As businesses expand globally, diversity in supply chains becomes critical for competitiveness, risk mitigation, and meeting societal demands for inclusion and social responsibility.
Watch this LinkedIn Live as our expert analysts explore the global landscape of supplier diversity initiatives and the challenges and opportunities they present . We’ll discuss the importance of inclusive procurement practices and the cultural considerations and adaptation of supplier diversity strategies in different regions .
Viewers will gain practical advice on aligning procurement processes with diversity goals on a global scale and hear success stories and innovative approaches from around the world that promote supplier diversity and inclusive procurement .
What did we discuss?
The global landscape of supplier diversity initiatives and the challenges and opportunities
How inclusive procurement practices can foster diversity and inclusion within the supply chain, and why it’s important
Cultural considerations when adapting supplier diversity strategies in different region
Everest Group proudly participated in three noteworthy global sustainability events in Manhattan this September: Climate Week NYC, the 78th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 78), and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting. These events centered around economic inclusion, climate change, health access, biodiversity, and other critical concerns. Read on for insights from our analyst team, who attended and presented at these pivotal gatherings that fostered collaboration and dialogue with the international community to advance sustainability efforts.
Climate Week NYC
This year’s Climate Week NYC was the largest climate event globally, bringing together 500 events and uniting over 10,000 people with a theme of “We Can. We Will.”
The week-long event from September 17-24 focused on accelerating action to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and building a more just and equitable society. We are seeing businesses across industries planning their paths to net zero, while also focusing on the “people” aspect of sustainability by actively working toward diverse and inclusive workforces and social and economic equity.
Climate Week NYC presented many opportunities to engage with like-minded individuals and organizations actively working towards a more sustainable and resilient future. Capgemini invited Rita Soni, Everest Group Principal Analyst, Impact Sourcing and Sustainability Research, to speak on a panel about technology companies’ unique role in addressing biodiversity entitled, Data & AI for Climate: Biodiversity Buzz.
Representatives from governments, businesses, and civil society convened to discuss innovative solutions and concrete commitments to reduce carbon emissions, preserve ecosystems, and transition to a low-carbon economy.
Climate Week NYC serves as a powerful reminder that despite the immense challenges of climate change, an incredible amount of collective will and ingenuity dedicated to finding solutions exists.
At Everest Group, we assist enterprises by guiding them toward forward-thinking strategies such as the circular economy. This innovative model of production and consumption focuses on making the most of resources. By adopting frameworks like the circular economy, enterprises can effectively handle material resources, minimize waste, and seamlessly incorporate sustainable principles into their operations.
Additionally, we are helping businesses embrace crucial initiatives like carbon accounting and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. Companies are increasingly prioritizing ESG reporting to manage risk, enhance their reputation, and comply with regulations.
UNGA 78
During the UNGA meeting, global leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to work toward creating a more equitable, sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world.
While leaders are intensifying efforts to reach the SDGs by 2030, global progress has been hindered by multiple critical issues, such as the ongoing pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the looming climate crisis. However, the imperative to achieve these goals has never been more pronounced.
Our analysts participated in global and domestic discussions, including two particularly impactful events:
Delivering Development: Journeys, Directions, and Lighthouses, hosted by the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, highlighted recent development progress and considerable efforts to meet the SDGs.
The National Wildlife Federation hosted the premiere of the documentary film, Where it Floods: Planting Hope in Coney Island. The film and panel discussion covered the devastation from Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. It also showcased local non-profit organizations’ work with children to restore the waterfront while raising climate change awareness.
CGI Annual Meeting
Held during UNGA and Climate Week NYC, CGI’s annual meeting focused on the need to “Keep Going.” CGI is a “community of doers taking action on the world’s most pressing challenges, together.”
Everest Group shared the industry’s progress on its 2022 commitment to grow the impact sourcing market to half a million people in three years. Impact sourcing is a growing practice where businesses intentionally train, hire, and nurture people from a wide range of excluded and marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, the long-term unemployed, individuals from rural/forgotten communities, and veterans.
We proudly announced that in just the first year of the commitment, the global services industry is within striking distance of the three-year target. The number of impact workers has increased from 350,000 to at least 430,000, representing faster growth than traditional hiring, even during this tumultuous year of economic uncertainty.
Everest Group’s pledge to inclusive talent
To uphold our pledge, Everest Group has enlisted support and partnership pledges from more than 50 prominent global employers, service providers, and enabling organizations. Together, we are embarking on a collaborative mission to enhance lives through impact sourcing. With the backing of CGI, this group is poised to expand its reach and ultimately impact more lives by bringing employment opportunities to those affected by discrimination, inequality, or systemic poverty.
Why impact sourcing is good for business
What makes this initiative so remarkable is that Everest Group’s research shows impact sourcing has mutual benefits for workers, employers, and buyers. For impact workers, this endeavor opens doors to newfound opportunities and a sense of purpose. As they engage in meaningful employment, workers not only gain valuable skills and financial independence but also experience personal growth and empowerment.
Companies that employ impact workers are making strides toward achieving their sustainability objectives and witnessing increased sales as consumers seek products with a greater social purpose. Moreover, companies are enhancing their employer brand proposition as potential employees are drawn to organizations that champion causes beyond profits. By prioritizing impact sourcing, businesses not only attract top talent but also inspire existing employees to be more engaged and committed to their work.
How your company can get involved
With the implementation of evolved impact sourcing practices and performance indicators, impact sourcing’s true potential lies in its widespread adoption at scale beyond the initial commitment. To fully harness its power:
Buyers must actively demand impact sourcing with timelines for growth
Service providers and enterprises need to:
Integrate inclusive talent strategies across locations and job roles
Establish a growing ecosystem of skilling institutions, recruitment firms, non-government organizations (NGOs), and government agencies to provide the necessary support
As emerging technologies like generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other yet-to-be-developed advancements become mainstream, the talent market will face both opportunities that will expand certain roles and reduce others. Impact sourcing can provide a viable workforce solution for the jobs of tomorrow.
Everest Group looks forward to partnering with employers, service providers, and recruitment and sourcing firms to leverage impact sourcing’s many opportunities and promote the benefits of a globally relevant and inclusive talent model. To join the movement and make a difference to individuals, families, communities, and businesses, learn more here.
Using OKRs for Your Sustainability Goals: It’s Time to Drive Meaningful Change
As enterprises become more sustainability-driven, traditional approaches to measuring success, such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), are no longer practical methods for determining objectives and measurable outcomes for pressing sustainability issues – like climate change and inequity.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a dynamic framework that offers a fresh perspective on delivering impactful metrics.
Watch as our sustainability experts discuss how enterprises can leverage OKRs for their sustainability initiatives and transition from the conventional KPI and SLA approaches to an OKR-driven methodology.
What questions does the webinar answer for the participants?
What are OKRs?
How do they differ from and/or complement more traditional KPIs and SLAs?
Why use OKRs for sustainability specifically?
Who should attend?
Sustainability tech lead
Head of sustainability services
Head of net zero transformation portfolio
Head of decarbonization
Head of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)
📈 Rising regulatory pressures, a continuously evolving reporting ecosystem, and an increasing correlation between sustainability and brand perception in the market have caused enterprises to look to technology to automate environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, generate actionable sustainable insights, and unlock business value through operational efficiency.
🌱 However, enterprises must first understand the sustainability enabling software market for effective planning and successful outcomes.
📢📢 Watch this LinkedIn Live session as our expert analysts explore the sustainability enabling software market and the key offerings of the major players in this space. They will cover market segments like ESG reporting platforms, EHS management platforms, Green IT, supply chain traceability platforms, and many other emerging developments.
What questions does the event answer for participants?
✔️ What are the major segments present in the sustainability software ecosystem?
✔️ What are the key value propositions and offerings of the major players?
✔️ What kind of enterprise challenges are these platforms resolving?
✔️ What are the emerging categories of players in the space?
Everest Group’s Eric Simonson, Managing Partner, and Rita N. Soni, Principal Analyst for Impact Sourcing and Sustainability, will attend the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 meeting on September 18-19 in New York City. This year’s focus is what it takes to keep going.
Last year, Everest Group pledged to dramatically increase the impact sourcing workforce– connecting hundreds of thousands of marginalized individuals to new jobs – by providing research and enablement tools, sharing best practices, and engaging enterprises, service providers, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in collaborative efforts.
Everest Group’s Commitment to Action is to grow the impact sourcing market to half a million in three years. As the CGI community knows, making and keeping commitments isn’t easy. Despite this, we know the antidote is as simple as it is true – we must keep going.
Eric and Rita will join colleagues and global stakeholders at the event to discuss impact sourcing, the potential it provides to companies and underserved communities around the world, and initiatives to help companies incorporate impact sourcing into their business models.
Everest Group’s Principal Analyst for Impact Sourcing and Sustainability, Rita N. Soni, will join a panel of industry experts at Climate Week in New York City in a session titled, Data & AI for Climate: Biodiversity Buzz. They will discuss how we can help protect insect ecosystems with data and AI.
The emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has sparked a complex debate in the global talent market. The acindustry faces a paradox in balancing the transformative advances the technology brings to training and recruitment with its potential negative societal and environmental implications. To successfully navigate this intricate landscape, organizations need to address concerns about ethics, data privacy and security, energy efficiency, and monitoring. Delve into the dual nature of Generative AI’s impact in this blog.
First, let’s look at the aspects of Generative AI’s impact that can be viewed as detrimental.
Generative AI’s impact on the environment
Developing talent recruitment and training GAI models requires the use of massive volumes of historical hiring data, training resources, and regulatory policies, which leads to considerable power and energy consumption during the training process. With the development of more powerful models, energy consumption will rise significantly, presenting a pressing concern. Using nonrenewable resources like fossil fuels as energy sources can have dire environmental consequences.
While the carbon footprint of AI models is well known, its water footprint is often overlooked and poses additional risks that can ultimately contribute to water scarcity. For instance, training GPT-3 at Microsoft’s data centers requires almost 700,000 gallons of fresh water, according to Cornell University research. Consequently, the large-scale adoption of GAI should prioritize methods to reduce both energy and clean water usage. Contact us to learn more about a sustainable approach to GAI.
Disruptive influence on the job market
In addition to environmental worries, GAI’s disruptive influence on the job market has ignited controversy. Goldman Sach research predicted GAI could replace millions of jobs globally. The potential for job loss has particularly become a major concern in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
With capabilities such as data entry, content generation, and customer support, GAI minimizes repetitive and rule-based tasks reducing the need for human involvement. GAI-driven data analysis can make forecasts based on past trends, reducing the reliance on human intervention, and diminishing the need for data analysts.
While the full extent of what positions GAI can replace in the coming years is not fully known, it conceivably can replace various roles in customer service, sales and marketing, operations, finance, and HR over time. The skills that can be affected as GAI’s use increases are illustrated below:
Ethical dilemmas and bias challenges in AI-driven recruitment
As we delve deeper into GAI’s implications, privacy concerns and unintended biases in AI models emerge. To create effective models, AI algorithms require large datasets, which can include sensitive and/or personal information. If not handled properly, any content generated by AI models can potentially expose an employee’s private information. These models can unknowingly learn sensitive information, making private details vulnerable in an attack.
AI systems also can reflect biases that are inherent in the data they are trained on. For example, if historical hiring data exhibits biases toward certain genders, ethnicities, or educational backgrounds in recruitment AI engines, AI may inadvertently favor these demographics in its recommendations, perpetuating inequitable disparities.
Furthermore, linguistic patterns or keywords within job descriptions could introduce biases related to gender or age, impacting how the AI appraises and prioritizes candidates. Consequently, employers who incorporate such systems into their hiring processes may inadvertently amplify the inherent biases encoded within these models, potentially placing specific groups of individuals at a disadvantage.
Exploring the upside of GAI
Despite the hurdles and reservations, GAI can bring substantial advantages to both the environment and the talent market. Its capacity to automate and optimize various processes can significantly save energy and resources, thus reducing the overall environmental impact.
Although GAI’s energy consumption poses immediate concerns, its potential for long-term sustainability is encouraging. The technology promotes adopting renewable energy sources to power AI infrastructure, reducing dependency on fossil fuels.
Promoting sustainable practices in AI development and deployment can ensure a greener future for the talent market. Additionally, GAI can enhance workforce productivity and job satisfaction by effectively matching candidates with appropriate job opportunities and offering personalized training programs.
Job creation and upskilling
GAI’s potential for automating routine tasks has raised concerns about job displacement. However, the impact is more nuanced and can offer opportunities for job creation and upskilling. As GAI takes over repetitive tasks, the workforce must adapt through upskilling and reskilling to complement AI technologies. This shift in job roles necessitates a proficient workforce leveraging GAI to enhance productivity and creativity. Moreover, GAI creates demand for specialized roles like AI specialists, data scientists, and AI ethicists. Embracing GAI and investing in workforce development will prepare organizations for an AI-powered future, fostering a collaborative and innovative talent market.
Facilitating a more accessible talent market
GAI, when properly trained, has the potential to democratize the recruitment process by making it more accessible and inclusive. It can provide equal opportunities for candidates from diverse backgrounds, leveling the playing field and diminishing bias in the recruitment process. Moreover, with tailored training programs generated by GAI, individuals can develop their skills and competencies at their own pace, empowering them to access better job prospects and career growth.
The way forward
To ensure the sustainable and responsible integration of GAI in the global talent recruitment and training market, stakeholders must address the following four aspects:
Ethical framework: Developing and adhering to a robust ethical framework is essential to prevent biases and discrimination in AI-driven recruitment processes. Regular audits and transparent reporting can help identify and rectify any inadvertent bias in the algorithms
Data privacy and security: Strict data privacy regulations and security protocols must be implemented to safeguard personal information and prevent data breaches. Consent-based data usage should be a priority, and stringent measures must be in place to ensure secure storage and handling of data
Energy efficiency: Researchers and developers must focus on creating more energy-efficient AI training methods to reduce the carbon footprint associated with GAI. Exploring renewable energy sources and optimizing hardware can contribute to making AI technologies greener
Continuous monitoring: Regular monitoring and assessment of AI algorithms is vital to detect and correct any potential issues or biases that may arise during real-world application. Continuous improvement and adaptation are crucial for responsible AI deployment
GAI offers many opportunities in the global talent recruitment and training market. While it has the potential to streamline processes, increase accessibility, and benefit the environment, ethical concerns, bias challenges, data privacy issues, and environmental and social/societal implications must be addressed.
By adopting responsible AI practices, emphasizing inclusivity, and prioritizing the environment and sustainability, we can ensure that GAI serves as a powerful and ethical tool, transforming the talent market for the better and contributing to a brighter and more promising future.
For more information about Generative AI’s impact on talent and recruitment, and strategies for responsible AI practices, contact [email protected].
There’s no question that global services are increasingly important to all types of private and public sector organizations worldwide. Our passion, focus, and vision at Everest Group are helping our clients and the industry at large understand the potential of ever-changing services capabilities and how to most effectively shape and utilize services to drive and consistently improve stakeholder value for optimum impact.
Today there is no more urgent need than to understand how to achieve sustainability goals for our clients. We see an abundance of talent, ingenuity, and innovation across all global services. We are eager to bring this insight to our clients and help them make the most of the sustainability opportunity.
And keep an eye on our new sustainability-focused LinkedIn page, where we deliver valuable sustainability insights that businesses can leverage for their sustainability goals.
How can we engage?
Please let us know how we can help you on your journey.
As businesses expand globally, diversity in supply chains becomes critical for competitiveness, risk mitigation, and meeting societal demands for inclusion and social responsibility.
. We’ll discuss the importance of inclusive procurement practices and the cultural considerations and adaptation of supplier diversity strategies in different regions 
.
Viewers will gain practical advice on aligning procurement processes with diversity goals on a global scale and hear success stories and innovative approaches from around the world that promote supplier diversity and inclusive procurement 
.
The global landscape of supplier diversity initiatives and the challenges and opportunities
