According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, Google is changing its policy on hiring employees from historically underrepresented groups.
Reportedly, the company has announced that it “will no longer set a goal of improving representation in its workforce.” The first hint that changes might be coming to Google was a change in the annual report of its parent company, Alphabet. The phrase that stated that Alphabet “is committed to making diversity, equity and inclusion a part of everything we do, and to developing a workforce that represents the users we serve” was removed from previous years.
When contacted for comment, Google provided the following statement:
“We are committed to creating a workplace where all of our employees can succeed and have equal opportunity, and over the past year we have been reviewing our programs designed to help us achieve this. We have updated our 10-k language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating the changes needed following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.”
Even if hiring diversity is no longer a stated goal, Google still plans to support resource groups for underrepresented workers and open offices in cities with a diverse workforce, according to the report. The company simply does not plan to have “aspirational goals” moving forward.
The abandonment of at least some diversity, equality and inclusion goals contrasts with the Google of five years ago. In 2020, CEO Sundar Pichai committed to “improving the representation of underrepresented groups in leadership by 30 percent by 2025,” among other changes aimed at improving racial equality at the company.
However, such changes are not unusual. According to CNBC, Amazon is scaling back some of its DEI programs, and Meta has completely eliminated its diversity hiring goals and the position of chief diversity officer at the company. Judging by Google’s statement and the rationale provided by Meta earlier, American companies are concerned about the current Supreme Court and Trump administration’s views on diversity, equality, and inclusion. Eliminating programs that they may not be comfortable with is easier than entering into a lawsuit that they may lose.
