Unlocking Social Procurement Opportunities in Professional Services

Professional services—from architects and engineers to building surveyors—are increasingly encountering social procurement requirements within tenders. But with limited or non-traditional supply chains, many consultancies struggle to identify meaningful ways to contribute to social outcomes.

At Sedo Group, we have worked with several professional services advisory businesses to design and develop social procurement for professional services, helping consultants align their operations and influence with tangible, impactful strategies.

Let’s explore three key components that can help your business make a meaningful contribution in social procurement.

1. Inclusive Employment: A Strategy for Representation and Opportunity

Implementing an Inclusive Employment Strategy allows professional consultancies to lead by example in promoting diversity and community representation.

This means actively creating pathways for:

• First Nations peoples
• People with disabilities
• Women in non-traditional roles
• Other priority jobseekers including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

This isn’t limited to recruitment—it includes building inclusive workplace policies, developing mentoring programs, and creating accessible recruitment processes.

📌 Pro tip: Partner with social enterprises, First Nations businesses and Workforce Australia providers to support your inclusive hiring efforts.

2. Social Spend: Expanding Your Influence Through Partnerships

While consultancies often cite limited purchasing scale in their operations, there are ways to contribute meaningfully. Rethink your organisation’s social spend strategy to find opportunities in everyday procurement:

• Catering, cleaning, kitchen consumables—all can be redirected to social enterprises.
• Office supplies, printing, and event services—often available through Indigenous or disability-led suppliers.

In addition, Social Enterprise Partnerships can add unique value. For instance, social enterprise Australian Spatial Analytics offers onshore geospatial and engineering staffing solutions—ideal for firms looking to create impact while meeting delivery goals.

Social Procurement Through Design Specifications

Professional consultants also hold significant influence through design specifications. Demonstrating your knowledge of opportunities for social procurement in design—such as incorporating products from social benefit suppliers like carpet, paint, landscaping, or fire protection—can strengthen your credibility and differentiate your proposal.

Not only does this contribute to broader social outcomes, but it can also help you score higher in tenders where social procurement is evaluated. Clients increasingly value partners who can align with their social procurement goals through thoughtful, values-led design.

3. Policies: Embedding Purpose Into Business Practice

To truly lead in social procurement, professional services organisations will need a strong policy framework. This helps guide internal decisions and demonstrates values to clients. Start by developing or updating:

• A Social Procurement or Ethical Purchasing Policy
• A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy
• A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

Regular training ensures that your team understands and lives out these principles across every project. This turns policy into practice and supports a culture of ongoing improvement.

📌 Pro tip: Consider using templates or facilitated workshops to help embed these policies effectively.

The Strategic Advantage of Social Procurement

The path to impactful social procurement in professional services organisations is clearer than you think. Whether you’re just beginning or ready to expand your influence, your consultancy can play a vital role in delivering meaningful change.

At Sedo Group, we support businesses to unlock potential, build strategic partnerships, and implement best-practice policies. Let us help you translate intention into impact.

Reach out to us today to learn how we can help shape your social procurement strategy.