Diversity schemes will be slimmed down

If 2020 was the year when diversity, equity and inclusion (dei) schemes ballooned and bosses declared their undying commitment, then 2024 marked the start of the anti-woke backlash. This pummelling will continue in 2025 and spread. Yet dei will not die, but will instead undergo a makeover before returning in a more modest form.

Looking back at the sharp rise in the corporate world’s commitment to dei in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, it is tempting to expect the fall to be just as steep. There are signs of this. Mentions of dei in earnings calls have fallen sharply. After rising 14-fold between early 2020 and mid-2021, by mid-2024 they were only three times higher than before Floyd’s killing. In 2025 such scrubbing of overt references will continue.

According to Gallup, a pollster, just 38% of Americans now want businesses to take a stance on current events, down ten points since 2022. Divisive and ideological interventions are turning employees against dei, too. In 2019, 77% of companies said racial diversity was a high priority. That had dropped to 69% by 2024.

Bosses and shareholders fear few things more than the wrath of online influencers, particularly those spurred on by Elon Musk, who states that “dei must die.” Tractor Supply, a huge farm-supplies firm based in Tennessee, responded to complaints in June by promising to “retire current dei goals while still ensuring a respectful environment”. More such responses in the face of bad pr will follow in 2025, particularly from firms with conservative customers. The re-election of Donald Trump will give them both motivation and political cover.

But most companies will respond less dramatically. They will tone down their rhetoric and gradually phase out some schemes. Job postings or internships aimed at only one particular group will be challenged by lawyers. Executive-compensation schemes that tie bonuses to diversity targets will be phased out.

Yet smart employers will recognise that most workers are broadly in favour of promoting genuine diversity and inclusion, and will retain the good elements. Efforts to ensure that recruitment draws from a bigger and broader talent pool will continue, along with fairer, more systematic ways to evaluate candidates, such as blanking out names on cvs and asking every interviewee the same questions.

Nearly three-quarters of workers believe workplaces have become more respectful and inclusive over the past decade, according to Lean In, an ngo, and McKinsey, a consultancy. The aim of making workplaces fairer and genuinely more inclusive will not die in 2025. But the dei acronym might be beyond saving. As “chief diversity officers”, driven to correct the world’s injustices, are replaced by hr types with more modest, less divisive goals, dei may re-emerge as something closer to its original purpose. ■