Google owner Alphabet says it will no longer set hiring targets to improve workforce representation.
In an email sent to staff on Wednesday, Alphabet revealed it will no longer set “aspirational hiring goals” designed to improve the representation of diverse groups in its workforce.
In its annual report, released on the same day, Alphabet said it was removing a commitment to making DEI “part of everything we do.” That statement was included in reports from 2021 to 2023.
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
Businesses should evaluate their DEI policies – and not backslide
According to the Wall Street Journal, the email to Google workers was sent by Fiona Cicconi, chief people officer at Alphabet.
“In 2020, we set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing our offices outside California and New York to improve representation,” Cicconi wrote.
“We’ll continue to invest in states across the US – and in many countries globally – but in the future we will no longer have aspirational goals,” the email memo continued.
Following Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order to end DEI offices and initiatives across the US federal government, the internet giant joins companies such as Meta, Ford, Amazon and McDonald’s in scaling back, scrapping or modifying their DEI programmes.
In 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Google CEO Sundar Pichai set a target to increase the proportion of “leadership representation of underrepresented groups” by 30% before 2025.
At the time about 75% of the tech giant’s US-based leaders were male, 96% were white or Asian. Just 3.7% of its US employees were black and 5.9% were Hispanic.
Google’s 2024 diversity report, showed that initial progress had been made towards the company’s goals: 5.7% of US employees were black and over 7.5% were Hispanic.
Cicconi said that Google’s role as a federal contractor meant it was evaluating changes to its diversity programmes “to comply with recent court decisions and US executive orders.”
The role of Google’s chief diversity officer, Melonie Parker, will now include “closely and carefully evaluating programs … including those that raise risk, or that aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped,” the email said.
Just under a year ago, Parker told the BBC in an interview about Google’s DEI practices that she was “really proud” of “how we deepened the DEI work following the murder of George Floyd.”
She also said: “The recipe for ensuring a business is the most successful is having people who feel included and like they belong at a company.
“We’re taking an enterprise-wide approach in our five-year racial equity goals, looking at our milestones on a continual basis and reporting it out annually to allow for transparency internally and externally. This way, our partners, users, creators and workforce are not only aware of the progress we’re making, but also are able to participate.”
Like Cicconi, other business leaders to scrap DEI measures in recent months have indicated the shift will help them align with the Trump Administration. Following his inauguration on January 20, President Trump ordered the termination of federal DEI programs and encouraged private companies to follow suit.
Meanwhile, other businesses are remaining firm on their DEI measures, including Apple and Costco. Both have recently pushed back on shareholder pressure to end diversity and inclusion practices.
Alphabet/Google is currently putting the finishing touches on an 11-storey UK headquarters at King’s Cross, north London, that is as long as the world’s largest cruise ship at 330 metres. It will include rooftop gardens, a basketball court, a 25-metre swimming pool and napping pods. About 4,000 people will work there, more than half of the total number of Google employees in the UK.
Speaking in King’s Cross in 2016, as the plans for the building were finalised, Pichai said the election of Trump, at that point his first victory, had raised “questions of equality” and other “challenges” for the technology giant to face.
Unlike much of the US, the UK has a raft of DEI laws that must be complied with under the Equality Act 2010 with the Starmer government promising more action on equality under its forthcoming Employment Rights Bill.
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
