16 September | Jilly MacPherson

Jilly MacPherson says procurement opens many long-term opportunities and offers great commercial training

The job

At Hays we have a £500 million spend for UK and Ireland – direct and indirect procurement – this includes marketing, IT telecoms, property, travel, fleet, employee experience and benefits. I lead a team of 10 – I find helping people develop confidence and stop second guessing themselves satisfying.

Show how you add value

My aim at Hays is to change the perception of procurement from the traditional view to a pro-commercial business function. We are consultants in best practice commerce on quality, service, innovation, costs and can give others advice. We coach sales and marketing and plan negotiations. We are also rebranding procurement and have revamped our intranet website to make the department more approachable. We go to stakeholder meetings and conferences, trying to show how we add value.

Psychological thinking

Procurement is a lot about the psychology of people. If you know what makes a person tick and can access this quickly you can change your negotiation and relationship management style appropriately. It’s also a case of being flexible and listening as we are not always right.

Good advice

Think long-term because procurement opens up lots of opportunities. Don’t think of yourself as a procurement person, but as a commercial person. If you want to go into business change, project management, outsourcing, negotiation, consultancy then these are open to you.

What next . . .

At Hays I’ve been able to make changes quickly – job titles have changed and been realigned with business needs. We now have opportunities to work with European and International Hays. My ambition is for procurement to be integral to the business and on the board.

CV: Jilly MacPherson
Job history:
May 2010-present: Procurement director, UK & Ireland, Hays
2009-2010: Head of procurement: North and Central Asia (Hong Kong), GlaxoSmithKline
2006-2009: Sourcing group manager, advertising and market research, GlaxoSmithKline   
2005-2006: Sourcing group manager, raw materials, GlaxoSmithKline

Favourite film: The Constant Gardener
Favourite word: Lobster
Favourite TV show: Dexter
Guiltiest pleasure: Vintage champagne
Most treasured possession: My photo albums of travel pictures
Greatest fear: Death of a loved one