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Discrimination

Discrimination: How can difference can become a competitive advantage and not a burden?

In our globalised economy, multicultural models offer a competitive advantage for internationalcompanies by creating innovation through the fusion of different ways of thinking. It helps companies rethink in their products, processes, diversity policies and corporate culture. It becomes cost-effective to invest in diversity to modernise the corporate cultural heritage, ensuring that societal values and business objectives are shared by all. Diversity of all kinds inside the company increases knowledge transfers and enriches experience, like every spoken language in the firm is an asset for better communication and so for better productivity and a more human buyer-supplier relationship. Discrimination is difficult to detect and it is not specific to the supply chain.

What is the risk of discrimination in the supply chain?

Discrimination can be conscious or unconscious, open or hidden. It happens on the base of race, colour, nationality, religion, handicap, ethnicity, marital status, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, social class, union affiliation or political view. It can impact:

• On commercial deals: discrimination of favouritism can lead to less better deals based on discriminatory criteria instead of quality, price and social responsibility.
• On the work place: discrimination by unequal treatment can cause stress, tension, aggressivity and a loss of cohesion in the factory which may affect productivity and quality.
• On skills: discrimination can lead to a higher turnover of employees contributing to a loss of skills and experience for the company.
• On market share: discrimination can deprive the firm of ready to use assets and knowledge of niche markets or specific suppliers with the appropriate competences.
• Public image: unfair treatment can influence consumer opinion and media, leading to decreasing gain and exposure of the company to legal prosecution. Understanding differences may be crucial for a positive outcome of the supply chain.

What can I do to avoid and tackle discrimination issues in the supply chain?

There are various ways tofight discrimination and set up business relationships free of harassment and discrimination:

• Set up and advertise neutral job profiles for the various positions to fill
• Train your managers (human resources, procurement, sales) about the different forms of discrimination to be able to detect them
• Follow the ILO recommendations (C111; C100)
• Create a bottom up communication system to ensure a complaint system for the employees.
• Set up a series of indicators in order to monitor possible discrimination: compensation and benefits, wage rate, gender ratio in the team, age, social, racial and religious origin.
• Keep a list of suppliers to track place of orders and the diversity.
• Positive discrimination: in certain circumstances, it might be indicated to set up a policy of positive discrimination, by which an official effort is made to increase the participation of underrepresented factions of society in specific sectors (board of management, certain tasks in factories,..) to restore a lack of balance at short-mid term.
• Why not let suppliers co-define and explain their own management policies and practices, considering national regulations and international instruments? Local managers know and understand the local culture and therefore they are in a best position to understand what is most appropriate to do in their particular context.
• Consider establishing a whistleblower system or a mediation ombudsman for suppliers.

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