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After “evaluating” the political landscape of the United States, Accenture has eliminated its global diversity and inclusion goals, becoming the latest big company since Donald Trump’s election.
Staff of CEO Julie Sweet said New York listed consulting groups will start “sunset” its diversity goals set in 2017, as well as career development plans for “specific demographic groups” .
Sweet said in the memorandum that the change is “instantly assessing our internal policies and practices and the evolving landscape of the United States, including the latest executive orders we must comply with.”
Accenture, along with Meta, McDonald’s and Target, has hired 799,000 employees to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals in response to Trump’s election the new political atmosphere.
The U.S. president is highly criticizing what he calls “absolute nonsense” of “discriminatory” diversity, fairness and inclusive measures.
When he took office last month, he signed a series of execution orders that cut the federal DEI program and attacked a series of corporate fatigue to achieve diversity goals.
Other companies, such as Costco and JPMorgan Chase, reiterate their commitments, while some are reevaluating their inclusive policies for the Trump era.
In 2017, Accenture set a goal where half of its employees will become women by the end of 2025. It also set a goal for 25% of managing directors to become women, and by 2020, 41% of its employees and 21% of its board were women.
The organization also sets its own goals for ethnic minority representatives in the workforce in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Apart from the goals that Sweet says are no longer used to measure employee performance, Accenture no longer submits data to external diversity benchmark surveys.
She added that the group will also “evaluate” external partnerships on the topic “as part of our talent strategy to refresh our talent.”
Accenture declined to comment.
