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Following on the heels of other companies, such as Amazon and Meta, Google has decided to review its diversity, equity and inclusion targets.
Tech giant Google is the latest corporation to announce it will be putting an end to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring targets and is reviewing its diversity policies. Following Trump’s executive orders placing federal DEI staff on leave and pulling government funding for programmes, many companies, for example Amazon, Meta and McDonald’s have begun to dissolve their DEI initiatives and lay off staff.
Google made the decision after carrying out a review of its policies, stating: “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 programmes designed to help us get there.
“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 platform had previously been vocal about the importance of weaving DEI measures into corporate policy, particularly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Notably, Google set a five-year goal to increase the number of underrepresented people in its leadership ranks by 30pc.
Apple, meanwhile, has taken steps to ensure its DEI policies remain for now, with its board having recently asked its investors to push back against a vote calling for the dismissal of its DEI policies.
The proposal came from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank which has urged organisations including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to review and potentially eliminate their diversity policies.
The group claims that DEI policies are exposing organisations to potential litigation, reputational and financial risks. Earlier this week, retailer Target was sued by the City of Riviera Beach Police Pension Fund in Florida, who claimed that the company had failed to disclose the risk of consumer boycotts as a result of ESG and DEI initiatives.
Earlier this week, Google became the focus of an antitrust investigation, launched by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, in a move seen as a response to Trump’s 10pc tariff on Chinese imports. China has accused Google of unspecified monopolistic practices.
While, last month, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched investigations into Google and Apple to assess the impact of their mobile ecosystem dominance on consumers, as well as app and service developers.
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