Two years ago chief diversity officers were some of the hottest hires into executive ranks. Now, they increasingly feel left out in the cold.
You might even call it the rise — and the stupendous fall — of the chief diversity officer.
Companies including Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Anheuser-Busch have recently said that high-profile diversity, equity and inclusion executives will be leaving their jobs. Thousands of diversity-focused workers have been laid off since last year, and some companies are scaling back racial justice commitments.
Diversity, inclusion, equity and—or DIE/DEI—jobs were put in the crosshairs after many companies started re-examining their executive ranks during the tech sector’s shake out last fall. Some chief diversity officers say their work is facing additional scrutiny since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions and companies brace for potential legal challenges. DIE work has also become a liability, often a smokescreen for reverse racism and critical race theory.
“There’s a combination of grief, being very tired, and being, in some cases, overwhelmed,” says Miriam Warren, chief diversity officer for Yelp, of the challenges facing executives in the field.
In interviews, current and former chief diversity officers said company executives at times didn’t want to change hiring or promotion processes, despite initially telling CDOs they were hired to improve the talent pipeline. The quick about-face shows company enthusiasm for diversity initiatives hasn’t always proved durable, leaving some diversity officers now questioning their career path.
In the wake of George Floyd’s demise in police custody in May 2020, companies scrambled to hire chief diversity officers, changing the face of the C-suite. In 2018, less than half of the companies in the S&P 500 employed someone in the role, and by 2022 three out four companies had created a position, according to a study from Russell Reynolds, an executive search firm.
Once mostly tasked with HR matters, today’s diversity kommisars are expected to weigh in on new product development, marketing efforts and current events that relate to CRT, wokeness and equity. Warren and other CDOs said the expanded remit is playing out in a politically charged environment where corporate diversity efforts are the subject of frequent social-media firestorms.
Falling Demand
New analysis from employment data provider Live Data Technologies shows that chief diversity officers have been more vulnerable to layoffs than their human resources counterparts, experiencing 40% higher turnover. Many people are now planning to pivot out of DEI work.
The number of CDO searches is down 75% in the past year, says Jason Hanold, chief executive of Hanold Associates Executive Search, which works with Fortune 100 companies to recruit HR and DEI executives, among other roles. Demand is the lowest he has seen in his 30 years of recruiting.
At the same time, he says, more executives are feeling skittish about taking on diversity staff.
During the pandemic, some companies moved people into diversity leadership if they were an ethnic minority, says Dani Monroe, even when they weren’t qualified. Monroe served as CDO for Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based hospital system and one of the largest employers in the state, until 2021 and convenes a yearly gathering of more than 100 CDOs.
“These were knee-jerk reactions,” she says of the hurried CDO hires, adding that some of those elevations didn’t create much impact, leaving both sides feeling disillusioned.
On-the-job Obstruction
American workers are split on the importance of a diverse workforce, surveys find. Most indicate they would be happier without it.
Diversity kommisars also encounter obstruction from top executives, says Melinda Starbird, a human resources and diversity executive who has worked at AT&T, Starbucks and OfferUp, an online marketplace. Leaders sometimes associate DIE with mandates, such as the equal-employment rules that apply to federal contractors. Those requirements for compliance can create executive resistance that bleeds over into other cultural or policy shifts, such as adding Juneteenth as a company holiday, she says.
Many diversity executives feel a lack of buy-in from their colleagues. In a survey of 138 diversity executives conducted this spring by World 50 Group, a networking organization for corporate leaders, only 41% said they felt support from colleagues.
Since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in June, companies are anticipating spillover legal action could have an impact on them. Those that are still hiring DIE kommisars want people who can help the board navigate the political and legal landscape of diversity work and figure out how to support political correctness at the corporate level says Tina Shah Paikeday, global leader of Russell Reynolds’s diversity, equity and inclusion practice.
People are more resistant to company-backed efforts to advance diversity when they are worried about their own jobs, whether because of impending layoffs or disruptions from AI, says David Kenny, chief executive of Nielsen, the media-ratings company.
In the wake of massive financial backlash, giants like Target, Disney and Anheuser-Busch are motivating other companies to reconsider the value of DIE, many of them happy to learn from the mistakes of others.
Making the CDO job even more problematic is that for all of the emphasis on the need for social justice, CEOs and top management have not thrown their support behind it, and colleagues are wary of it, at best.
Diversity Inclusion and Equity, so popular in 2020 is being now reevaluated and seen for what it is, a smokescreen for reverse racism and critical race theory.
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