USA: Companies reframe DEI initiatives in face of backlash
"In Trump era, companies are rebranding DEI efforts, not giving up," 30 Mar. 2025
... Over the past decade, Silicon Valley and other industries used DEI programs to root out bias in hiring, promote fairness in the workplace and advance the careers of women and people of color – demographics that have historically been overlooked.
While DEI started as an umbrella acronym to even the playing field, it’s become a loaded term.
... In one of his first acts of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January to end the government’s DEI programs and put federal officials overseeing those initiatives on leave.
... The administration has targeted nearly 50 companies that it’s deemed to be in violation of its anti-DEI rules, Bloomberg reported in February.
... Despite DEI becoming such a divisive term, companies are not necessarily ending their efforts. They’re rebranding them. Many companies are continuing DEI work but using different language or rolling it under less charged terminology, like “learning” or “hiring.”
... JPMorgan in March announced that it will replace “equity” with “opportunity” in a rebrand of its DEI program. Walmart in November said it was shifting from DEI to saying “Walmart for everyone.” Among Fortune 100 companies, there was a 22% decrease in the use of terms like “DEI” and “diversity” and a 59% increase in terms like “belonging” between 2023 and 2024, according to Paradigm.
... Tech’s DEI rollback has accelerated in 2025.
Google, which has cloud-computing contracts with federal agencies, announced in February that it would retire its aspirational hiring targets following Trump’s executive orders.
... “Our values are enduring, but we have to comply with legal directions depending on how they evolve,” Pichai told staffers at the February all-hands meeting.
... A spokesperson for Google did not clarify which of the company’s DEI programs have been cut.
... Amazon has also pulled back on DEI.
The company told staffers in December that it was halting some of its DEI programs as part of a broader review of those initiatives. It also eliminated references to inclusion and diversity in its annual report while altering a website to remove sections titled “Equity for Black people” and “LGBTQ+ rights.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy characterized the DEI eliminations as being part of Amazon’s ongoing cost-cutting efforts.
... For all the backlash toward DEI in Washington, recent studies show that this type of work remains popular among workers and companies.
Pew Research in 2023 found that 86% of workers say they have a neutral-to-favorable opinion about increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Paradigm, meanwhile, published a study last year which found that 73% of companies included diversity, equity and inclusion in their company values, on par with 2023.
... Among the changes happening now are companies shifting away from diversity reports, which tracked hiring based on different genders and ethnicities, and focusing instead on tracking the rates at which promotions and attrition happen ... .