Diversity Qualification Rules

The diversity dashboard in Tealbook allows you to view your Qualified and Potential diverse spend. The default qualification criteria set by Tealbook is what will initially define your Diverse Qualified & Potential spend - with the default being based on the most commonly referenced Top and State source agencies.

Essentially, you would use the qualification rules to determine the certifications, agencies, locations, and other specific requirements for marking suppliers as Qualified or Potential. 

Each company may have different views in terms of what they hold as recognized diverse qualifications. For instance, your company may not deem “self-certified” suppliers in Tealbook as acceptable, while another company may find this of immeasurable value as self-certified suppliers in Tealbook provide an additional pool to source from. 

In this article, we will break down the different qualifications rules and explain how this could influence your diverse amounts from Potential to Qualified. 

In the image below is the default setting for the qualifications rules.

From this area of your qualification rules, you can define the rules for a qualified diversity certificate. These rules will be used to calculate your diverse spend. See below for an overview of each qualification rule.

Types of Certificates:

Any Types: When you deselect this option, this allows you the opportunity to review the list of different diverse certifications. Choose from the ones listed as most relevant to your diversity program initiative. This is not an exhaustive list and we welcome any additional diverse certifications to be added.

Top Agencies: This list provides you recommended agencies that are well-known and reputable in regards to the group they represent in diversity. Included in this list is Tealbook’s Self Certify option.

State Agencies: Within the US, there are also state-level certifying agencies that you can include in your qualifying rules.

Other Agencies:  If your supplier's certificate is from a certifying agency that is not listed in the Top or State Agencies and has been categorized as 'other,' it will appear in the 'Other Agencies' section. It is up to your organization to decide whether to recognize the certifying authority and include it in your diversity report.

Tealbook continues to scout for new and emerging certifying agencies around the world. At this time, all localized and foreign agencies are listed in this section. 

Note: This option is not selected by default. Occasionally, customers may notice that a certifying agency is no longer available when it was previously listed in "Other Agencies".  If a supplier's certificate has expired, its certifying agency will be removed from the 'Other Agencies' list. This is important to note as it may impact your qualified & potential spend.

Spend Location: You can indicate where you want your spend to be designated. Assigning a location will provide you a view into diverse spend locations outside of the US.

Verification Rules

Below you will find the set of mandatory verification rules that are exclusive of what is applied to your total diverse spend. Your total diverse spend is based on certificates that have not expired - and is a total of your qualified and potential diverse spend. With the verification rules, this gives you the option of including any certification that you or tealbook have verified to be part of your qualified diverse spend despite it being expired. 

When applying the verifications rules, you are acknowledging that certain conditions are understood with certifications that you have verified. For example: if you have gone into a supplier profile and manually verified their certification to be valid, then you would need to ensure that under “Certificates Verified by my Company”; to select either  “Include even if certificates do not meet Certifying Agency Requirements or are expired”, or “Include spend only if certificates meet Certifying Agency requirements or are expired”. By doing so will include any certification that you have verified is valid, despite it being expired.

By default:

“Certificates Verified by my Company is “Include even if certificates do not meet Certifying Agency requirements or are expired”;

 “Certificates Rejected by My Company” is  “Exclude even if certificates meet Certifying Agency requirements and are active”;

”Certificates Verified by tealbook” is “Ignore Verified by tealbook”

Certificates Verified by My Company:

In this section, you are allowed to choose one of three options. The purpose of this rule is to allow you to select certificates that have been verified by your company but  may be expired.

• Include even if certificates do not meet Certifying Agency requirements or are expired. If a certificate has been verified as diverse by your company but is not a selected certifying agency, it will be included in diverse spend whether it’s expired or not.
• Include spend only if certificates meet Certifying Agency requirements but even if they are expired. If a certificate has been verified as diverse by your company and is a selected certifying agency, it will be included in diverse spend whether it’s expired or not.
• Ignore Verified by my company. Ignores certificates verified by your company in favour of the rules you apply in the above sections. This means, certificates that may not be verified by your company, will be included in diverse spend if they’re not expired.

Certificates Rejected by My Company: This section allows you to choose from one of two options.

• Exclude even if certificates meet Certifying Agency requirements and are active. This allows you to remove any certificates that your company has verified as not diverse from your qualified diverse spend totals.
• Ignore Rejected by My Company. Ignores certificates rejected by your company in favour of the rules you apply in the above sections. This means, certificates that may be rejected by your company, will be included in diverse spend if they’re not expired.
  

Certificates Verified by tealbook: Tealbook marks certificates that it has loaded from third-party sites as verified diverse. This section allows you to choose from one of three options.

• Include even if certificates do not meet Certifying Agency requirements. If a certificate has been verified as diverse by tealbook but is not a selected certifying agency, it will be included in diverse spend
• Include only where they both meet Certifying Agency requirements and are verified.  If a certificate has been verified as diverse by tealbook and is a selected certifying agency, it will be included in diverse spend.
• Ignore verified by tealbook. Ignores certificates verified by tealbook in favour of the rules you apply in the above qualification sections. This means that any certificates, despite being verified by tealbook, will be included in diverse spend. For example, any suppliers who self-certifies in Tealbook is ignored and does not show up in qualified diverse spend.

Completeness Rule: Certain agencies may also include documentation that is attached to the supplier profile. By selecting this option, this will limit to only suppliers with attached certifications to be included as part of your qualified diverse spend.

Attestation Rules: These are optional selection criteria that allow you to further define what you would like to include as part of your diverse qualified spend total. 

• Require for Self Certified: By selecting this option you are including any supplier that has self-certified to adhere to the attestation rules.
• Require for these Certifying Agencies: This option allows you to select specific certifying agencies that must have attestation to include their certificate in your diverse spend. By selecting this option you are including any supplier that has self-certified to adhere to the attestation rules.
• Require where certificates not verified by tealbook: If a certificate has not been verified by tealbook, there must be attestation.

Who Sets Up the Qualification Rules

There are two options when it comes to setting up the qualification rules.

1. Corporate level: This option allows those with Buyer Admin roles to pre-set corporate-wide rules. This locks in the setting that your company has agreed are the defining criteria for all users to adhere to and use for corporate purposes. Once you have made your selection, you will see a corresponding number beside the “Corporate Qualifications Rules.

2. User level: Each user within the account can set up their own qualification rules.  This is useful when there are different users from different areas of the company who have their own interpretation of what qualifies a certificate as diverse. Once this rule is set they will be able to see the number of rules set and the button will be relabelled to  “My Qualification Rules”.

Note: At any time, a user can select their own rules over pre-set corporate or default rules that are in place.

What Happens When I click “Reset”.

1. If a user has selected their own rules and decides to revert to pre-set rules, the user can click on the “reset” button which will remove all rules selected by the user.
2. If there are no corporate rules, the reset button will default the user to system (tealbook) rules.
3. If corporate rules are set, the reset button will return the settings to corporate rules.

Should you have any questions regarding the qualifications rules and how these will affect your total qualified diverse spend, please contact your Customer Success Manager for further assistance.