• by Danielle Oster , February 6, 2025

Image above from a Google website section on diversity.

Google no longer plans to ensure its workforce is representative of its users.

Google employees were notified on Feb. 5 that the company was ending equitable hiring initiatives promoting workplace diversity, complying in advance with an executive order that revokes landmark equal employment opportunity Civil RIghts protections.

A representative for Google told Marketing Daily that the company reviews and makes changes to such programs annually. This year, the process included informing employees that it was evaluating diversity programs and initiatives, and would provide further updates, according to the representative, who added that Google would retain its Employee Resource Groups, and continue working with educational institutions.

“Because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programs required to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic,” Alphabet Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi wrote in the memo to employees, according to reporting by CNBC.

The reference to “U.S. Executive Orders” in the memo follows an executive order signed on Jan. 21 that ncludes sections threatening to use unspecified government agencies to target  private-sector companies unwilling to abandon “DEI and DEIA principles.”

The order purports to bar federal contractors and subcontractors from engaging in “workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.” It also orders “all agencies” to take steps to “combat” “private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities” which it claims are “illegal.”

In a memo sent yesterday, February 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Department of Justice to investigate private-sector companies for potential litigation or civil compliance violations for engaging in purportedly “illegal” DEI and DEIA programs.

The constitutionality of the executive order is questionable, if not outright dubious, however, and it is already facing a legal challenge. The National Association of Diversity Officers, the City Council of Baltimore, Maryland, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and others filed a civil rights complaint against the Trump administration, seeking to block the order from being implemented. The complaint alleges the order includes myriad First Amendment violations, and contains “unconstitutionally vague” language violating due process protections.

Alphabet also deleted language stating the company is “committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve” from its annual 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had been included in previous reports.

Google is not alone in removing mentions of DEI initiatives from its 10-K filings. Companies including Disney, Intel, and PepsiCo have made similar changes. 

 

 

 

 

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