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The Demise of the Chief Diversity Officer

by Will Jones
22 July 2023 3:00 PM

Two years ago Chief Diversity Officers were some of the hottest hires into executive ranks. Now, they increasingly feel left out in the cold, write Te-Ping Chen and Lauren Webber in the Wall Street Journal. Here’s an excerpt.

Companies including Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have recently said that high-profile diversity, equity and inclusion executives will be leaving their jobs. Thousands of diversity-focused workers have been laid off since last year, and some companies are scaling back racial justice commitments.

Diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — jobs were put in the crosshairs after many companies started re-examining their executive ranks during the tech sector’s shake out last fall. Some Chief Diversity Officers say their work is facing additional scrutiny since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions and companies brace for potential legal challenges. DEI work has also become a political target.

“There’s a combination of grief, being very tired, and being, in some cases, overwhelmed,” says Miriam Warren, Chief Diversity Officer for Yelp, of the challenges facing executives in the field. Warren says the fear that company commitments are imperilled fuel her and others to feel “more committed to the work than ever.” Yelp’s DEI budget has grown for the past five years.

In interviews, current and former Chief Diversity Officers said company executives at times didn’t want to change hiring or promotion processes, despite initially telling CDOs they were hired to improve the talent pipeline. The quick about-face shows company enthusiasm for diversity initiatives hasn’t always proved durable, leaving some diversity officers now questioning their career path. 

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in police custody in May 2020, companies scrambled to hire Chief Diversity Officers, changing the face of the C-suite. In 2018, less than half the companies in the S&P 500 employed someone in the role, and by 2022 three out four companies had created a position, according to a study from Russell Reynolds, an executive search firm. 

Once mostly tasked with HR matters, today’s diversity leaders are expected to weigh in on new product development, marketing efforts and current events that have an impact on how workers and consumers are feeling. Warren and other CDOs said the expanded remit is playing out in a politically divided environment where corporate diversity efforts are the subject of frequent social-media firestorms. 

New analysis from employment data provider Live Data Technologies shows that Chief Diversity Officers have been more vulnerable to layoffs than their human resources counterparts, experiencing 40% higher turnover. Their job searches are also taking longer. 

“I got to 300 applications and then I stopped tracking,” says Stephanie Lubin, who was laid off from her role as Diversity Head at Drizly, an online alcohol marketplace, in May following the company’s acquisition by Uber. In one case, Lubin says she went through 16 rounds of interviews for a role she didn’t get, and says she is now planning to pivot out of DEI work.

The number of CDO searches is down 75% in the past year, says Jason Hanold, Chief Executive of Hanold Associates Executive Search, which works with Fortune 100 companies to recruit HR and DEI executives, among other roles. Demand is the lowest he has seen in his 30 years of recruiting.

At the same time, he says, more executives are feeling skittish about taking on diversity roles.

“They’re telling us, the only way I want to go into another role with DEI is if it includes something else,” he says of the requests for broader titles that offer more responsibilities and resources. He estimates that 60% of diversity roles he is currently filling combine the title with another position, such as Chief Human Resources Officer, up from about 10% five years ago.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: DiversityEDIESGWoke capitalismWoke CorporationWoke GobbledegookWokus-Dei

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19 Comments
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DHJ
DHJ
1 year ago

The role may be disappearing but the policies are becoming more embedded in the UK from my experience. The last paragraph gives an explainer but I would add that taking on employees who have the right thinking will, over time, reduce the need for dedicated roles to police the staff as it will have become part of the corporate culture.

55
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
1 year ago
Reply to  DHJ

Like Health and Safety. Its rolled into HR, but it will never ever go away…

14
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
1 year ago

Yay!

26
0
LaptopMaestro
LaptopMaestro
1 year ago

The bar-stewards are learning to hide themselves better.

49
0
blunt instrument
blunt instrument
1 year ago

I prefer to call it DIE

43
0
Marque1
Marque1
1 year ago
Reply to  blunt instrument

Discrimination, Inequality and Exclusion.

35
0
blunt instrument
blunt instrument
1 year ago

One suspects Blackrock’s responses to hesitancy will progress as do those of the police: request, command, force.

25
0
zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in police custody

That was not a Dario Fo moment.

7
0
lymeswold
lymeswold
1 year ago

Dr. James Lindsay in a recent podcast (https://newdiscourses.com/2023/07/the-real-threat-of-esg/) posits that ESG is a more potent force than woke ideology in the cultural revolution we’re going through. He likens woke activists to Mao’s Red Guard. A point came during the Chinese cultural revolution when the Red Guards were no longer deemed necessary, a different type of activist was needed, and the Red Guards were disposed of very rapidly.

It’s a little premature to believe that we’re witnessing a turning of the tide … we may just see the CDO role morph into something rather different.

12
-2
sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago

What do DIE employees actually do? Since the UK and much of the west de-industrialised we replaced skills and meritocracy with ‘services’ and managerialism. The language of industry is physics which cannot be cheated, while the language of the service industry is sales, which is whatever any wants it to be.

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”
Richard Feynman

18
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

https://twitter.com/jamesmelville/status/1682662270411603969?s=48&t=eyz8PPdeLnl5noHG9QrVlQ

China and the war on Co2.

4
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago

Oh dear. How sad, Never mind.

10
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

Served its purpose softened things up pushed ambiguity. Regardless of the fate of the ideology it achieved its work in terms of demoralisation.

9
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago

The damage is done. The culture can self-perpetuate without them now.

13
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

From this point on I think we have to acknowldege certain dark realities. You might not acknowledge them but they will hang over you anyway. It doesn’t matter – if you work as a social worker or a nurse for example then you have to deal with humanity and reality warts and all. The situaton at this hour isn’t good. We just have to try to keep things going as best we can.

6
0
NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
1 year ago

The right hand of wokism is government
The left is the corporations.
The penny may, just may, be starting to drop that wokism is a vote loser for political parties and offensive to customers of corporations, thus loss making.
We need to be aggressive, organised and committed in our resistance to both.
Dont give your vote or your money to anyone who hates you.

22
0
Hester
Hester
1 year ago

surely D.I.E would be a better way to line up the acronym after all its adoption seems to bring on the death of a business.

9
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

The Diversity people won’t be happy till James Bond, Henry the 8th, Winston Churchill and Bobby Charlton are all played in films by black actors, but watch them squirm and spit blood from their eyes if Nelson Mandela were ever to be played by George Clooney.

13
0
SimCS
SimCS
1 year ago

I have friend who’s a CFO, but says his company is being destroyed / becoming a very toxic workplace because of the myriad of woke policies being forced on the workforce. He can’t wait to retire.

The fundamental quotation must be asked; why do companies need CDOs? Why are they not focusing on their core business and trusting their employees

5
0

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