The chief diversity officer has lost its luster. Once the hot new role for companies looking to cash in on progressive calls for surface-level heterogeneity, the role of CDO is now difficult to find and nearly impossible to keep.
Since last year, thousands of diversity, equity, and inclusion hires have been laid off, with even companies such as Netflix and Disney letting their DEI executives go.
Whether because of the economy or the sudden realization that the huge explosion in DEI hires following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 didn’t accomplish its intended goals, this development can only be good news.
The economy is certainly part of it (thanks, President Joe Biden?). Cash-strapped companies that don’t lay off their diversity officers entirely have expanded their roles to include real work: Jason Hanold, chief executive of Hanold Associates Executive Search, “which works with Fortune 100 companies to recruit HR and DEI executives,” told the Wall Street Journal 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.”
Disheartened by the sharp drop-off in available DEI roles, some job-seekers are turning to new careers entirely. We love to see the market at work.
But another part of this recent shift may not be economy-related at all.
“Wait, you mean it wasn’t a good idea to pay some mid-wit $600k a year to run patronizing seminars on how to treat your co-workers like children?” one tech attorney tweeted in response to the news.
As companies sour on DEI roles, many are likely realizing not just that they cannot afford superfluous executives to appease woke employees or shareholders, but also that the push for such roles has subsided. Corporations were whipped up into a frenzy during the racialized summer of 2020, when everyone and their brother was posting a black square on Instagram and companies were expected to release a statement condemning the killing of George Floyd and emphasizing their commitment to racial justice.
But as the dust has settled, companies are not feeling quite as bullied into hiring diversity executives. (Ironically, though, some might still plan to hire CDOs to avoid litigation following the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action.)
It could be that as Americans have focused more on their day-to-day lives, demand for DEI initiatives has subsided. But it’s not all good news: While diversity initiatives flail in the private sector, they’re going strong in the Biden administration.
During a recent congressional hearing, the State Department failed to explain what value its first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer had brought to the department. Meanwhile, she asked Congress to fund its DEI initiatives with an additional $76 million.
At least corporations are subject to market forces, which means that DEI initiatives are increasingly being sidelined for more important work. That is, until the next big controversy comes along.