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Since the Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions last summer, it appears that corporate America has been consumed by panic over diversity and inclusion.
But last month, a diversity executive told me that it hasn’t affected her work at all. I must confess that she asked me if she was delusional. Hadn’t you heard that conservative activists were threatening legal action against dozens of large companies that ran programs for specific ethnic groups? Didn’t you know your Silicon Valley colleagues were laid off by the dozens last year?
The executive, from an energy company in the south, knew everything. However, the word he used to describe his office was “quiet.” His mentoring programs and cultural celebrations continued like any other year. That’s the case in most human resources and diversity departments, except at a small group of high-profile companies, he insisted.
She’s not the only one. As conservative lawmakers and billionaires try to undo inclusion programs that American corporations implemented after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, nearly all of the dozen executives I interviewed recently tell me they are not altering their diversity plans.
Research group The Conference Board surveyed many more hiring managers than I did and found the same thing. Of the 194 executives they surveyed late last year, none said they planned to scale back their diversity initiatives in 2024. People like Bill Ackman and Elon Musk may say such programs discriminate against whites and men, but few executives seem to be listening. . .
That does not mean that the to diversifyMy discipline will emerge unscathed from the current reaction. Several major Silicon Valley corporations cut their diversity budgets last year amid recession fears, while lawsuits from conservative activists led Pfizer, Comcast, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America to expand programs once reserved for minorities. specific racial restrictions to people of all races.
However, the companies’ own demographic data shows that they continue to diversify their workforces even as they promote their modified programs, according to Ken Janssens, co-founder of Windō, a platform that aggregates social responsibility data from hundreds of companies.
Disney, which became a prime target of anti-DEI activists for featuring minority and queer characters in its films, reported that it had increased the proportion of its executives who identified as people of color from 21 percent to 28.5 percent. cent in the last five years. years.
Nike still publishes its goals for the ethnic and gender diversity of its workforce, reporting that ethnic minority representation among its American workforce has grown steadily from 56 percent to 63 percent over the past seven years.
“It’s quite bold of them, considering the amount of legal action being taken against companies, so I take my hat off to them,” says Janssens. “While [other companies] They might promote DEI less publicly, they will stay the course.”
Most companies seem to be much more concerned about how a lack of diversity programming could make it harder to recruit and retain staff than about getting sued, he added.
Renita Mollman, chief administrator at Kansas City-based engineering consulting firm Burns & McDonnell, says she didn’t feel any pressure to modify her DEI plans. She is overly concerned about the shortage of engineering talent in the country.
“We’re not going to be the company with the most progressive, forward-thinking policies,” Mollman says, noting that in 2021 they only organized employee resource groups, workers who come together based on shared identities or life experiences. a commonly accepted diversity initiative that was popular in many large companies before 2020.
“I would say that we are neck and neck with the majority of our clients, [who are] airlines, consumer product manufacturers,” Mollman added. Burns & McDonnell also sponsors science, technology, engineering and math programs at local high schools and has partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to diversify its talent pipeline.
“People may not be jumping up and down and shouting ‘DEI’ from the rooftops,” says Heather Foust-Cummings, a researcher at Catalyst, a workplace-focused nonprofit, “but the work continues.”