Diversity & Inclusion Services Category Procurement Intelligence Report

The market for HR Services and its sub-segments such as Diversity & Inclusion Services are at an interesting intersection. People analytics has emerged as a rather new branch of HR function with an aim to gain deeper insights into an employee's behavior, motivators, risk of attrition and general wellbeing. There is a high demand for suppliers who can integrated technology in traditional processes to generate insights on the buyers' talent pool.

Even though global population is increasing, the availability of adequately trained talent pool is reducing in many geographies. Lack of skilled in-house manpower continues to be the largest factor for hiring of Diversity & Inclusion Services. Companies are designing processes where the internal talent can work on the most value-adding activities and all non-core activities can be handed over to a third-party.

Suppliers are increasingly offering a 'bundle' of services which is marketed as a cost saving option. The bundled offering often includes services that are not required by the buyer or are charged at a much higher rate than an A la carte option with another supplier.

Trends like these and many others discussed in this report are necessitating a relook at the way Diversity & Inclusion Services is procured and the procurement cost saving opportunities that exist.

As market conditions become more dynamic and procurement practices get more sophisticated, category managers need to be cognizant of the best practices that work for their Diversity & Inclusion Services category procurement. The report offers a succinct analysis of Diversity & Inclusion Services procurement best practices.

For example, Employers are focusing on providing employee-friendly interfaces (such as mobile-enabled services and web portals) to access and manage benefits and options available to employees. Suppliers who have the technical capabilities to seamlessly integrate with the employer's internal systems without comprising the data protection should be preferred.

Besides shortlisting potential suppliers based on services offered and cost, they also need to be evaluated against several other critical parameters. Some examples of these parameters are compliance with laws and regulations, capability to protect personally identifiable information and technical standards adopted (e.g. user interface, user exchange standards, data exchange standards). RFPs soliciting the above information ensures competition among suppliers and facilitates efficient evaluation.

Large organizations are opting to streamline and centralize their personnel-related administration functions at the global level to realize efficiencies and consistency in the employee benefits and related policies.

Diversity & Inclusion Services procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Diversity & Inclusion Services procurement. Some examples include: