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Google tried for years to diversify its workforce, saying it would hire and promote more women and people from racial minorities. On Wednesday, the company abandoned employee diversity targets, saying that as a federal contractor, it needed to comply with President Trump’s executive orders opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
In 2020, Google announced a goal of increasing the number of people from underrepresented groups in its leadership team by 30 percent within five years. “In the future we will no longer have aspirational goals,” Fiona Cicconi, Google’s chief people officer, said in a Q&A that was emailed to employees.
A Google spokeswoman said that the company was “committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities” and that it had been reviewing its programs over the last year.
Like other tech giants, Google responded to a D.E.I. backlash bolstered by Mr. Trump’s election victory. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has eliminated many of its diversity teams, while Amazon has been reviewing its D.E.I. programs.
On January 22, President Trump signed an executive order instructing federal contractors to not engage in D.E.I., which he described as “illegal discrimination.” Google has also started a D.E.I. review that could result in the company’s cutting additional programs and initiatives.
The company will “carefully” evaluate programs, trainings, and initiatives “and will update them as needed,” Cicconi said. The company will consider whether some of them “raise risk” or “aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped.”
Google reported last year that 5.7 percent of its workforce was Black, up from 3.7 percent in 2020. And 7.5 percent of its employees were Hispanic or Latino, compared with 5.9 percent in 2020.
After the killing of George Floyd and ensuing protests in 2020, Google was one of many companies that pledged to hire and promote more Black and Latino workers. Part of Google’s approach to improve representation was to expand its offices in cities like Atlanta and Washington.
On Wednesday, Cicconi said that the company would continue to invest in places outside California and New York, and that the company would also hire in many countries globally. She added that the company would continue to have employee resource groups in which workers from similar backgrounds can convene.
“We’ve always been committed to creating a workplace where we hire the best people wherever we operate, create an environment where everyone can thrive and treat everyone fairly,” Cicconi said. “That’s exactly what you can expect to see going forward.”
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