Amazon halts some of its DEI programs: internal memo

Amazon It has halted some of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, joining a growing list of major companies that have announced similar steps in the face of increasing public and legal scrutiny.

In an internal memo to employees last month obtained by CNBC, Candy Castleberry, Amazon’s vice president of end-to-end experiences and technology, said the company was “reducing legacy software and materials” as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives.

“Rather than individual groups building programs, we focus on programs with proven outcomes — and we also aim to foster a truly more inclusive culture,” Castleberry wrote in a December 16 memo, which was first reported. Bloomberg.

Castleberry’s memo does not say which programs the company will drop as a result of its review. The company typically publishes annual data on the racial and gender composition of its workforce, and it also hires Black, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, and veterans. Employee resource groupsamong other things.

In 2020, Amazon set a goal to double the number of Black employees in vice president and director positions. It declared the same goal In 2021 It also pledged to hire 30% black employees in product manager, engineer, and other corporate roles.

Dead on Friday He made a similar retreat Diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives. The social media company said it has ended its approach of considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for open roles and equity and inclusion training programs. The decision sparked backlash from Meta employees, including one employee who wrote: “If you don’t stick to your principles when the going gets tough, those aren’t values. They’re hobbies.”

Other companies including McDonald’s, Walmart and Ford She has too They made changes to their DEI initiatives In recent months. Conservative backlash escalates And the Supreme Court Ruling against affirmative action in 2023 It prompted many companies to change or discontinue their DEI programs.

Amazon, the country’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, has also recently made changes to its services “Our positions” A web page, which explains the company’s position on a variety of policy issues. Previously, there were separate sections dedicated to “Black Equality,” “Diversity, Equality and Inclusion” and “LGBTQ+ Rights,” according to Records From the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

The current web page has simplified these sections into a single paragraph. The section states that Amazon believes in the importance of creating a diverse and inclusive company and that unfair treatment of anyone is unacceptable. Information I mentioned the changes earlier.

“We update this page from time to time to ensure it reflects the updates we have made to various programs and situations,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel told CNBC in a statement.

Read the full note from Amazon’s Castleberry:

a team,

As we head toward the end of the year, I’d like to provide another update on the work we’ve done around representation and inclusion.

As a large global company operating in diverse countries and industries, we serve hundreds of millions of customers from a variety of backgrounds and globally diverse communities. To serve them effectively, we need millions of employees and partners who reflect our customers and communities. We strive to be representatives of these clients and build an inclusive culture.

In the past few years, we’ve taken a new approach, reviewing hundreds of programs across the company, using science to evaluate their effectiveness, impact and return on investment — and identify programs that we believe should continue. Each of these addresses a specific tolerance, and is designed to end when that tolerance is removed. In parallel, we worked to bring employee groups together under one umbrella, building programs open to everyone. Rather than assigning individual groups to build programs, we focus on programs with proven results – and we also aim to foster a truly more inclusive culture. You can read more about this on our website Together on Amazon A to Z page.

This approach – where we move away from programs that were separate from our existing operations, and instead integrate our work into existing operations so that they become permanent – ​​is evolving into “built-in” and “holistic-born”, rather than “installed”. “As part of this evolution, we have reduced legacy software and materials, and we aim to complete this by the end of 2024. We also know that there will always be individuals or teams who continue to do well-intentioned things that are not aligned with our company-wide approach, and we may not always see that right away.” But we will continue with it.

We will continue to share ongoing updates, and appreciate your hard work in driving this progress. We believe this is important work, so we will continue to invest in programs that help us reflect those audiences, help employees grow, thrive and connect, and we remain committed to delivering inclusive experiences for customers, employees and communities around the world.

#InThisTogether,

Candy