In recent weeks, Zoom laid off its in-house DEI team amid large-scale layoffs, and Snap cut employees working on employee retention and engagement efforts from underrepresented groups. According to data from Revelio, major companies such as Meta, Tesla, DoorDash, Lyft, Home Depot, Wayfair, and X implemented significant layoffs in 2023, reducing the size of their DEI teams by more than 50 percent.
“The total number of DEI employees has declined, but not enough to undo all the progress that has occurred since 2020,” said Lisa Simon, senior economist at Rebellio.
According to reports in January, Zoom's chief operating officer Aparna Bawa told employees that she would replace the company's DEI team with DEI consultants and “implement our values directly into our HR programs, rather than as a separate initiative.” “By incorporating this, we promote inclusion.” The Post confirmed Wednesday's memo.
Colleen Rodriguez, the company's head of global corporate communications, said Zoom “remains committed” to its DEI efforts.
Business Insider reported that Snap made a similar decision in February. Snap did not respond to a request for comment.
American companies’ retreat from DEI coincides with increased legal risks and political hostility to organized efforts to increase racial equity. State legislatures have introduced at least 65 anti-DEI bills since 2023, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The January resignation of Harvard University's first black president, Claudine Gay, amid plagiarism allegations has been described as “the beginning of the end for DEI in American institutions” by the conservative activists who led the campaign to oust her. was criticized. According to the Wall Street Journal, mentions of DEI in corporate earnings briefings have plummeted over the past year.
“This is the perfect cover to roll back diversity” for companies that haven't taken it seriously in the past, said Joel Emerson, CEO of DEI consultancy Paradigm.
Emerson said not all companies that downsize teams are abandoning operations, noting that some employers overhired when they created DEI teams.
“I don't know if it makes sense to have a 25-person diversity team on the sidelines of core business functions,” Emerson says. “Companies should be able to say, 'We tried this and it didn't work, so we're going to try something else.'”
The readjustment is taking place under serious legal pressure. When the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions last year, the ruling did not apply directly to employers. But the ruling began an effort, largely driven by conservative activists, to dismantle race-conscious policies in other areas of American life.
In July, 13 Republican attorneys general sent a letter to Microsoft and other Fortune 100 companies urging them to reconsider their DEI policies in response to the ruling. America First Legal, an organization backed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, is promoting diversity at numerous companies, including organizations such as United Airlines, Kellogg, Nike, the FBI, the National Football League, and Major League Baseball. It has filed a legal complaint over its practices.
Edward Blum, the conservative activist who filed the lawsuit to overturn affirmative action in college admissions, is suing venture capital firm Fearless Fund over its grant program for early-stage businesses owned by black women. Bloom's group has also had success targeting major law firms over diversity fellowships. Three major law firms, Perkins Coie, Morrison Foerster, and Winston & Strawn, opened their fellowships for students of color to applicants of all races and backgrounds after the charges were filed. A fourth law firm, Adams & Reese, terminated its Diversity Fellowship after receiving a letter threatening a lawsuit on Oct. 9.
Even before the tide turned last summer, DEI work was an uphill battle. As corporate commitment wavers, the work of DEI professionals faces challenges.
“I was told that any time you use the word ‘equity’ to solicit something, it scares people away,” said a former head of DEI at a gaming startup who was fired in January. He spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid violating the separation agreement.
After taking the job in 2020, he said he was disappointed by management's resistance to pay transparency policies and employee resource groups. DEI budgets continue to face cuts and are under constant pressure to show “return on investment,” he said.
When it comes to DEI, he says, companies “are interested until they're not interested anymore.” “These positions are disappearing day by day.”
Some organizations are urging companies to maintain a focus on DEI. On Monday, the Executive Committee of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus sent a letter to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies asking about their efforts to improve Asian American diversity and policy issues amid growing attacks on DEI. He encouraged them to maintain the same. The group said Asian Americans remain “significantly underrepresented at the most senior levels of America's largest companies.”
“Without executive representation at Fortune 100 companies, AANHPI employees will have fewer role models and fewer internal champions to mentor and mentor them,” the letter reads. “Company leaders also have fewer internal resources to fully understand the needs and aspirations of AANHPI consumers.”
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent a similar letter to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Hsu in December, asking about layoffs in technical jobs that disproportionately impact Black workers.
“Technology companies that previously agreed to address bias and discrimination and create greater opportunities in the workforce are now quietly discontinuing their diversity pledges,” the letter said, according to TheGrio. has been written.
Some companies are bucking this trend. JM Smucker, Victoria's Secret, Michael's, Moderna, Prudential, and ConocoPhillips are among the big companies that expanded their DEI teams by more than 50 percent in 2023, according to data from Rebellio. Processed food giants Conagra Brands and NASA have both doubled in size. Their DEI team.
Christina Jimenez, head of DEI at leadership consulting firm RHR International, has 30 years of experience in diversity work and says she has “seen the pendulum swing back and forth” between support and resistance. But she said she seemed particularly nervous at this moment. Her clients feel that “they are always on the battlefield.”
“They don't know what to do next, but they understand that if they don't do something, their talent strategy, culture and ability to succeed are all at risk,” Jimenez said. .
