An email announcing Google’s elimination of various programmes intended to improve diversity at the company was sent to employees on Wednesday. The email was first seen by the Washington Post saw the email and was the first to report about it.
Google is no longer setting hiring targets to improve representation, and is considering ceasing the publication of its annual diversity report. The company said the review of its diversity report is part of a wider evaluation of other DEI-related initiatives, such as grants and training, that “raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped.”
The tech giant is also examining recent court rulings and executive orders from U.S. President Donald Trump that prohibit federal contractors such as Google from engaging in DEI initiatives.
President Trump has mandated the elimination of all DEI-related positions in federal agencies, the discontinuation of diversity initiatives among federal contractors, and the removal of language related to gender identity from federal communications and policies. He has also directed federal agencies to identify private-sector entities for potential investigations of unlawful DEI-related practices.
Trump’s orders refer to DEI as “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” and emphasises hiring based on “individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work.”
Despite these changes, Google maintained in its email that it would keep its resource groups for underrepresented employees and would continue expanding its offices in cities with diverse populations. However, it will eliminate “aspirational goals” tied to hiring targets.
SEE: Only a Quarter of Cybersecurity Professionals are Women
In a statement responding to the leaked email, Google told The Guardian:
“We’re committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the last year we’ve been reviewing our programs designed to help us get there.
“We’ve updated our 10-k language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.”
Google’s most recent diversity report stated that 33.8% of its U.S. employees were women, 5.7% were Black, and 7.5% were Latinx.
Other big players in tech are also paring back DEI initiatives
Under the current administration’s executive orders, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players are scaling back their DEI initiatives.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, omitted that it was “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve” in its annual filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, despite including it in every report since 2021.
In December, Amazon removed some DEI-related wording from its website and informed employees it was “winding down outdated programs and materials” associated with inclusion in a company-wide memo, according to Bloomberg. Meta eliminated its DEI programs last month due to “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” according to a memo seen by Axios.
The state of Oklahoma has made a shareholder proxy proposal to Alphabet, Amazon, and four other large companies asking for “political neutrality” in their policies, essentially urging them, as an investor, to cease their DEI initiatives. Apple has recommended that its shareholders reject a similar proposal from a conservative think tank, calling it “unnecessary.”
