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Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) are important practices for organizations that are serious about reaching high ethical and moral standards. But developing a workplace that embraces and nurtures people of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, and backgrounds can yield several business benefits throughout across departments, including enhanced levels of innovation and better revenue performance.

Ongoing efforts to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces even have an impact on macroeconomics. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, "A recent NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research] analysis of highly skilled occupations (in fields such as law, medicine, science, academia, and management) shows a positive relationship between diversity and the value of goods and services produced in the United States."

In procurement, many organizations have focused on developing supplier diversity as a social responsibility and a business imperative. But procurement organizations must also look internally, incorporating diversity into their own teams.

A Need for More Diversity in Procurement

Although many organizations are now formalizing their internal D&I programs, studies indicate that procurement may be falling behind other departments.

According to a study conducted by consulting firm Oliver Wyman, only about 38% of the procurement workforce is female. Some sectors employ fewer women in their procurement departments than others, as well. For example, the study found that financial and government organizations employ more women than the aeronautics and construction sectors.

Procurement also has opportunities to improve its mix of racially and ethnically diverse professionals, both in operational positions and in leadership.

A recent Gartner study revealed that procurement is falling behind other categories when it comes to ethnic and racial diversity by significant margins. According to the study, only 8% of people working in the procurement function are people of color. That's compared to the communications function at 44% and the research and development function at 42%—the two categories with the highest percentage.

The only category with fewer diverse employees was B2C sales, at just 7%, according to the categories investigated in the study.

Procurement is by no means alone in this regard. A report cited by SHRM showed that "roughly 80% of companies are just going through the motions and not holding themselves accountable," when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Thankfully, there are some concrete steps procurement departments can take to improve the diversity of their teams. Many organizations have already launched internal D&I initiatives alongside other diversity programs, such as supplier diversity programs.

Collaborating with HR to Improve Procurement Diversity

Many D&I initiatives stem from the HR department. But procurement and HR can work together to build best practices for sourcing diverse talent and managing culture change to make procurement teams more inclusive. Indeed, procurement has become a strategic function, lending its expertise to help drive innovation across the organization, and it has a significant role to play in the organization's culture.

In many cases, D&I begins with the organization's recruiting strategy. For example, procurement and HR departments can take steps to improve the attractiveness of procurement positions to diverse candidates by doing the following:

• Build career pages and microsites that showcase the organization's commitment to diversity.
• Create diversity-focused hiring content.
• Include inclusive language in job descriptions (and remove biased and outdated language)
• Create diverse procurement talent pipelines by targeting job boards focused on diversity hiring.
• Incorporate diversity metrics into HR and procurement's hiring strategy and database.

According to SHRM, organizations can take steps to remove the threat of unconscious bias in the hiring process as well. Practices such as "blind" resume reviews, in which the hiring manager cannot see the applicant's name or other demographic information, can help in this regard. Interviews for procurement team candidates can also be standardized and structured, so the same questions are asked of every candidate.

But D&I doesn't stop with the hiring process. When hiring procurement candidates internally, managers should take the same steps to avoid unconscious bias and create an equitable hiring process. A 2019 Gartner survey found that 88% of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leaders saw bias in their organization's promotion and succession processes.

Procurement leaders should ensure that opportunities for mentorship and leadership development are available in equal measure to everyone within the procurement organization.

Gartner suggests that one way to start this process is to assume that everyone and anyone within the procurement function has the potential to be promoted. Then, procurement leaders can take deliberate steps with managers to nurture employee talent. This way, there is less chance of talented candidates being overlooked due to unconscious bias or adherence to outdated mentorship programs.

Learn More at the Next ProcureCon Event

Procurement professionals have made significant steps in D&I over the past few years, but there is still a great deal of work to be done. If you're serious about building an inclusive workplace, why not learn from the best?

Innovators in supplier diversity and organizational D&I will be sharing their thoughts and ideas on these subjects at the ProcureCon Indirect Virtual Summit & Expo, happening May 18^th through May 20^th. You can register now for free to claim your spot at the summit.

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