DEI: Google joins US firms abandoning diversity recruitment goals

Google has become the latest big US firm to scrap its goals to recruit more workers from underrepresented groups, BBC News understands. The decision to abandon the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) recruitment targets comes after the company carried out an annual review of its corporate policies. Google is also reviewing some of its other DEI programmes. US President Donald Trump and his allies have regularly attacked DEI policies. Since his return to the White House just over two weeks ago, Trump has ordered government agencies to eliminate such initiatives.

“We’re committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities,” a Google spokesperson said. “We’ve updated our [annual investor report] 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.”

Between 2021 and 2024, Google’s investor reports stated its commitment to make “diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do.” That line is not in its latest report, which was published on Wednesday. In recent years, Google had been an outspoken supporter of DEI targets, particularly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the protests that followed his death. At the time, Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, set a five-year goal to increase the number of its leaders who came from underrepresented groups by 30%.

According to the company, the number of black people in leadership roles almost doubled between 2020 and last year. Google also said it has seen increases of women and Latino people among its leadership. Google is the latest major company to make a U-turn on its diversity policies. Meta, Amazon, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Walmart, and others have rolled back their DEI programmes. Apple has stood out by pushing back against this trend. Last month, the tech giant’s board asked investors to vote against a proposal to end its diversity policies. — news from BBC.com