Maximising Diversity and Inclusion Across the Project

This project were set the target of being a ‘Vehicle for Change’ by maximising diversity and inclusion across the project.

One of the ways they were tasked to do this was by introducing the business and their supply chain to businesses owned by individuals with diverse characteristics. Categories of diverse businesses includes female owned, veteran owned, SME’s, disability owned, ethnic minority owned and LGBTQ+ owned.

The contractor recognises that diversity brings in new ideas and helps supply chains to become more competitive, and profitable. The project became members of Minority supplier Development UK (MSDUK), giving them access to their support and database of ethnic minority businesses. MSDUK is a non-profit membership organisation, driving inclusive procurement and promoting the ethos of diversity and inclusion by introducing ethnic minority owned businesses to organisations who recognise that under-representation hinders inclusive growth and gives them the opportunity to bring new ideas to market and benefits the bottom-line.

The contractor found that there was a short fall of business from the construction industry represented on the database even though with over 300,000 Ethnic Minority-owned Businesses in the UK they represent over 7% of all SMEs. The project has partnered with MSDUK and London metropolitan university to host an initiative to support the development and progression of supply chain diversity within the construction industry and increase engagement from construction EMBs (Ethnic Minority Businesses) on the MSDUK database.

The contractor will invite a cohort of students from the university to take part in a 12 week programme exploring supply chain diversity.

Participants from London Metropolitan University who are taking part in The Supply Chain Diversity Challenge will be tasked by the contractor with investigating the barriers to creating a more diverse supply chain and identifying possible solutions for attracting, engaging, and securing minority owned businesses.

The programme will support to develop the knowledge, language, and confidence to discuss and challenge under-representation within the supply chain through workshops to design and test strategies to diversify the supply chain, learning and developing practical solutions to tackle company-specific challenges relating to the under-representation, gathering and analysing EDI (Equality Diversity & Inclusion) data and designing an action plan to increase diversity within the construction industry supply chain