In an effort to ensure the presence of US president Donald Trump at the forthcoming Davos get-together of the world’s most influential movers and shakers, organisers agreed to downplay discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics at the event. The president’s team made it clear that this was a key condition for his attendance.
This is one of the latest examples of how a backlash against the so-called “woke” agenda is playing out, and how corporates are downgrading their position on DEI, at least in public.
Many leading US corporations are watching their backs. Meta announced early in 2025 that it was removing all its DEI programmes while Amazon and McDonald’s said they were cancelling many of their diversity practices. BlackRock cut all reference to DEI in its latest annual report, three years after company chief executive Larry Fink said the company must “embed DEI into everything it does”, while Citibank said it will end its diversity hiring goals.
Retailer Target ended programmes helping black employees and black-owned businesses, and said it would end DEI goals that aimed to help LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities.
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While these and many other big firms aimed to make these changes with minimum publicity, Ford chief executive Jim Farley was more upfront in saying that the carmaker was dropping its DEI efforts but would continue to support its team, customers and communities, “versus publicly commenting on the many polarising issues of the day”.
Meanwhile, earlier this year US embassies sent letters to foreign contractors, including those based in France, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Spain, directing them to comply with Trump’s DEI orders. This prompted serious pushback from multiple countries, informing the embassies that such overreach would be resisted.
This highlights the different attitudes on each of the Atlantic. Europe has long been a more socially progressive continent, and the EU has been a driving force for more inclusive workplaces.
Despite our heavy reliance on US FDI, there is little evidence yet of a row-back on DEI policies in Irish workplaces, though it is likely that US subsidiary organisations here may go about their diversity practices here with more discretion and less flag waving.
Indeed, a survey of 100 senior leaders across private, public and semistate organisations by the Irish Management Institute revealed that 97 planned to strengthen or maintain their organisation’s diversity efforts.
DEI continues to play a key role in shaping an employee’s trust, voice and sense of belonging through psychological safety, says Meg Dunphy, HR policy and engagement manager with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
“For job seekers, looking at organisation’s policy on DEI can be an important deciding factor when applying for jobs. It is an important part of employer brand and Gen Z, and Alpha coming next, place a strong importance on inclusion and psychological safety,” she says.
While there may be differences in naming conventions in Ireland, DEI doesn’t seem to have slipped down the priority list for companies here.
“People understand how important it is from the points of view of collaboration, idea generation, and reflecting your customers but DEI is now merging into more generic HR practice rather than being called out as a specific strand. We see the same with other areas such as wellness, for example. It’s part of a natural progression of specific areas becoming part of overall HR strategy, particularly when we are 10 to 20 years into the journey.”
Dunphy cites a HR practices survey conducted by CIPD earlier this year which found that most respondents have a suite of approaches to promote diversity and inclusion. Most popular was inclusive recruitment-retention-promotion strategies (78 per cent) and remote and flexible working (77 per cent). Two-thirds had an inclusive working culture policy and 60 per cent provided training and guidance for line managers. However, only 45 per cent invested in raising awareness of diversity among employees and just 16 per cent reported the appointment of a diversity officer.
Proponents of good DEI practice can also take comfort from the fact that numerous studies show it is linked to enhanced business performance. A study by McKinsey, for example, illustrated that companies with a representation of 30 per cent or more of women in their workforces perform 48 per cent better than those with fewer women, while surveys consistently show that when employees feel included, engagement and retention levels improve.
