Google kills diversity hiring targets
Google has decided to discontinue its goal of increasing hires from historically underrepresented groups and is reevaluating certain diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. This move aligns with other major tech companies that are rethinking their DEI strategies. In an email sent to employees on Wednesday, Google announced it would no longer establish hiring quotas aimed at enhancing workforce diversity.
Miles Kruppa for The Wall Street Journal:
Parent company Alphabet’s annual report released Wednesday omitted a sentence stating the company 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.” The sentence was in its reports from 2021 through 2024.
Google said it was evaluating whether to continue releasing annual diversity reports, which it has done since 2014. The evaluation is part of a broader review of DEI-related grants, training and initiatives, including those that the email said “raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped.”
Google also said it was reviewing recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump aimed at curbing DEI in the government and federal contractors. The company is “evaluating changes to our programs required to comply,” the email said…
“Google has always been committed to creating a workplace where we hire the best people wherever we operate, create an environment where everyone can thrive, and treat everyone fairly,” the email said. “That’s exactly what you can expect to see going forward.”
Facebook owner Meta Platforms last month eliminated the team overseeing its diversity efforts and ended its representation goals for interviewing and hiring women and minorities. Meta’s vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, told employees the “legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.”
Amazon in December told employees it would wind down some of its diversity initiatives by the end of 2024.
MacDailyNews Take: Sanity. Now, for a change, Apple should follow Google.
Making hiring decisions based on skin color is, by definition, racist. – MacDailyNews, July 14, 2023
Just as making hiring decisions based on sex is, by definition, sexist.
Getting the absolute best people should remain Apple’s ultimate goal. Forced diversity carries its own set of problems. Would the group be comprised of the best-qualifed people possible or would it be designed to hit pre-defined quotas? Would some employees, consciously or unconsciously, consider certain employees, or even themselves, to be tokens meant to fill a quota? That would be a suboptimal result for Apple and everyone involved.
The best and desired outcome is for the quest for diversity to work in Apple’s favor. Truly looking at qualified people from a larger pool would likely result in delivering different viewpoints and new ways of looking at things and tackling problems than a more homogenized workforce would likely be capable of delivering.
Regardless and of course, someday it sure would be nice for everyone to just be able to evaluate a person’s potential, not measuring and tabulating superficial, meaningless things like skin color and gender.
How do we ever get to the point where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” when we insist on judging people by the color of their skin? — MacDailyNews, December 31, 2015
See also:
• Apple on the losing side as Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in college admissions – June 29, 2023
• Several U.S. state attorneys general threaten legal action over Apple, others’ ‘diversity’ policies – July 14, 2023
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