What is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I)?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion focuses on reducing discrimination, promoting fair opportunities, and creating an environment where everyone feels valued and can contribute.
- Diversity recognises differences such as age, gender, ethnicity, social background, sexual orientation, and physical and mental abilities.
- Equity recognises that people face different barriers and may need different support to access opportunities fairly.
- Inclusion means creating a culture where people of all backgrounds feel respected, supported and able to participate fully.
The IntegrityNext Diversity, Equity and Inclusion assessment helps your business partner understand your company’s approach in three areas:
- Inclusive Culture: Your company’s approach to inclusive culture, diverse leadership, and diversity and inclusion programmes, policies or initiatives.
- Supplier Diversity Practices: Whether your company has a supplier diversity programme, considers diverse suppliers when sourcing, and is open to participating in customer-led diversity initiatives.
-
Workforce Gender Balance: The proportion of women and men in your workforce.
How does DE&I apply to supplier relationships?
Having suppliers which represent the customer base of a company can help contribute to that company's competitiveness and provide new ideas, services, and/or products. A supplier diversity program is a proactive business program that encourages the use of minority, women, veteran, LGBT , veteran-disabled, historically under-utilised, and Small Business Administration (SBA) businesses as suppliers.
For an example of how to set up a supplier diversity program, take a look at this article here.
Who is usually responsible for DE&I initiatives internally?
D&I usually sits within the HR function of a business, and there might be someone within your business who is specifically responsible for D&I initiatives. If you need additional input in regards to this assessment and would like to invite a colleague to fill out this assessment, please refer to this article here on inviting a colleague.
How can I improve my status?
Whether you clicked on 'Yes' or 'No' has less of an impact in this assessment than in others: In this assessment it is important that you did not answer any of the questions with 'No Answer'.
- If you have answered a question with 'No Answer', your status will remain yellow.
- If you have answered the questions truthfully, your status will move towards the green area - no matter what the answer is.
- The more you can demonstrate that diversity and inclusion are values which are reflected in your business, the more you will move into the green area of the assessment.
- If you have questions about your business partner’s expectations or need further guidance, please contact them directly.
It is not possible to receive a red status in this assessment, but your status will remain in yellow if answers to the assessment reflect that diversity is not a value which is promoted in the business.
For more information, please visit our INX Academy: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.