Google finally abandons DEI program, calling it 'risky and ineffective'



When the second Trump administration takes office in January 2025, American companies that had been promoting

diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are beginning to reconsider their efforts, with companies such as Meta and Amazon partially retracting their DEI policies. It has recently been revealed that Google will remove its numerical targets for hiring minority employees and gradually scale back its DEI program.

Google ends DEI hiring goals | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/google/607012/google-dei-hiring-goals-internal-memo

Google scraps diversity hiring goals and cites Trump's DEI orders | Technology | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/05/google-dei-trump

In a February 5, 2025 employee notice, Google's Chief People Officer, Fiona Cicconi, said that because Google is a contractor that does business with the U.S. government and because of 'recent court decisions and U.S. presidential orders on this issue,' the company will no longer set DEI hiring goals.

Google first introduced DEI goals in 2009, and in 2020, when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was at its height, it set out a goal to 'increase the proportion of minority leadership by 30%', and actually achieved that goal in 2022.


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However, in light of President Donald Trump's policies making the review of DEI a top priority across the US, Google has also backed off its efforts to be considerate of minorities.

'Our VP of People, Meloni Parker, and her team are closely and carefully reviewing and, as needed, updating programs, trainings and initiatives, including those that may have increased risk or not been as effective as we hoped,' Google said in an internal memo following an interview with Cicconi.

Prior to this report, The Wall Street Journal reported that the phrase 'We make diversity, equity and inclusion part of all our activities,' which had been included from 2021 to 2023, had been removed from Google's 2024 annual report (10-K) submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 4, 2025.



After the news about its DEI program broke, Google released a statement saying, 'We're committed to creating a workplace where all employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the past year we've reviewed the programs we have in place to help make that happen and updated our 10-K to reflect that. Our team is also evaluating what changes we need to make as a federal contractor in light of recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.'

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