The country's top human resources group is cutting "equity" out of its diversity, equity, and inclusion framework, the group announced last week, amid national backlash to the ideology.
The Society for Human Resource Management, the country's leading professional association of HR staff, said it would turn its focus to the diversity and inclusion aspects of the ideology in a LinkedIn post. Equity initiatives have long been criticized for giving people preferential treatment for their immutable characteristics, such as race and gender.
"Effective immediately, SHRM will be adopting the acronym 'I&D' instead of 'IE&D,'" SHRM said in the post. "This strategic decision underscores our commitment to leading with Inclusion as the catalyst for holistic change in workplaces and society."
Corporate DEI initiatives came into prominence during the 2020 George Floyd riots as many companies made commitments to participate in a "racial reckoning." Since then, however, DEI ideology has fallen out of favor. Racial and gender preferences or quotas in hiring and professional promotion have been seen by many to be inherently discriminatory.
There is a growing trend of companies shutting down their DEI-related initiatives, including CNN's announcement last week that it would dissolve its "race and equality" reporting team, integrating those reporters into other parts of the newsroom. Similarly, in June, Tractor Supply announced it would end its DEI practices.
While equity has been described by its advocates as "leveling the playing field" for prospective employees or candidates for promotion, the necessary result, critics say, is that qualified candidates will be passed over if they are not considered diverse enough.
"By emphasizing Inclusion-first, we aim to address the current shortcomings of DE&I programs, which have led to societal backlash and increasing polarization," the SHRM noted. However, the organization also said that its "commitment to advancing Equity remains steadfast."
"Equity will be integrated under the broader Inclusion framework, continuing to be a priority in our strategy and leadership decisions," the statement said.
SHRM also changed the order of DEI to "IE&D," to put "inclusion" first, in part to ensure that all employees, including white males, would feel welcome at their place of employment, President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr. said. Dropping "equity" entirely is meant to circumvent the political disagreements associated with the ideology, he said.
Since the popularization of DEI ideology in the workplace, many consulting firms have made millions of dollars from companies looking to implement the initiatives. The LinkedIn post from SHRM was flooded with comments from organizations whose primary mission is to advance the ideology in HR departments.
“To not acknowledge the fact that the reason this acronym has so much baggage now is because of extremist hate groups who have launched an attack on these concepts is offensive to people who do this work,” said Joelle Emerson, CEO of DEI consulting firm Paradigm, adding that SHRM's statement “makes people reasonably question whether the organization is committed to a diverse and equitable and inclusive future of work.”
Emerson's organization has worked to inject DEI HR practices at American Express, Grubhub, and the NFL.
Different DEI, another consulting firm, posted about its "equity-first" approach in the comments as well.
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"Our firm instead chooses to lead with an equity-first approach because until there is equity in and outside of organizations, we fail to see diversity reflected at every level of our workplaces. We fail to see inclusion is a meaningful way beyond performative measures," Different DEI posted on LinkedIn. "Given the backlash DEI is facing today, we too believe this work needs to be done differently, but we're focused on the 'how' aspect because the 'what' has and has always been clear."
Different DEI has since been posting about why equity is "crucial" for DEI in a direct rebuke of SHRM.
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