Tags: diversity equity inclusion | affirmative action | supreme court | equal employment opportunity

The Rise & Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer

The Rise & Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer
(Dreamstime)

By    |   Friday, 21 July 2023 01:57 PM EDT

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled against affirmative action in higher education admissions, big corporations fear they could be sued for their employment policies heavily focused on race — and already, chief diversity officers are being eliminated right and left, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 appears to have been a “knee-jerk reaction,” say diversity executives.

You might even call it the rise — and the stupendous fall — of the chief diversity officer.

Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery recently announced that their diversity chiefs were leaving their jobs — and thousands of diversity-focused workers have been laid off in the past year. Widespread technology layoffs hastened the movement.

“These were knee-jerk reactions,” says Dani Monroe, CDO of Mass General Brigham until 2021, of companies’ mad dash to hire chief diversity officers and launch diversity, equity and inclusion hiring initiatives.

Data from executive search firms underlines the sudden drop in diversity efforts. CDO searches at Hanold Associates Executive Search, which works with Fortune 100 companies to find DEI and HR executives, are down 75% in the past year, says Jason Hanold, CEO of the firm.

This is the lowest demand for diversity execs that Hanold has witnessed in 30 years.

Executive search firm Russell Reynolds DEI Practice Global Leader Shah Paikeday says the few clients still looking for diversity chiefs are seeking people who can help them navigate the new political and legal landscape.

“They recognize it would be smart to get ahead of that,” Paikeday says.

Paltry Opportunities

In line with this, DEI executives who have been laid off are hard pressed to find new opportunities — and are souring on the field.

Stephanie Lubin, formerly the head of diversity at Drizly, was laid off in May. After cranking out dozens of applications for a new DEI role, Lubin kept at it.

“I got to 300 applications, and then I stopped tracking,” Lubin says. Hoping to land one particular opening, Lubin went through 16 rounds of interviews and still wound up short. She’s now throwing in the towel on diversity, equity and inclusion jobs for good.

Making the CDO job even more problematic is that for all of the emphasis on the need for social justice, CEOs and top management have not thrown their support behind it, and colleagues are wary of it, at best.

“Even if you report to the CEO, it’s still a battle, and it’s a smaller budget,” says Melinda Starbird, who has been an HR and diversity executive for AT&T, Starbucks and OfferUp. The online marketplace laid her off nine months ago, and Starbird hasn’t found another job since.

World 50 Group’s survey of 138 diversity executives found only 41% felt supported by middle managers, a decline of 8 percentage points from 2022, and just 82% felt they had the influence necessary to do their jobs, a 6 percentage point decline from a year ago.

Lawsuits Ahead?

Indeed, Josh Hammer, of counsel for First Liberty Institute, tells Newsmax the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina is clear.

The Court’s opinion does not directly touch on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, but state attorneys general are already citing it in their demands for fair, non-race-based employment. Title VII protects employees and job applicants from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and natural origin.

“Fortune 100 CEOS are now on notice of the illegality of racial quotas and race-based preferences in employment and contracting practices,” Hammer notes. “Fortune 100 DEI commissars, consider yourselves warned.”

Hammer adds: “The upshot could not be clearer: Following the legal triumph of genuine human ‘equality’ and the defeat of vogue leftist notions of ‘equity’ in SFFA [the Supreme Court affirmative action decision], DEI apparatuses nationwide should tread extremely carefully.”

© 2024 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.


StreetTalk
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled against affirmative action in higher education admissions, big corporations fear they could be sued for their employment policies heavily focused on race - and already, chief diversity officers are being eliminated right and left.
diversity equity inclusion, affirmative action, supreme court, equal employment opportunity
644
2023-57-21
Friday, 21 July 2023 01:57 PM
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