that 68% of leaders say technology and data skills grew more important in the past year while only 4% see no skills gap. Upskilling programs convert retention risk into capability growth.