Fewer Diversity Executives, Please

In the aftermath of the George Floyd insurrection, the call went out across America. Diversity uber alles, was the battle cry. Companies joined the movement and hired more diversity, equity and inclusion officers. They wanted to have a workforce that looked like America.  The Financial Times has the story.

Com­pan­ies pledged bil­lions of dol­lars in 2020 to sup­port black work­ers and com­munit­ies. They also rushed to recruit diversity pro­fes­sion­als: hir­ing of chief diversity officers jumped 169 per cent between 2019 and 2022, accord­ing to jobs-focused social net­work LinkedIn, mak­ing this the fast­est-grow­ing exec­ut­ive role in US com­pan­ies.

Cynics did not really believe it. They thought that the companies were simply engaging in good corporate public relations. They expected that the diversity officers who were hired at the height of the George Floyd insurrection would not be on the job for a very long time.

So now, as though someone rang a bell, a number of diversity executives are leaving their jobs. This has especially impacted the entertainment industry.

The exits of sev­eral high-pro­file US diversity exec­ut­ives are fuel­ling fears over cor­por­ate Amer­ica’s com­mit­ment to racial equity in the face of tougher eco­nomic and polit­ical con­di­tions.

Diversity and inclu­sion lead­ers at Dis­ney, Net­flix, Warner Bros Dis­cov­ery and the Academy of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences have resigned or been let go in recent weeks.

The companies are not replacing the officers they are letting go. Apparently, the jobs were not really jobs, but were designed to make the companies look good-- to prevent lawsuits and to ensure that the media did not attack them for not being sufficiently diverse.

Consider this:

Dis­ney, which has faced sus­tained pres­sure from con­ser­vat­ives over its diversity ini­ti­at­ives, announced in June that Laton­dra New­ton would be leav­ing “to pur­sue other endeav­ours”. Net­flix’s head of inclu­sion strategy, Vernā Myers, said she would step down in Septem­ber to run her own con­sult­ing busi­ness while still advising the stream­ing group.

Asif Sadiq, chief global DEI officer at Warner Bros Dis­cov­ery, told staff on June 30 that Karen Horne, the stu­dio’s top diversity exec­ut­ive in North Amer­ica, would leave as a part of a broader restruc­tur­ing. Sim­ilar roles at tech­no­logy com­pan­ies includ­ing Twit­ter have been cut as part of wider industry job cuts over the past year.

It is not just the entertainment business:

Bey­ond the enter­tain­ment industry, evid­ence is mount­ing that busi­ness is cur­tail­ing invest­ment in inclu­sion ini­ti­at­ives three years after George Floyd’s murder put pres­sure on com­pan­ies to do more to address racial inequit­ies.

Truth be told, companies are in the business of making a profit. If they discover that diversity and equity do not contribute to the bottom line, they are likely to correct.

The new policy on diversity hiring has not been limited to the entertainment business.

That trend has reversed over the past year. Hir­ing of diversity officers fell 4.51 per cent, even as recruit­ing for other exec­ut­ive roles grew, LinkedIn found.

The num­ber of new diversity, equity and inclu­sion pos­i­tions at North Amer­ican com­pan­ies has also con­trac­ted since peak­ing in 2021, accord­ing to Rev­elio Labs, which tracks work­place trends.

DEI officers have been buf­feted by eco­nomic con­di­tions that have triggered lay-offs and by polit­ical con­tro­ver­sies, said Alina Polon­skaia, a diversity con­sult­ant at Korn Ferry.

Does this mean that the party is over? It suggests as much. And yet, given the sensitivity of the issue, companies will continue to keep up appearances, all the while working to sustain the bottom line.

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