Weathering the Silver Tsunami: A Guide for Procurement Professionals

As a wave of experienced professionals heads toward retirement, the “Silver Tsunami” presents both challenges and opportunities for procurement leaders. According to a recent survey, 90% of procurement leaders believe that talent is the greatest driving factor of performance, and 50% already believe that they don’t have the talent they need. These findings underscore the threat that losing so many experienced professionals poses, while also reinforcing the need for procurement leaders to nurture and hone the skills of their next generation of top talent.

What's at Stake?

When seasoned procurement professionals exit the workforce, they could take with them:

• Deep supplier relationships built through decades of personal connections
• Negotiation wisdom that can't just be Googled
• Extensive institutional knowledge about what works, what doesn't, and why
• Critical industry insights that have guided strategic decisions for years

These assets are invaluable—and might prove irreplaceable without deliberate action. The good news is that forward-thinking organizations are already mining the opportunity inherent to this looming challenge.

From Threat to Strategic Advantage

Smart procurement teams are finding innovative ways to embrace evolutions and preserve essential expertise at the same time:

• Enriching Mentor Programs: There is a lot to learn about procurement—from spend visibility to supplier relationships—and the breadth of information can be intimidating for newcomers. By pairing seasoned professionals with up-and-coming employees, organizations can open new pathways for knowledge transfer. New employees could shadow their experienced counterparts and engage in personalized learning that goes beyond the abstract or theoretical, imparting information and skills they will use on a day-to-day basis. These structured relationships help ensure that hard-earned wisdom never retires—it becomes embedded in the team's next generation of leaders.

• Systematizing Knowledge Transfer: While mentor programs and cross training are vital, the most resilient organizations also invest in centralized platforms that help make institutional knowledge easy to access and apply.

• Guarding Knowledge Through Technology: From supplier relationship management platforms to comprehensive procurement databases, technological tools can allow teams to memorialize best practices, negotiation strategies, and supplier insights. Organizations should prioritize saving this information in accessible formats so it can serve as a permanent—and expanding—resource for years to come.

• Creating Flexible Retirement Pathways: The traditional model of retirement is evolving. Many organizations are implementing phased retirement options, consulting arrangements, and part-time positions to keep experienced professionals engaged while allowing them to attain their desired work-life balance. These approaches maintain access to critical expertise while respecting the changing needs of experienced leaders.

• Forging Strategic University Partnerships: Building strong connections with educational institutions can provide organizations with a pipeline of fresh talent—talent they can cultivate and upskill with knowledge preserved from previous generations of employees. University partnerships can include internship programs, curriculum development collaborations, and recruitment pathways that seek out new perspectives and energic professionals.

Procurement teams shouldn’t wait to make these changes until the Silver Tsunami overtakes them. Acting now will give organizations the ability to define their own path forward by drawing from the widest possible knowledge base, setting the next generation up for success before employees with critical skills, relationships, and know-how exit the industry.

The Path Forward

The future of procurement depends on both preserving invaluable institutional knowledge while embracing innovation and fresh perspectives. For procurement leaders, this means setting the next generation of professionals up for success. Because so much of procurement is driven by relationships, leaders should prioritize cultivating deep supplier relationships that can weather personnel changes before those changes actually occur. This, in addition to a continued invest in technology that can capture and codify procurement best practices, can ensure continuity of service and maintain negotiated advantages even as team composition evolves.