Accenture has become the latest corporation to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States, joining a host of other businesses following the lead of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the programs.
Seen by Reuters and first reported in the Financial Times and AFR, tech consulting giant Accenture announced last week it would cease all gender quotas and DEI programs to conform with Trump’s recent executive orders.
On Friday, Accenture chief executive Julie Sweet told employees in an email: “We have used this moment to reflect on how best to move forward and be an even stronger company – making updates that allow us to be an even better employer for all our people, and even more successful in the market.”
“As a result, we are evolving our policies and practices globally, and not just in the US – subject, as always, to local laws and tailored to the needs of our local markets,” the memo read.
It comes as Trump’s executive order to dismantle DEI programs suggests potential legal action against private-sector companies with the programs—with many US-based firms now taking preemptive actions to avoid being targeted.
Sweet’s memo said the consulting company would end its career development programs for people of specific demographic groups and its global employee representation targets. It also revealed it would stop reporting to external diversity benchmarking surveys and begin the process of “sunsetting” the diversity goals it set in 2017.
“We are and always have been a meritocracy,” Sweet said in the memo, adding that Accenture’s policy change came after an “evaluation of our internal policies and practices and the evolving landscape in the United States, including recent executive orders with which we must comply”.
“We are and always have been committed to an inclusive, merit-based workplace free from bias, and a culture in which all our people are respected, feel a sense of belonging and have equal opportunity.”
Accenture will also evaluate external partnerships on the issue “as part of refreshing our talent strategy”, Sweet said in the memo.
According to AFR Weekend, the firm will continue reporting to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in Australia to comply with local laws and regulations.
It comes just a day after Google announced it was scrapping its diversity hiring goals, claiming it had recently evaluated “changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.”
The company published a statement after the news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, saying: “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 programs 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.”
Accenture and Google join a slew of US firms that have abandoned their DEI goals, including Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, sending shock waves across corporate America and here in Australia. GM, Pepsi, Amtrak, Disney, GE, Intel and PayPal are among a growing list of companies stripping back or removing altogether any references to DEI initiatives.
On January 21, President Trump signed an executive order putting a stop to “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies.
The order stated that the administration would “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”