Herman Miller has a long legacy of championing inclusiveness and creating a workplace where every person is welcomed, valued, and celebrated for their unique capabilities, and where everyone can achieve their full potential. Our human-centric approach to design applies to all our stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which these businesses and ours operate.

One area of focus for us in this space is our Supplier Diversity strategy. This strategy ensures we prioritize the creation of a diverse supply chain that works to secure the inclusion of diverse groups in our procurement plans. Our Supplier Diversity efforts are realized as we commit to doing business with Minority-, Women-, Veteran-, Service-Disabled Veterans-, HUBZone-, and LQBTQ+ owned business enterprises.

By partnering with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), we join a network of 326 companies looking to expand their existing supplier diversity program to include Certified LGBT Business Enterprise companies.

“This partnership brings many benefits to Herman Miller including its ability to help fuel our goals to expand our support for diverse suppliers, including LGBT-owned businesses,” said Ben Watson, Chief Product Officer, and LGTBQ+ Equity Team Sponsor. “Our current representation of LGBTQ+ suppliers has the opportunity to grow, and we are glad to support their growth through our collaboration with NGLCC.”

The NGLCC is the business voice of the LGBT community, dedicated to expanding economic opportunities for the LGBT business community and its allies.

Some of the key benefits of the partnership include:

1. Participation in the quarterly Corporate Advisory Council, comprised of representatives from NGLCC corporate partners, and which serves as a collaborative forum where leaders from human resources, employee resource groups, marketing, and government affairs can discuss emerging trends in diversity and inclusion.

2. Participation in workshops hosted by NGLCC, webinars hosted by corporate partners for employee resource group best practice sharing, and employee resource group roundtables.

3. Participation in National Business Inclusion Consortium (NBIC) Unity Week, in which attendees receive access to programming focused on building success for diverse communities in the United States and around the globe.

We know that including a wide range of suppliers in our business operations enables greater innovation and economic viability and look forward to expanding our relationships with LGBT-owned businesses through this new partnership.

Check out our Taking Action and LGBTQ+ pages to learn more about the ways we’re creating a more diverse and inclusive organization and see what we’ve accomplished so far on Our Progress page.