Executives at Fortune 500 companies, from JPMorgan Chase to Cigna Healthcare, are reassuring investors that they remain committed to the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, even as some programs are being eroded by increasing attacks on DEI.
“It’s good for business; it’s morally right; we’re very good at it; we’re successful,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said at a Council of Institutional Investors conference this week in Brooklyn, New York, explaining that it makes sense for the financial institution to reach out to black, LGBT, Latino, disabled and veteran communities.
The remarks come as conservative activists target a range of corporate diversity efforts that they say discriminate against white, male workers. Calls to dismantle corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have swelled in part in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling to limit affirmative action in college admissions.
Amid the scrutiny, some companies have downplayed or rolled back some of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Companies like Molson Coors Beverage Co., Lowe’s Companies Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Harley-Davidson Inc. have drawn attention in recent weeks after backtracking on some diversity, equity and inclusion commitments. Next press From conservative social media influencer Ruby Starbuck.
Other companies continue to champion diversity, equity and inclusion programs, but their leaders talk about them differently, according to a survey by the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals. Still, few CEOs tell investors in no uncertain terms that an inclusive workforce is essential to their business.
Dimon stressed that being a “brave, dedicated American” does not prevent him from understanding that embracing diversity is good for business.
“I don’t care if other people point fingers at other people,” Dimon said, referring to conservative and liberal criticism of corporate diversity efforts. “I’m not ‘woke’ at all.”
Language changes
Cigna Group CEO David Cordani told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in April that the healthcare company’s DEI initiatives “We aim to drive our business goals and how we innovate and create solutions for employees or customers,” ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance told investors at the oil and gas giant’s annual meeting in May that he believes diversity, equity and inclusion “align with shareholder value and improved financial performance.”
Mastercard’s chief administrative officer, Tim Murphy, said at the company’s annual meeting this summer that the payments services business remains “committed to creating a global corporate environment where all people are treated equally and fairly and have equal access to opportunity and advancement.”
“This helps bring great talent here and keep them here,” Murphy said, also emphasizing the importance of “the different perspectives that shape the ideas we embody.”
CEO leadership is critical to the success of a company’s DEI, according to June Report From the Executive Leadership Council, a nonprofit organization supporting Black executives.
But the way U.S. companies talk about diversity appears to be changing. About a third of the 126 companies surveyed for the Corporate Citizenship Professionals report released in August said they had adjusted their language describing diversity, equity and inclusion projects this year, and 17 percent said they had reduced external communications about diversity initiatives.
However, their core efforts haven’t changed: 83% of companies said their initiatives remain the same, according to the study.
In some cases, DEI gets a new brand. The Society for Human Resource Management, the world’s largest human resources association, made waves in July when the group announced that it The “E” has been dropped from the word “equality.” From what was previously called “IE&D” to “addressing current shortcomings in DE&I programs, which have led to community backlash and increasing polarization.”
Some companies have until it was removed DEI companies have used terms like “anti-racism” and “unconscious bias” in their securities filings this year, according to Bloomberg News.
However, companies are not backing down, said Joanna Colosimo, vice president of workforce equity strategy and compliance at DCI Consulting. The companies Colosimo advises are examining their workforce data to focus on how employees are hired, promoted and fired to understand policies and practices that may create barriers.
“There are companies out there that are committed to this work, and you may not hear about them on a flashy web page,” she said.
conservative pressure
Earlier this year, a growing group of companies listed diversity, equity and inclusion as a “risk factor” in their securities filings, citing the potential harm to their businesses from taking too much or too little action on diversity. These companies also highlighted diversity, equity and inclusion in their filings as a central component of their financial success.
Conservative activists, including former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who leads an advocacy group called America First Legal, have filed a bias lawsuit and asked the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate diversity and inclusion policies at companies including Macy’s Inc. Some companies, such as pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, have changed eligibility language in their diversity programs after the lawsuits.
There’s still a chance that companies could change their stance after making recent statements advocating for diversity, said Scott Shepard, general counsel at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank that has consistently criticized companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at recent annual meetings. “They may have meant what they said at the time, but they may have better thought of it now,” he said.
But the opposite may also be true. Shareholder groups Consider the options To push companies to recommit to diversity in companies that have recently backed away from their initiatives.
“For companies to turn their commitments on and off so quickly really shows that this commitment was never really there in the first place,” said Portia Allen Kyle, senior counsel at the activist group Color of Change and former senior counsel for equity, policy and stakeholder engagement at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office for Civil Rights.
While it’s important to pay attention to how companies talk about diversity, there’s also not enough scrutiny of the actions companies take behind the scenes, for example through political spending, Allen Kyle said.
“The worst thing that can happen is for people to stay silent and give the impression that initiatives like this are not worth the effort,” she said.
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