Following Big Racial Equity Promises In 2020, Google And Meta Have Let Go Of Several DEI Leaders And Cut Programs – Essence

Google and Meta is backtracking on their commitment to DEI in a huge way according to a bombshell report by CNBC.

Per the outlet, the tech companies have severely underdelivered on their promises to demonstrate commitment to racial equity over the last few years.

By mid-2023, DEI-related job postingshad declined 44% from the same time a year prior, according to data provided by job site Indeed, the outlet wrote. In November 2023, the last full month for which data was available, it dropped 23% year over year.

Whats more both Google andMetahave laid off employees in DEI and minimized programs that fell under DEI investment.

Whenever there is an economic downturn in tech, some of the first budgets that are cut are in DEI, but I dont think weve seen such stark contrast as this year, Melinda Briana Epler, founder and CEO of Empovia told CNBC. The company consults companies and leaders how to use research-based culture tactics to improve their workplaces.

When George Floyd began to become the topic of conversations, companies and executives doubled down on their commitments and here we are only a couple years later, and folks are looking for opportunities to cut those teams, Devika Brij, CEO of Brij the Gap Consulting told CNBC. The outlet reported that Brij shared some of her clients had slashed DEI budgets by 90% by midyear.

Our workforce reductions and company-wide efforts to sharpen our focus span the breadth of our business, and cherry picking examples to suggest were deprioritizing our longstanding efforts for underrepresented communities, or our DEI work, is inaccurate and misleading, a Google spokesperson shared with ESSENCE in a statement. To be absolutely clear, our commitment to this work has not changed and we invested in many new programs and partnerships in 2023.

The tech industry isnt the only sector thats disinvesting in DEI.

As previously reported by ESSENCE, Hue, a workplace culture platform, releaseda reportin 2022 that found 82% of HR professionals they surveyed said their industry does a decent job of carrying out diversity-related initiatives while 84% of workers shared they felt there was a lack of meaningful progress for equity work over that past year.

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Following Big Racial Equity Promises In 2020, Google And Meta Have Let Go Of Several DEI Leaders And Cut Programs - Essence