Notting Hill Genesis: Improving Supplier Diversity

• Uncategorized
• Healthy_Business
• Diversity and Inclusion

Founded in the 1960s to address slum conditions in West London, Notting Hill Genesis is now one of London’s largest charitable housing associations, focused on providing quality homes at below-market rents for people who would otherwise struggle to afford them.
 
The organisation recently agreed with their Inclusion Adviser, Georgia, that supplier diversity is a key area of development for them. As a Responsible Business committed to providing safe, warm and comfortable homes for residents, they recognised that procurement affects their residents and should reflect their needs. As a result, it carried out an Inclusion Strategy review to pinpoint area for improvement.

 How did Business in the Community (BITC) support Notting Hill Genesis?

Initially, a supplier diversity and self-assessment activity was carried out with the Director and Head of Procurement to determine the organisation’s maturity in supplier diversity. This identified actions that were already in place and new activities that would be impactful for the team to implement. The company also asked the procurement team to evaluate their knowledge and application of supplier diversity within their roles, so that it could tailor the content to their needs and assess the knowledge gained from the training itself.
 
As a result, BITC designed and delivered training that covered the following concepts:
 

The importance of supplier diversity and inclusive supply chain

• The key barriers to supplier diversity for buyers and suppliers

• Regulations and internal reporting expectations

• Example case study of ‘what good looks like’

• How to create a supplier diversity and inclusive supply chain plan using the theory of change

What was the outcome of the training?

Over 90% of the procurement team attended the training held by BITC. The results of the training were measured via Slido feedback during the training and afterwards via an online AES survey. As a result of the training, the following positive results were garnered:

• The number of employees who understand the barriers faced by diverse suppliers increased by 20 percentage points.
• The number of employees who understand what actions the organisation currently takes to improve supplier diversity increased by 30 percentage points.
• 100% of participants could identify changes that they or the organisation could make to engage with more diverse suppliers.
• Each employee identified an action that they would lead which incorporates supplier diversity or inclusive supply chain, to be reviewed quarterly with their manager, as a part of their personal objectives for the Financial Year 24/25.

Since the training, Notting Hill Genesis has registered with a third-party supplier database to promote its contract opportunities with local businesses, micro suppliers and SME’s. It is also taking steps to record the diversity of its existing supply chain and those that join, through the supplier onboarding process. This will enable the company to understand where it is and propose potential engagement targets moving forward.

“We found the training provided by BITC really useful in shaping the discussion and action plan around supplier diversity. Given our core business operations are focused across the footprint of London, it is important that our supply chain is representative of the communities that we work in and this training really focused the team and enabled us to consider how we can drive and influence change through the procurement process,” Sandip Shergill Director of Procurement.

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