DEIB: Checked the Box, Missed the Mark
The Illusion of Diversity Progress
Welcome to this issue of The Contingent Compass. Each week, I send two essays to help you navigate the complex world of the Contingent Workforce. If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.
Most companies feel confident they’re making progress on DEIB in their contingent workforce programs. They’ve added diverse-certified suppliers to their rosters. The Tier 1 spend reports show healthy numbers. Stakeholders nod in meetings. ✅
It feels like progress.
But it’s not.
Spending with a certified diverse supplier doesn’t mean you’re hiring diverse talent. It just means you’re good at procurement paperwork. 📄
Over the years, we’ve confused vendor ownership with hiring outcomes. And in doing so, we’ve created a dangerous illusion. One that keeps the C-suite comfortable, the dashboards colorful, and the real work of inclusion untouched. 🎭
Everyone’s Certified Now
In today’s market, every staffing supplier leads their pitch with their diversity certification. It’s the opening line, the shiny badge, the subtle message: “We’re certified, so we should be in your program.”
But when everyone is certified, certification loses meaning.
Diverse ownership doesn’t guarantee diverse candidate pipelines. It doesn’t guarantee inclusive sourcing practices. And it certainly doesn’t guarantee results.
That badge is just an entry ticket. 🎟️ What matters is what comes next, and that’s where most programs fall short.
What’s Really Happening
Here’s the part that rarely gets discussed:
Many certified diverse suppliers aren’t actually placing underrepresented candidates. Not because they don’t want to, but because the system doesn’t reward it.
I’ll never forget what the owner of a major, well-known diverse-certified staffing firm once told me:
“If we focused on placing candidates from our certified category, we’d be out of business in months. Clients want us to place who they’re comfortable with. So we do.”
Let that sink in. 🧠
One of the largest diverse certified staffing providers in North America, held up as a DEIB success story … is mostly placing the same profiles as everyone else because the client expectations haven’t changed.
It’s not just misleading. It’s a hollow promise. And it’s happening everywhere.
The Data No One Wants to Look At
Most companies can tell you what percentage of their contingent spend went to certified diverse suppliers last quarter.
Very few can tell you who those suppliers actually placed.
Are they submitting inclusive slates?
Are underrepresented candidates making it to interview?
Are they being hired, renewed, retained?
Or are they being quietly filtered out, again and again?
A global media company I worked with had over a third of their program spend going to certified diverse suppliers. But when we dug into the data, fewer than 8 percent of contingent hires came from underrepresented groups.
Only two suppliers were making any real impact.
The rest had the badge, but not the outcomes. ❌
On the surface, the company looked like a DEIB leader.
But once we pulled back the curtain, it was clear. Most of the strategy was performative.
The Hidden Risk
This isn’t just a missed opportunity. It’s a risk.
Relying on supplier diversity spend as a proxy for DEIB progress exposes your organization to:
• Reputational backlash if stakeholders discover the truth
• Legal or compliance issues if candidate data isn’t being handled properly
• A widening gap between stated values and lived experience
You may be checking all the boxes on paper while nothing changes on the ground.
And soon, it won’t be enough to say you care about DEIB.
Your candidates, clients, and investors will expect proof.
If you're not building an inclusive contingent workforce, someone else is.
This isn’t just a Talent problem or a Procurement issue. This is a leadership question. If you sit on the executive team, ask yourself whether you are solving for appearance or solving for access.
DEIB cannot be outsourced to HR or delegated to Procurement. If you're a C-suite leader signing off on supplier strategies and workforce plans, you're accountable. Not just for what shows up in reports — but for the experience of every person who walks through your company’s doors. 🏢
What Better Looks Like
We don’t need to throw everything out. But we do need to evolve.
Start asking for anonymized data on candidate demographics. Who’s being submitted, interviewed, and placed? Don’t guess. Measure. 📊
Don’t let fear of compliance stop you from collecting the right data.
There are legally sound, privacy-safe ways to track candidate diversity trends without naming names or breaching trust.
Then reward the suppliers who consistently deliver underrepresented talent. Prioritize them. Give them more volume. They’ve earned it.
Bring contingent labor into your broader DEIB narrative. If it makes up 40 percent of your workforce, and it’s invisible in your DEIB goals, you’re missing the point.
Some argue that contingent workers don’t count toward candidate DEIB metrics because they’re not full-time employees.
But here’s the thing: many of them will be.
A significant portion of contingent talent eventually gets converted into permanent roles. And when that happens, you’ll either have built a pipeline that strengthens your DEIB outcomes or missed the chance entirely. 🔁
So don’t discount the impact of contingent hiring today. It might not show up on your current dashboard, but it will shape your future workforce.
If you’re using AI sourcing tools or talent platforms, take a hard look at how their algorithms handle diversity. Many unintentionally reinforce bias by screening candidates in or out based on historical data that was never inclusive to begin with. Technology won’t fix DEIB. But it can quietly undermine it if you're not careful. 🤖
One Fortune 500 client I worked with started tracking anonymized demographic data at the submittal stage. Within two quarters, they discovered that just three of their twenty suppliers were consistently submitting inclusive slates. They shifted volume to those three and within a year, their contingent hires from underrepresented groups increased by 29 percent. 📈
Start with just one job category or business unit. Look at the suppliers, look at the candidate slates, and ask yourself: is there a gap here? You don’t need perfect data to see the patterns. You just need to be willing to look.
Of course, DEIB looks different across markets. What counts as underrepresented in one region may not apply in another. But the principle holds everywhere: fairness, access, and representation matter.
Quick Actions to Start Today:
• Run a blind review of last quarter’s hires. Are any suppliers outperforming or underdelivering on representation?
• Ask suppliers to submit anonymized diversity data alongside candidate slates.
• Include DEIB performance in quarterly supplier business reviews.
Suppliers, You’re Not Off the Hook
If you're a certified diverse supplier, you carry more weight than you might realize.
Are you submitting inclusive slates?
Are you sourcing beyond your usual circles?
Are you helping your clients move forward or just helping them look good?
Don’t settle for being a checkbox. Be a partner in progress. Bring data. Show results. Push the conversation forward. 💬
Because if you don’t, you’re part of the illusion too.
Why Are You Doing This?
Let’s stop for a second and ask something most people avoid:
Why do you actually want a diverse supply chain?
Why do you want to increase candidate diversity?
Is it because it looks good in your annual report?
Because your board asked for it?
Because it helps win RFPs or tick ESG boxes?
Because it sounds good in a keynote or reads well on a careers page?
Or is it because you genuinely want to widen the circle?
To create opportunity for people who’ve historically been left out?
To build teams that reflect the world we live in, not just the one we’re used to hiring from?
To challenge bias, shift access, and invite in new perspectives that make your business stronger?
There’s no judgment in your answer.
But there should be honesty.
Because your reasons will shape your results.
If you're only doing this because you feel like you have to, you'll stop as soon as it gets uncomfortable.
But if you're doing it because you believe in the value of difference and equity, you’ll keep going until it works. 💪
Why Representation Really Matters
Let’s be honest. People gravitate to their own.
We all want to see someone like us in the workplace. Not because we need a mirror, but because we need proof. Proof that we belong. That there’s a path forward. That we’re not the exception. We’re part of the story. 🧩
People of color want to see other people of color.
People with disabilities want to see others navigating that space too.
LGBTQ+ professionals want to see their community reflected, safely, openly, and authentically.
It’s not about lowering standards.
It’s about creating possibility.
Of course people need to be qualified for the roles they’re being hired into. But when all things are equal, and they often are, choosing to build teams that reflect the world we live in is not a compromise. It’s a commitment.
Representation gives people something essential:
A reason to believe they have a place here.
A connection to the company’s journey.
And a vision of what’s possible for themselves.
And we must remember. Many people carry more than one identity.
True inclusion means understanding intersectionality, because the barriers facing a disabled woman of color, for example, are not the same as those faced by someone with just one of those labels. We cannot erase that complexity with a checkbox.
If the moral argument isn’t enough, let’s be practical.
Teams with greater diversity perform better, innovate faster, and understand a wider customer base.
When you create inclusive access in contingent labor, you're not just doing the right thing. You’re building a smarter, more resilient business. 📉➡️📈
That’s not a feel-good idea.
That’s culture.
And culture drives performance, loyalty, and innovation.
Time to Reflect
Let’s sit with this for a moment. 🪞
If you removed supplier certifications from your reporting entirely, could you still prove your DEIB impact?
If a board member asked you to show how your contingent workforce supports your inclusion strategy, could you show them real data?
If you’re feeling tired of the DEIB conversation, that’s understandable. It’s been overused, misused, and sometimes reduced to checkbox theatre.
But that’s exactly why it matters to keep going.
Because real equity work doesn’t happen when it’s trending. It happens when it’s quiet, hard, and necessary.
And here’s a more personal one.
If your child, your sibling, or your best friend walked into your company tomorrow, would they feel like they belonged?
Or would they wonder if people like them ever get to stay?
We can’t change what we’re unwilling to examine.
A senior leader once asked me, “But how do we know if it’s working?” I told them, “You’ll know when your newest temp feels just as seen as your longest-tenured VP.” 👥
Your Next Move
You don’t have to start over. But you do have to shift your lens. 🔍
Stop asking, “How much did we spend with diverse suppliers?”
Start asking, “Who got seen? Who got hired? Who got left out?”
Because inclusion doesn’t begin when the invoice is processed.
It begins the moment a resume hits a hiring manager’s desk.
And it ends only when inclusion stops being a presentation slide and becomes a shared, measurable outcome.
I don’t have all the answers. But I’m committed to asking better questions, and helping companies have the hard conversations that lead to meaningful change. If you’re ready to explore what that looks like, I’m here.
Let’s stop playing the DEIB game.
And start changing who gets a real seat at the table. 🪑
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If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.