During the fourth session of DiversityInc’s Oct. 15 event, “Supplier Diversity: New Trends, Innovative Solutions,” a virtual panel that included Chelsea Slaughter, manager of supplier programs for Cox Communications (No. 17 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2020); Glenda Thomas, manager of supplier diversity for Southern Company (No. 26 in 2020); and Ije-enu Udeze Nwosu, executive director of impact spending for Kaiser Permanente (DiversityInc Hall of Fame company) offered their advice, insights and best practices for increasing Tier 1 and Tier 2 spend. The session was moderated by Lissiah Hundley, DiversityInc’s head of strategic partnerships and client fulfillment.
According to data from The DiversityInc Top 50 assessment in 2020, Top 10 and Hall of Fame companies allotted approximately 8.57% of their total procurement spend on racially diverse Tier 1 suppliers (or “prime” contractors) ; 5.86% on women-owned; 0.10% each on LGBTQ and disability-owned companies; and 0.43% on veteran-owned businesses.
Companies that topped DiversityInc’s Specialty List for supplier diversity in 2020 devoted comparable percentages of their total procurement spend on Tier 1 suppliers, but placed a bigger emphasis on Tier 2 (subcontractors or multi-tier contractors) spend, with approximately 6.32% going to racially diverse organizations 6.47% on women-owned companies; 0.99% on veteran-owned businesses.
