It is the mission of Atrium Health Supplier Diversity & Development to improve the gender, racial, ethnic, and veteran representation of suppliers to Atrium Health. Through our procurement process, we are committed to extending partnerships with diverse firms and strengthening the economic foundation of the communities we serve.
Atrium Health believes that diversity improves the mission of our organization, strengthens our communities and contributes to the economic well-being of an increased number of businesses and their employees. We value and encourage the use of qualified and fully vetted minority-owned (MBE), woman-owned (WBE), LGBTQ-owned (LGBTBE), and veteran-owned (VBE) businesses in our organization-wide purchasing process.
Established in 2001, the program seeks to form mutually beneficial partnerships with suppliers who offer high-quality products or services that are competitively priced and come with excellent customer service.
For its efforts, Atrium Health was bestowed the 2013 Premier Member Diversity Award.
Supplier Diversity is a strategic business operation program that encourages and advocates for the utilization of suppliers and service providers that are woman-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ-owned, and “historically underutilized”.
An organization that maintains a successful and intentional Supplier Diversity Program sets explicit expectations and goals on behalf of the organization to ensure that diverse suppliers are given equal access to participate in procurement opportunities who otherwise may not have the opportunity to work with large organizations.
Supplier Diversity promotes socio and economic value because it encourages growth of diverse businesses. By the inclusion of these businesses within an organization’s supply chain strategy, businesses can create and maintain opportunities within their own walls which then produces a consistent trend of upward mobility of their employees. Continuous evolution of such diverse businesses and the resulting success reflects upon Atrium Health’s effort to be intentional about and dedicated to social responsibility.
Atrium Health Supplier Diversity actively performs economic impact analytics (EIA) to examine the effects of doing business with diverse suppliers in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. By examining the generated revenue, income and jobs that doing business with diverse companies has resulted in, a clear viewpoint of the impact to the local economy can be formed.
Further, an influential Supplier Diversity Program has proven to generate desired organizational goals, for example, cost savings, increase quality and service as well as added streams from which to competitively procure goods and services.
Although Supplier Diversity and Supplier Development coincide with each other, the two programs serve different purposes.
A Supplier Development Program provides education, guidance and support to suppliers to generate new capabilities, refresh competencies and improve performance. Depending on the hosting organization, a Supplier Development Program can either be an informal effort or formally structured, the later depending on resources, budgeting and organizational goals.
As part of our commitment to diversity, Atrium Health has established a supplier development program. The program’s primary objectives are to build capabilities and expand the capacity of diverse suppliers to enhance their competitiveness and support growth in our communities. The desired goal for each participating supplier is to improve their business acumen for them to competitively seek opportunities and to be included in an organization’s sourcing process.
Atrium Health is committed to honesty, integrity and fair dealings in all business operations. We value our business relationships and trust that the suppliers that we currently hold relationships with and those that will be created in the future share our commitment to ethical procurement and honorable agreements of service. We expect our vendors to adopt their own, comparable conscientious principles and adhere to our Code of Conduct.
We know that diversity of thought and people makes us stronger. Learn more about what it takes to become a diverse supplier at Atrium Health.
