Google, one of the world’s leading technology companies, has made a notable decision regarding hiring practices.
Alphabet’s Google is scrapping its diversity-based hiring targets and is reviewing some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, joining a list of U.S. businesses scaling back diversity initiatives.
The move was outlined in an email sent to the company’s staff on Wednesday, February 5, by Fiona Cicconi, Alphabet’s chief people officer. Part of the email says, and I quote: “In 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation, but in the future, we will no longer have aspirational goals.”
This decision follows an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at pressuring government contractors to abandon their DEI programs. Google and other major tech companies like Amazon, Meta, and Apple have scaled back or halted their DEI initiatives in response to the new regulations.
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Google, which sells cloud computing and other services to the U.S. government, also said it was reviewing policy changes by President Donald Trump aimed at controlling DEI in the government and among federal contractors.
“Because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programs required to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic,” Cicconi said in the email.
However, Google will maintain internal employee groups such as “Trans at Google,” “Black Googler Network,” and the “Disability Alliance,” which the company has said inform decisions around products and policies.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in 2020, set a goal to have 30% more of its leaders from underrepresented groups by 2025. At the time, about 96% of Google’s U.S. leaders were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet’s annual filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday showed it removed a line saying it was “committed to making diversity, equity and inclusion part of every activity we do and to growing a labour force that is representative of the users we serve.” However, that statement appeared in annual reports from 2021 to 2024.
This decision by Google is sure to spark a wide range of reactions and discussions about the role of diversity and inclusion initiatives in corporate settings.
