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The US magazine Diversity Inc released an overview of top ten companies last month, ranking them according to their supplier diversity policies and practices. HP was ranked fourth.
In view of this track record in supplier diversity in the US market, we take a look at the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, where HP is taking supplier diversity forward in EMEA as well, by being part of a small group of leading multinationals working to integrate supplier diversity into everyday business processes in the region.
Supplier Diversity is concerned with ensuring that under-represented businesses, including but not limited to race, disability and gender, have the same opportunities to compete for the supply of goods and services as other suppliers.
In EMEA, the wide range of legal systems and historic business practices mean that in addition to working with interested parties at EU-level, individual policies and frameworks need to be developed for each key market in order to make further progress in this area.
“Our experience when negotiating with local stakeholders is that gradually, a consensus emerges,” said Brian Tippens, HP Global Supplier Diversity Manager. “While it is still very early days, it is clear that there is a growing commitment both from businesses and national governments to agree to a common approach.”
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A European Roadmap
Five years ago, the European Commission adopted amendments to the EC Public Procurement Directive. Following a review by the European Court of Justice, it stated that “contracting agencies may lay down special conditions governing the performance of a contract; conditions may, in particular, concern social and environmental considerations.”
This has paved the way for efforts at EU-level to identify and agree to common guidelines and to develop and share best practices for including businesses from under-represented groups through Supplier Diversity Europe (SDE). Ultimately, the objective is to develop one consistent framework of supplier diversity guidelines for all EU markets. However, before this is possible, much work needs to be done, as different driving forces in the public and private sectors in each EU country must be accommodated. HP is among a selection of the founding members of SDE aiming to develop framework recommendations for some of the largest national markets in the EU.
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UK public sector drives supplier diversity
The UK, as a consequence of the 2003 amendments to the Race Relations Act 2000 now requires all public sector organisations to ensure ethnic and racial discrimination is eradicated from all areas of activity, including public sector procurement. As a result, public authorities need to demonstrate that suitable ethnic minority-owned businesses have been included in the tender process.
Based on guidelines issued in 2003, all public projects in London are now expected to involve diverse suppliers in the tender process. A contract worth more than Euro 500 million (£360 million) awarded by Transport for London (TfL) in October last year commits the suppliers Balfour Beatty and Carillion to meet diversity criteria and to implement an equality policy.
In addition to its broad EU-based work along with SDE, HP also participates actively as a corporate member of Minority Supplier Development-UK (MSD-UK). This organization works to develop and advocate for the inclusion of minority businesses in the UK.
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A different approach in Germany and France
Both in Germany and France the targeting of ethnic minority businesses is still in its early stages. While in Germany, awareness of its own ethnic minority business community is growing, France has legislation on data privacy that makes it impossible to identify businesses based on the ethnic background of its owners. However, both countries have a tradition of promoting businesses run by people with disabilities and earmarking businesses from economically underdeveloped regions for promotion and support.
HP’s Brian Tippens and colleagues from government relations and procurement were able to participate in meetings with government officials in Germany and France at the end of last year. The meetings were positive and place HP, together with other business and government leaders, at the heart of the debate of what supplier diversity guidelines could and should look like in these countries.
“The meetings showed that both the corporate and the government representatives have a real understanding of the importance and impact of supplier diversity guidelines,” Tippens said.
“While these things take time, I am cautiously optimistic, because I think all involved feel that this is something important and positive that will create wider benefits for businesses and society.”
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Global Citizenship Reports 2006 (*) |
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