Anatomy of the CIPS Database of Procurement Professionals

Transcription

1 Anatomy of the CIPS Database of Procurement Professionals The Scoring Mechanism (includes a short explanation of search / filter) Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Candidate Data 2.1 Raw Data 2.2 Data Formats 2.3 Data Types 2.4 Background Checks and Verification of Evaluative Data 2.5 Data Purpose 3 Data Used in the Competency Evaluation 3.1 Secondary Education 3.2 Tertiary Education Degrees Diplomas Certificates Courses and Programs 3.3 Computer Literacy 3.4 Experience Acquired Skills Knowledge Of Commodities and Services Job History 4 Searching and Filtering Data 5 Weight-and-Value Sets 5.1 Scoring 5.2 Weighting 5.3 Other Adjustments Allowed to Promote Flexibility 6 Aspects Other than Technical Procurement Competence

2 1 Introduction What follows is a high level overview of the principles and conventions used in the scoring mechanism of the Database. In order to protect the intellectual property underlying the system, this overview will not place you in a position where you will have a full understanding of the mechanism, but should suffice to assure you that significant thought and effort went into the design and development of the system to produce a credible, realistic and usable result. You should in addition be satisfied that the mechanism is flexible enough to accommodate your specific requirements of candidates. It is understood though that, upon acquisition of the use of the system, you will require a fuller understanding of the principles and conventions used. This will be explained to you during the set-up phase. Your input as to improvements to the system will, at that stage, also be most welcome and we shall endeavour to accommodate your requests as far as possible. Please note: The CIPS Database of Procurement Professionals and the Meritocrat software that powers the evaluation process is designed to evaluate procurement practitioners profiles 1 according to your perceptions of the values and importance of the attributes normally sought in candidates. As a user you may fine-tune it so that it will produce the result you have got, had you manually scrutinized and ranked the CVs of the candidates. If the result is not as expected, it may require further fine-tuning of the weight-and-value set (see below). A comparative outcome is always based on a weight-and-value set that represents the views and perceptions of an individual, or a group of individuals collectively. It is only as objective as the individual or group was, but it is 100% consistent and is not influenced by external factors such as workload, time constraints, prior experience with the candidate or the like. Apart from the reality that some candidates profiles may require some fixing to ensure that full credit is given, it is instantaneous, regardless of the number of practitioners measured. And it removes the tedium of having to read many CVs and then apply an instantly developed measurement system (that normally changes during the process)in order to arrive at a ranking of the CVs perused. 1 A profile is an electronic summary of the attributes of the candidate, provided by the candidate. You may think of it as an electronic CV although it is standardised and much more comprehensive than normal CVs you will be presented with. 2

3 2 Candidate Data 2.1 Raw Data During the registration and profile completion process, candidate members of the Database answer, on average, 200 questions relevant to their procurement practitioner profiles. These questions have been designed to solicit from the candidate member sufficient information to be able to form a complete picture of the member s procurement competence. 2.2 Data Formats There are three data formats: Pre-populated answers in drop-down boxes; Formatted text fields; and Free text fields All the data used for assessing the profiles, or for performing searches (filtration) are either selected by the member from pre-populated drop-down boxes (e.g. degrees) or are entered by the candidate in format-prescribed text fields (e.g. dates). Free text fields are used by members where the required answer is not provided in the drop-down box, or where the nature of the answer is narrative (e.g. the brief self-assessment). 2.3 Data Types Data is either informative or evaluative. Informative data would include the subjects taken in matric, for example, and evaluative data would include data where the member makes an expression of his/her competence in a specific area. 2.4 Background Checks and Verification of Evaluative Data In order to keep the Database as accessible as possible, at reasonable cost, verification of informative data is not done automatically but is available on request and at additional cost. For the same reason, all evaluative data is based on self-assessment in the first place. Again formal, controlled competency tests are available for most sections on request 3

4 and at an additional cost. 2.5 Data Purpose Each piece of data is used for one or more of the following purposes: Identification and traceability (e.g. names, phone numbers) Competence evaluation (e.g. tertiary qualifications, past employers) Searching and filtering for candidates with specific attributes (e.g. languages spoken, - read and - written, and affirmative action status) An example of data used both for assessment and searching is industry experience. An employer in the mining industry may want to award higher points to candidates from that industry, or may want to exclude candidates without past mining industry exposure. 3 Data Used in the Competency Evaluation Data is collected under the headings below ( ) to be used in the automated competency evaluation. Should you deem any of these sections irrelevant, please see the options available and Weight-and-Value Sets (section 5). Credit (a score) is given according to your perception of the value of each answer selected by the candidate. The weight-and-value set is loaded only once (a default set is provided) and is thereafter used to evaluate candidates. You may load multiple weight-and-value sets, to use in different situations. See also section Secondary Education Credit is given according to your perception of the relevance and/or difficulty of each subject taken. 3.2 Tertiary Education This section is divided into the following sub-sections. Credit is given according to your perception of the relevance and/or difficulty of the qualification and your perception of the excellence of the institution Degrees 4

5 Degrees are further split into Bachelor s degrees, Honours degrees, Master s degrees and Doctorates. Bachelor s degrees and Honour s degrees are further divided into the three disciplines (broadly speaking) of most relevance to procurement, plus a section for other degrees Diplomas Please see the introductory remarks (3.2) Certificates Please see the introductory remarks (3.2) Courses and Programs Please see the introductory remarks (3.2). 3.3 Computer Literacy This section is divided into three sub-sections, namely Microsoft Office products (Excel, Word and PowerPoint), ERP systems and procurement systems. The first is onedimensional (self-assessed competency level is scored in your discretion) and the other two are two-dimensional (both the system and the self-assessed competency level are scored in your discretion). 3.4 Experience This section is divided into three sub-sections as detailed below Acquired Skills This section measures: Procurement techniques (e.g. commodity strategy development) 2 ; Materiel and services coding and classification; and Project procurement skills. 2 The CIPS SKQ assessment is the formal verification test for this section. 5

6 All measures are one-dimensional Knowledge Of Commodities and Services This section measures the candidate s competence of commodities and services. A structure for selecting commodities and services as well as a knowledge-level scale is provided. Overall knowledge (versatility) is also measured, making this a three-dimensional measurement Job History This is a multi-dimensional measure where your perceptions of various aspects of the candidate s working career are quantified and rolled up into a single score, which feeds into the overall Experience score. The job history is recorded against a forced timeline which means that no gaps in the working career can be hidden. 4 Searching and Filtering Data Once you have applicants (or an internal group) for viewing, you may search for candidates with specific attributes. Such an attribute may be contained in any non-free text field, that is, it may be from pre-populated answers in drop-down boxes or from formatted text fields. You may for example search by filtering so that you see only candidates with Bachelor degrees or only black, female, B-degreed candidates. For the current full list of options, please register for the interactive demonstration here select Register for Demo. Data that is not used for scoring but may be used in your search for the right candidate include: Expected remuneration Nationality (advertisements specify the nationality if restricted to a nationality noncitizens will not be able to apply); Age group Affirmative action status Gender Disabilities Location of employment Management experience 6

7 Availability Positions applied for Languages Procurement type specialisation Major projects (yes/no) Please note that this list, as a filter list, is not exhaustive. It lists only the non-scoring filter options. There are scoring filter options as well. For the current full list, please register for the interactive demonstration here select Register for Demo. 5 Weight-and-Value Sets The weight-and-value sets refer to the various score cards loaded by users and which contain the scores for the answers, as well as the weighting of the various sections and-sub sections according to your perceptions. There is no correct or perfect set perfection is in the eye of the beholder. 5.1 Scoring Each scoring answer provided by the candidate (see 3 above) is automatically scored by the system using the weight-and-value set you have indicated. The weight-and-value sets can be compared to the memorandum a teacher or lecturer will use when marking papers, except that there are not any wrong answers, only answers that are considered by you to be of more or of less importance (or value) than others. The system applies the scores you provide to the answers provided by the candidate and calculates a score for each section or sub-section, eventually calculates the overall score, using the weighting you provided. 5.2 Weighting The weighting component contained in the weight-and-value set provides the weights to be used in the calculations mentioned above. Weighting may be added to the following sections and sub-sections: Secondary Education Tertiary Education + subsections mentioned in 3.2 above Computer Literacy 7

8 Experience + the sub-sections mentioned in 3.4 above You may vary these to the extremes of the scale (0 and 100) in all cases. If you, for example, believe that secondary education subjects are not relevant in your assessment of candidates, you will set the weight to zero for that section. The section is then ignored. You may load more than one weight-and-value set to cater for different positions, regions or any other aspect you believe requires specific treatment. As the loading of additional weight-and-value sets increases the administration and load on the system, an additional cost will be incurred. This is typically meant for large, decentralised organisations. 5.3 Other Adjustments Allowed to Promote Flexibility In order to improve the flexibility a three other adjustments are possible. They are related to setting benchmarks for secondary- and tertiary education and commodity knowledge. 6 Aspects Other than Technical Procurement Competence Naturally technical competence is only one of the aspects to be considered when considering candidates. Through associations with specialist service providers, background checks and other relevant reports may be requested. 8