According to the CIPS Procurement & Supply Salary Guide 2024, in partnership with Hays, procurement and supply is a profession where people from under-represented groups really can thrive. Most respondents to our survey (across each region) agree that their organisation performs strongly for both diversity and inclusion.
But there’s no room for complacency. With employers experiencing a challenge for talent, and many employees considering their next job options, it is concerning that so few respondents (39% in the UK) say ED&I is a top priority for their organisation.
So, what does this year’s survey tell us about ED&I in procurement and supply and, critically, how ED&I can drive the profession’s success?
ED&I rankings
Australia and New Zealand have the lowest proportion of organisations prioritising ED&I at just 35%. It is, therefore, not too surprising that the gender pay gaps in Australia (24%) and New Zealand (22%) are among the highest in this analysis. Only Sub-Saharan Africa reported a higher pay gap at 39%.
At the other end of the spectrum, some 44% of companies in Europe have ED&I at the top of their priority list, with a gender pay gap of 14%.
The gender pay gap also gets bigger the more senior you are.
In the UK, men that hold a procurement and supply delivery role earn an average of 3.0% more than women. But this figure grows to more than 15% for those holding leadership positions in the profession, demonstrating just how much needs to be done to achieve pay equality.
If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it
Despite the gender pay gap prevailing across all regions, few organisations publish a gender pay gap report, and even fewer produce an ethnicity pay gap report.
The rules around gender pay gap reporting vary across the world. In the UK, where it’s mandatory for larger organisations, only 37% of companies have a gender pay gap report; even fewer (16%) have an ethnicity pay gap report. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 4% of companies publish a gender pay gap report; just 2% report on the ethnicity pay gap. Over time, it’s hoped that more progressive organisations will regularly report on such pay gaps.
Taking action to drive equality, diversity and inclusion
There are many organisations that are actively tackling ED&I. They are using several measures to drive equality, diversity and inclusion through the recruitment process.
The most common is to use unbiased language to describe job vacancies and the nature of the organisation and culture in job adverts. This features in the top three in five of the seven regions covered by this survey. The second most common measure is providing training for hiring managers to reduce unconscious bias when recruiting.
There are, however, many respondents across several regions who say their organisation deploys none of the measures aimed at ensuring diverse and inclusive hiring practices.
In the MENA region, this figure stood at 26%, while some 20% of European companies were similarly inactive when deploying measures to improve ED&I in recruitment.
A foundation for long-term success
Procurement and supply professionals are working in a hugely challenging environment. A high inflation environment has seen persistent rising prices, and there is ongoing disruption to supply chains because of conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
But we must not forget the many well-documented benefits of a diverse workforce: enhanced organisational performance; attractiveness to potential recruits; attractiveness to customers; and, of course, enhancements to your organisation’s reputation.