This week has seen further major companies – Citigroup and KPMG – abandon their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the wake of the new US government’s antipathy towards such programmes.
In an email sent to staff by CEO Jane Fraser, Citigroup said it would no longer require diverse slates of candidates for job interviews or for interviewer panels to be diverse.
The bank would no longer have “aspirational representation goals” except as required by local law, Fraser said. In addition, the diversity, equity and inclusion and talent management team would now be called talent management and engagement.
Fraser acknowledged that Citigroup still valued diverse perspectives. She wrote the bank would still encourage “the best practice of having a variety of perspectives included in hiring decisions”.
DEI targets
Should HR be worried about Trump’s DEI backlash?
DEI goals no longer part of BT management bonuses
Most business leaders say US retreat on DEI will affect UK policy: survey
Since taking office, President Trump has set out to dismantle DEI in the federal government and in the private sector by promising investigations into corporate DEI schemes. In response, several major companies, most recently Goldman Sachs and Accenture have scaled back their diversity commitments.
Earlier this week, KPMG in the US also signalled it was changing its policy after deleting years of reports on its DEI programmes from its website.
The accounting and consulting giant pulled the annual “transparency reports” it had published since 2020. These charted its bid to increase the representation of women and minorities at all levels of the organisation.
KPMG’s US chief executive, Paul Knopp, told employees that the firm would “bring to a close” a programme called “Accelerate 2025”, under which it aimed to have half of its partners and managing directors from under-represented groups by this year.
He wrote in an email to the firm’s 40,000 US staff: “The legal landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts has been shifting, via executive orders and in the courts. We will continue to uphold the highest ethical standards and fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including adherence to the executive orders affecting us as a federal contractor.”
Two of KPMG’s Big Four rivals, Deloitte and PwC, have suppressed their own historic transparency reports by removing links from other web pages, although the reports themselves remain online.
KPMG’s last published figures, for September 2023, showed 45.3% of US partners and managing directors came from under-represented groups such as women, racial minorities and the gay community. That was up from 39.3% when Knopp launched Accelerate 2025 in 2020.
Knopp added in his email: “We will continue our work to expand our aperture for recruiting talent, to create more transparency and consistency of experience for career navigation, and to promote an inclusive environment where everyone is comfortable speaking up.”
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
