How Pierce County Found a Path To a 50% Shorter Procurement Process
- Lauren Dodge
- May 26
- 3 min read
By focusing on improving process and leveraging their human capital, Pierce County Human Services has set a plan to drastically improve their procurement time.
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Last year, Pierce County Human Services (PCHS) faced a growing problem.
Contracts were piling up, approvals were taking too long, and funding delays were forcing providers to dip into their reserves or, worse, to keep programs running.
Providers were waiting months—sometimes over a year—for finalized contracts. Meanwhile, the staff managing these contracts did everything they could to move things along, but the process worked against them.
When PPI sat down with community providers to hear their experiences firsthand, their frustration was evident:
Obviously, this system wasn’t just slowing down paperwork—it was actively harming the people it was meant to serve.
Mapping the Problem
The first step was to dig into the real reasons behind these delays. It wasn’t just “government bureaucracy” or people being slow. There were deep, structural issues at play:
Too many sequential approvals: Every contract had to be reviewed step by step, meaning one slight delay could cascade into months of waiting. While approvals had been added over time to assure accuracy, they were having the opposite effect and slowing down procurement.
Confusing and redundant requirements: Providers were asked for the same paperwork multiple times, and departments involved weren’t always on the same page.
The council approval process took months. Items didn’t get onto the Council’s agenda soon enough, adding weeks (sometimes months) to the timeline.
Lack of standardized training and tools: Staff were left to navigate complex procurement rules with little guidance, leading to mistakes and extra oversight.
On average, it took 328 days to complete a procurement cycle—almost a full year.
Rewriting the Future
Rather than forcing the old system to work faster, the PCHS Improvement Team proposed the following redesigns for procurement in Pierce County:
Move approvals from sequential to concurrent. Instead of waiting for each step to finish before starting the next, overlap key approval stages to eliminate months of dead time in the process.
Change how Council approvals work. Before, getting on the Council’s agenda was a significant bottleneck. Instead, they can schedule approvals as soon as RFPs close, ensuring the process keeps moving, and the HS staff drives towards this deadline.
Create checklists, templates, and training programs. Procurement staff could benefit from more precise guidelines for writing RFPs, understanding contract insurance requirements, and avoiding common errors.
Introduce a Council Liaison role. This new position would bridge Council and Human Services, ensuring concerns are addressed early rather than derailing approvals at the last minute.
Tackle insurance and compliance headaches through joint Risk and HS meetings. By sitting together in a meeting, insurance can be identified for each contract within a fund source in a matter of a few hours rather than weeks.
The Results: 162 Days Faster
These changes weren’t just theoretical. By shifting to a more innovative, faster approval process, the team cut procurement timelines from 328 days to 166 days.
That’s 162 days faster.
That means: 1. Providers get paid sooner. 2. Human Services staff spend less time in bureaucratic limbo. 3. Programs can launch faster, helping the people who need them.
What’s Next?
This isn’t just a one-time fix. Pierce Human Services staff is going to continue to test, refine, and improve the system, with next steps including:
Piloting a standing monthly Council agenda item to ensure procurement stays on track.
Expanding provider training and support to make contracts more straightforward to navigate.
Exploring a dedicated contract management system to replace outdated tools.
For too long, procurement was seen as an unavoidable headache. But as this project has shown, government processes don’t have to be slow, frustrating, or broken. With the right mix of problem-solving, collaboration, and political will, we can make systems work better—for providers, staff, and, most importantly, the people of Pierce County.
Ready to start empowering your team to make innovative change?
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