 "Google scraps diversity hiring goals as it reviews Trump's DEI curbs")
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is scrapping its goal to hire more employees from historically underrepresented groups after US President Donald Trump’s aggressive stance in this regard. The tech giant on Wednesday said that it is reviewing some of its equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. With this, Google has joined a slew of US businesses that have either scaled back or completely gotten rid of their diversity initiatives.
Several companies started the DEI provision, years after pushing for more inclusive policies following protests against the police killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans in 2020. The news of Alphabet scrapping its diversity goals was first published by The Wall Street Journal. The tech giant later issued a statement in this regard.
“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,” Alphabet said in a statement. “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,” the company furthered.
Google sends out a message to its employees
According to The Wall Street Journal, Alphabet’s annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday showed it has omitted a line saying 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”. This particular statement appeared in the company’s annual report from 2021 to 2023.
As per the report, Google told employees that it is reviewing recent court decisions and executive orders by Donald Trump aimed at curbing DEI in the government and federal contractors. In a memo published by The Verge, Google’s head of HR Fiona Cicconi told the company’s employees “For example, in 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation … In the future, we will no longer have aspirational goals.”
Earlier this month, Facebook’s parent company Meta issued an internal memo in which they announced that it was ending its DEI programs, including those for hiring, training and picking suppliers. Meanwhile, Amazon also said that it was winding down outdated programs and materials” related to representation and inclusion, in a memo to its employees, Reuters reported.
Impact Shorts
View AllSoon after Trump assumed the White House, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other allies of the Potus attributed DEI programs as an impediment to the response efforts for the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
With inputs from agencies.
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