Accenture has scrapped its global diversity and inclusion goals after an evaluation of the changing US political landscape.
According to an internal memo sent by its CEO, Julie Sweet, seen by Reuters and also reported in the Financial Times, the company will start “sunsetting” the diversity goals it set in 2017, along with career development programmes for “people of specific demographic groups”.
Accenture joins a series of firms including Meta, Alphabet and Amazon that have scrapped their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals leading up to and after Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency.
Sweet said Accenture’s policy change followed an “evaluation of our internal policies and practices and the evolving landscape in the United States, including recent executive orders with which we must comply”.
Since taking office on 20 January, Trump has issued a number of executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programmes across the federal government and the private sector.
Separately, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, on Wednesday in a note to staff said the justice department would “investigate, eliminate, and penalise” illegal diversity programmes in the private sector.
Along with rolling back Accenture’s DEI targets – which Sweet said would no longer be used to measure staff performance – the company will pause submitting data to external diversity benchmarking surveys, the memo said.
It would also evaluate external partnerships on the topic “as part of refreshing our talent strategy”, Sweet said in the memo.
In line with goals set in 2017 and 2020, women currently make up 48% of Accenture’s workforce and 30% of managing director roles, according to its latest annual report.
The company, which hires extensively from India, had also announced race and ethnicity goals for the US and the UK in 2020.
Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended on Friday that Apple investors vote against a proposal to consider eliminating the iPhone-maker’s DEI policies.
