How to support Indigenous supplier diversity through your workplace procurement strategy
Supplier Diversity September is an initiative marked annually by Supply Nation to promote the benefits of supplier diversity and showcase Indigenous businesses that are thriving across Australia. It’s an important opportunity to reflect on your workplace procurement strategy and how it can be diversified to support Indigenous businesses; a diverse supply chain, and Indigenous engagement, are key pillars of Sheldon’s ESG framework.
Supply Nation’s Sleeping Giant Report about the Social Return on Investment of Indigenous businesses found that ‘Indigenous businesses are more than a means of economic independence: they enable their owners to build resilience and pride in their communities.’ With the economic and social impact of robust Indigenous businesses, it’s important for the wider community to play their part in supporting their growth and future resilience.
The Indigenous Business and Corporation Snapshot?from the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership at the University of Melbourne revealed statistics about the impact and growth of Indigenous businesses. In 2022, Indigenous businesses generated over $16 billion dollars, and employed more than 116,000 people, a number expected to continue growing.
Workplace procurement can increase Indigenous business success and in turn improve social outcomes. Whether embedded into a Reconciliation Action Plan, Indigenous Procurement Policy, ESG and corporate social responsibility, there are many opportunities to take action.
Ways to embed supplier diversity and Indigenous procurement into your supply chain:
Supplier diversity assessment: a thorough assessment of current suppliers and a business’ procurement strategy is an essential place to start, to look for opportunities to increase engagement with Indigenous businesses.
Engage with Supply Nation: Supply Nation is home to Australia’s largest directory of Indigenous businesses which you can use to search for relevant businesses in your location.
Preferred supplier status: give preference to Indigenous-owned businesses throughout your procurement process, where feasible and competitive.
Reporting and monitoring: this is essential to track growth and spend, and can be done through Supply Nation’s spend tracker. It’s useful to regularly report progress against targets to hold them accountable, and to monitor ongoing performance.
Continuous improvement: nothing is achieved overnight, and it’s important to identify potential barriers early on to achieving your procurement goals.
No matter your industry or business size, there are countless procurement opportunities within the workplace itself to support Indigenous businesses, as most of these are essential requirements for office operations, for example:
·?????? Facilities management services
·?????? Art/artefacts
·?????? Graphic design
·?????? Subcontractors
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·?????? Furniture
·?????? Events/Catering
·?????? Security
·?????? Fire services
·?????? Office supplies
·?????? Office fitout?
Sheldon assists our clients to meet their supplier diversity goals by working with our diverse range of suppliers and subcontractors. We also advocate for the inclusion of Indigenous art, artefacts and design elements in the workplace, which you can read about here.
Supply Nation-certified, Indigenous-owned business CoDesign + Sheldon provides government and corporate clients with a complete office fitout process, with profits directed towards Indigenous-led environment and land regeneration initiatives.