Google scraps diversity-based hiring target amid review of Trump moves to curb such practices

SAN FRANCISCO – Alphabet’s Google is scrapping its goal to hire more employees from under-represented groups, and is reviewing some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, joining a slew of US businesses scaling back diversity initiatives.

“In 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation,” Ms Fiona Cicconi, Alphabet’s chief people officer, said in the memo on Feb 5, a copy which was reviewed by Reuters. “...but in the future, we will no longer have aspirational goals.”

Google had been for years among the most vocal companies pushing for more inclusive policies in the wake of protests against the police killings of Mr George Floyd and other black Americans in 2020.

In 2020, Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai set a goal to have 30 per cent more of its leaders be from under-represented groups by 2025. At the time, about 96 per cent of Google’s US leaders were white or Asian, and 73 per cent globally were men.

In 2021, it began to evaluate executive performance on team diversity and inclusion after a prominent leader of artificial intelligence research said the company abruptly fired her after she criticised its diversity efforts. Google’s chief diversity officer Melonie Parker said in a 2024 interview with BBC that the company had hit 60 per cent of its five-year goals.

On Feb 5, a Alphabet spokesperson said the company did not have updated figures regarding Mr Pichai’s goals.

Alphabet’s annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commissionon Feb 5 showed it omitted a line saying it was “committed to making diversity, equity and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve”.

That statement appeared in annual reports from 2021 to 2024. The spokesperson said the line was removed to reflect its review of DEI programmes.

Software engineer Parul Koul, the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) president, said in a statement: “This is a real attack on gains that workers have made in the tech industry through movements fighting against racism, gender and LGBTQ discrimination, going all the way back to the civil rights movement.

“This is part of a troubling right-wing, anti-worker trend developing within tech companies that AWU is committed to fighting against.”

Google, which sells cloud computing and other services to the US government, also said it was reviewing policy changes by US President Donald Trump aimed at curbing DEI in the government and among federal contractors.

“Because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programmes required to comply with recent court decisions and US executive orders on this topic,” Ms Cicconi said in the e-mail.

The company will maintain internal employee groups like Trans At Google, “Black Googler Network and the Disability Alliance, which the company has said inform decisions around products and policies.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Feb 5 about the memo. Facebook parent Meta Platforms in January said in an internal memo it was ending its DEI programmes, including those for hiring, training and picking suppliers.

Amazon also said it was “winding down outdated programmes and materials” related to representation and inclusion, in a memo to its employees, seen by Reuters.

Conservative groups, fortified by a 2023 US Supreme Court ruling that invalidated affirmative action in university admissions, have condemned DEI programmes and have threatened litigation against companies implementing them. REUTERS