If a Company Is “Diversity Ditching,” 82% of Workers Say…

earlier this month, diverse mentioned An “exodus” of black women leaving senior leadership positions in Hollywood, “as concerns grow that major studios are just doing the talking after pledging to elevate more people of color into positions of power”.

Those departing include Karen Horn, senior vice president of North American Diversity & Inclusion Equity President, and Tera Potts, executive vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Discovery; Jenelle English, Executive Vice President of Impact and Inclusion at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Vern Myers, Netflix’s first president of listing; and Latondra Newton, Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President, Disney. And this doesn’t just happen in Hollywood. CNBC male which the BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity, Joanna Abyei, left after just 18 months in the role. “Her replacement will be the third Chief Creative Officer in Diversity in two years at the BBC,” said author Jennifer Liu.

diverse Looking back to 2020, when the killing of George Floyd prompted many companies to announce broad commitments to diversifying their workforce — even adding diversity officers to the third group to lead internal progress. “Well, after three years, it’s starting to feel like they’re done trying,” said writer Clayton Davis.

The Muse calls this “abandonment in diversity,” where senior leadership in a company fails to live up to its previous commitments to diversity, equality, and inclusion by not supporting BIPOC leaders in complex positions.

said Kathryn Mincio, CEO and Founder of Muse. “It is up to employers to make all employees – especially BIPOC employees who do not always see themselves represented in positions of authority – feel adequately resourced and supported to be able to do their best work.”

a company. echo That feeling, and presumably DEI situations in particular, are ripe for burnout, especially when colleagues don’t understand what they’re trying to do at the same time that leadership expects a quick turnaround in results. “Not only does this lead to burnout, but it also causes early departures,” the article said, adding that the average tenure of Chief Diversity Officers today is two years less than that of other CEOs. “This translates into a cost to organizations — up to twice the salary of a DEI leader to replace them — and jeopardizes progress in the DEI’s own work.”

This made us wonder if the cost to organizations is more widespread than the massive resignation of DEI leaders. What effect does this have on other employees – both in the way they see their company and in their willingness to work hard? The Muse polled more than 800 users of TheMuse.com this month about the effects of giving up diversity, and the results are clear. Among other results:

• And 80% said their company’s decision to step back from diversity commitments made them more likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.
• 82% said their company’s decision to back away from diversity commitments made them less engaged with their work.
• 70% said that if they believed a company was falling behind on its diversity commitments, it would negatively affect their interest in working for that company.

Overall, 60% of respondents said they feel their current company has slipped away from its diversity commitments. “Fewer diversity candidates being hired or hired” was the most common example (32%), followed by “less internal discussion or DEI programming” (22%), “leadership change at top/remaining diversity employee” (20%) and “reducing public-facing messages” (18%).

More than a third of respondents agreed that their company talked about DEI a lot during the interview process, but that their actual “on-the-job” experience didn’t measure up to what was discussed.

It’s never too late for leaders to course-correct in response to abandoning diversity. Perhaps acknowledging that this is happening within their organization is the first step in the right direction.

methodology: 803 people were surveyed via themuse.com Between July 21-24, 2023. The respondents are:

• 30% are Millennials and 23% are Generation Z
• 70% is non-white and 22% is black or African American
• 65% female