DEI: Google joins US firms abandoning diversity recruitment goals
2025-02-06
Category: news

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.The technology giant 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."The story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.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 proportion of black people among its leadership almost doubled between 2020 and last year. It also said representation of women and Latino people had increased in those roles.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.The proposal by conservative group, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), called on the iPhone maker to abolish its DEI policies, saying they expose firms to "litigation, reputational and financial risks".Last week, the retail chain Target was sued by a group of shareholders, led by the City of Riviera Beach Police Pension Fund in Florida, who said the firm had defrauded them by allegedly concealing the risks associated with its DEI policies.The lawsuit referred to a 2023 backlash over LGBTQ+ merchandise at its stores, which caused both its sales and its stock price to drop.Target has also recently announced that it was ending its DEI targets.In the latest example of the Trump administration's disapproval of such policies, the US President last week speculated, without giving evidence, that DEI had led to an air crash in Washington DC.The remarks, which came less than 24 hours after the crash, were in line with the White House's efforts to undo such programmes.