Running a diverse business

Overview

Diversity is about recognising, understanding and maximising the benefit of difference. This applies equally to the individuals within your workplace as it does to managing the diversity of your suppliers and contractors.

An effective organisation will ensure there is a responsible procurement policy as part of your organisation’s equality and diversity strategy. This helps to set out your organisation’s position on equality and diversity and establishes the criteria that suppliers and contractors are expected to meet if they wish to compete successfully for business contracts.

Ensuring that diversity is at the heart of your tendering and business processes will set out your commitment to the diversity strategy and will bring with it a range of benefits, including winning new customers, improving community relations and establishing your organisation as an employer of choice.

What do I need to know?

Promoting equality and eliminating unlawful discrimination is a legal requirement for public sector organisations under the Equality Duties on race, gender and disability. Although currently there is no legal requirement for private sector organisations to diversify their supplier base, there is a growing acceptance that with a supplier diversity strategy, this can help to achieve real business benefits.

Ensuring customer satisfaction through regular satisfaction surveys will ensure that your services and products are accessible to a wider range of people and will help to inform the effectiveness of your equality and diversity objectives and that of your business processes. It will support the effective marketing of your services, products and opportunities to a broader audience and support improvements to customer and employee engagement processes.