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After an “assessment” of the US political landscape, Accenture has abolished its global diversity and inclusion goals and has become the latest big business to abandon its target since Donald Trump’s election.
A note to staff from CEO Julie Sweet said that the New York-listed consulting group has set diversity goals set in 2017 and career development programs for “people from specific demographic groups” said it would begin to “sunset.”
Sweet said in a memo Thursday that the change followed an “assessment of our internal policies and practices and an evolving US landscape, including an assessment of the recent executive orders we must follow.”
Employing 799,000 people worldwide, Accenture is taking part in abandoning diversity, equity and inclusion goals in response to the new political climate since Meta, McDonald’s and Trump’s elections .
The US President was extremely critical of what he called “absolute nonsense” of “discriminatory” DEI measures.
He signed a series of executive orders to cut down the federal DEI program last month when he took office last month, taking advantage of the corporate fatigue flow for diversity goals.
Other companies, such as Costco and Jpmorgan Chase, have reaffirmed their commitment, while some have reassessed their inclusion policies during the Trump era.
In 2017, Accenture set a target for half of its staff to become female by the end of 2025. We also set a goal to ensure that 25% of managing directors will be women by 2020. At the time, 41% of employees and 21% of management supervisors were women.
The group also set targets for ethnic minority representation in the workforce in some countries, such as the US and the UK.
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Sweet, who took the reins at Accenture in 2019, previously spoke frankly about diversity.
In an interview posted on Accenture’s YouTube channel in 2020, Sweet talked about the importance of diverse workplaces. In an interview, she said committing to diversity is “the right thing” and that Accenture holds leaders accountable for sticking to “clear goals.”
In a report released by the company that year and co-authored by Sweet, she was called a “leader” in diversity and inclusion.
The report states: Why are businesses less diverse and inclusive when business cases in favor of a culture of equality strengthened each year? And why is the proportion of women in leadership positions still so low? ”
In a memo rolling back DEI targets this week, Sweet said it will no longer be used to measure staff performance, and also put a pause to send data to external diversity benchmark surveys where assessments are pending It has been announced.
The group will also “evaluate” other external partnerships on the topic “as part of refreshing our talent strategy,” she added.
“We’ve always been meritocratic,” Sweet wrote in his memo, “reflecting Trump’s pledge to abandon Day’s policies in favor of society… Based on merit.”
The memo added that the group’s diversity targeting was “largely achieved,” and that Accenture will build a “comprehensive” workplace with “unbiased” and “equal opportunities.”
Accent declined to comment.
