Kathey K. Porter - Supplier Diversity For Dummies

Few things are more disruptive to any program than poor execution. Building a poor structure can run counter to what you’re trying to accomplish. Further, it can negatively impact program results, which can lead to internal resentment and dysfunction. When that sets in with an organization, it’s hard to overcome.

Best practice is for these functions to work alongside each other, not one under the other. You’re creating supplier diversity and DEI rather than supplier diversity or DEI. As important as both of these are and will continue to be in the future, setting up a choice would be a hard, and maybe costly, decision to make.

This structure presents challenges for a few reasons:

Leadership woes, part one: For starters, determining who leads this effort — a supplier diversity professional or a DEI professional — is tricky. Just as HR and procurement are two distinct functions, each with different sensibilities and competencies, so are supplier diversity and DEI. You wouldn’t hire a procurement professional to run HR and vice versa.

Leadership woes, part two: Because the professional competencies are different, managing them under one umbrella usually ends with one person woefully unprepared to lead or manage the other program. They end up directing much of their time where they’re most comfortable while not paying enough, if any, attention to the other program.

Perceived prioritization: Having someone from one program lead the combined effort may give the impression that that program is more of a priority than the other.

Using an umbrella approach also impacts the leader tasked with managing it — the Chief Diversity Officer, or CDO. There have been quite a few hires and announcements of newly appointed CDOs. With some organizations, it’s the same as it’s always been, focused on DEI. In others, it’s an all-encompassing position covering all things diversity, including supplier diversity.

The emphasis on diversity is definitely a positive one. However, does the CDO title truly reflect what’s happening with diversity? For example, the CDO title has primarily been associated with DEI. However, if a comprehensive diversity strategy includes creating equitable opportunities for employees and suppliers, are diversity professionals, who are usually trained to support one portion of a program, equipped to handle the rigors of another aspect of diversity that includes different audiences and has its own set of challenges, objectives, and KPIs? Will this merging of the two require CDOs to be well versed in both areas, or is it setting diversity efforts up to fail by overreaching the capacity of the professional in charge?

I’ve heard many colleagues express feelings of burnout and being overwhelmed managing the demands of both and still being able to be effective. As stated earlier, the umbrella approach is problematic to diversity for several reasons. The title and what it entails adds to this challenge.

This change has been subtle and is still relatively new, but it’s showing up more in job descriptions or job titles across the board. The premise is that, like DEI, diversity gets businesses in the door, and inclusion ensures that they feel welcomed after they’re there. This point may be semantics, but it gives the impression that it’s a blended function. But as I discuss in the preceding section, that blending is difficult to execute and still devote the same level of priority to each one.

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