Once you understand your suppliers’ approaches to LGBTQ+ inclusion, you can utilise your business partnership to create lasting change throughout your supply chain.
Setting clear objectives, and regularly monitoring progress against these, can support you to achieve tangible inclusion goals with your suppliers.
This as an opportunity for collaboration and sharing good practice, rather than to put pressure on suppliers or punish them. Your suppliers may be more receptive if they feel like you are simply taking the time to help them become the best organisation they can be.
Required improvements as a condition of contract are most successful when they are consistently enforced, and adequately supported.
Here are some key ways that you can hold suppliers to account:
- Include LGBTQ+ inclusion objectives or an Equality Impact Assessment as part of your contract objectives/management. You may consider making it a condition of your contract that a supplier continues to uphold your shared values. You may also ask for specific, timebound objectives – for example, implementing a transitioning at work policy within the next 12 months.
- Include a diversity and inclusion slot in contract monitoring meetings. This can be inclusive of a wide range of diversity and inclusion topics, but we’d recommend ensuring that it covers LGBTQ+ issues. It’s also a great opportunity to check in on any LGBTQ+ inclusion objectives that you’ve set as a condition of contract.
- Monitor and analyse LGBTQ-feedback on your supplier. We’d recommend having a mechanism for collecting and analysing LGBTQ-related feedback about the supplier services. This could include proactively gathering internal feedback - from your LGBTQ+ employee network group and wider staff body – and external feedback – from service users and customers.
Vodafone
‘We hold our suppliers accountable through review meetings and evaluations. Regular evaluation of supplier performance is a fundamental component of Vodafone’s continuous improvement approach to supplier management. Within Vodafone’s performance management framework, diversity and inclusion is measured as part of Vodafone’s sustainability pillar. This is done annually and is based on validated responses from suppliers who complete a questionnaire. Vodafone undertakes this process for strategic suppliers where it has most influence, based on the supplier’s importance, value and spend.
Quarterly review meetings are held to monitor progress on sustainability focusing on key material issues of safety of the workforce, protecting human rights, gender diversity and LGBTQ+ inclusion. These meetings are attended by senior account managers supported by executives responsible for the topics from the supplier organisation. A diversity scorecard is used as the basis of discussion.
Lastly, Vodafone has a sustainable supplier award and diversity scores inform which organisations are recognised and rewarded.’
Want to advance your work even further by developing your procurement team’s inclusivity?
We run 90-minute Empowerment workshops on embedding LGBTQ+ inclusion in your supply chain. Reach out to prospect@stonewall.org.uk now to book your session.