A person walks past The Spheres at the Amazon.com Inc. headquarters on November 14, 2022 in Seattle, Washington.
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Amazon is pausing some of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, joining a growing list of large corporations that have announced similar moves in the face of growing public and legal scrutiny.
In an internal memo to CNBC employees last month, Candi Castleberry, Amazon's vice president of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company was in the process of “phasing out outdated programs and materials” as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives.
“Rather than outsourcing program development to individual groups, we focus on programs with proven results – and our goal is to foster a truly inclusive culture,” Castleberry wrote in a December 16 memo, which was first reported by the website Bloomberg.
Finish line on Friday made a similar retreat through diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The social media company said it was abandoning its approach of considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for open positions and equity and inclusion training programs. The decision was met with fierce opposition from Meta employees, including one who wrote: “If you don't stick to your principles when the going gets tough, they are not values. It's a hobby.”
Other companies incl McDonald's, Walmart AND Ferry have also have made changes to their DEI initiatives in recent months. Growing conservative backlash and the Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in 2023 has encouraged many corporations to change or discontinue DEI programs.
Read the full note from Amazon Castleberry:
Team,
As we approach the end of the year, I want to provide another update on the work we've been doing on representation and inclusion.
As a large, global company operating across countries and industries, we serve hundreds of millions of customers from diverse backgrounds and diverse communities around the world. To serve them effectively, we need millions of employees and partners who reflect our customers and communities. We strive to be representative of these clients and build an inclusive culture for all.
Over the past few years, we've taken a new approach, reviewing hundreds of programs across the company, using science to assess their effectiveness, impact and return on investment, identifying those we believe should continue. Each of them concerns a specific discrepancy and is intended to end when that discrepancy is eliminated. In parallel, we worked on uniting employee groups under one umbrella and creating programs open to everyone. Rather than having individual groups create programs, we focus on programs with proven results and also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture. You can read more about this on our website Together on the Amazon website from A to Z.
This approach – in which we move away from programs that are disconnected from our existing processes and instead integrate our work into existing processes so that they become sustainable – is about evolving towards “embedded” and “born inclusive” rather than “bolt-on.” ” As part of this evolution, we are eliminating obsolete programs and materials, and our goal is to complete this by the end of 2024. We also know that there will always be people or teams who continue to do things with good intentions that are not consistent with our inclusive approach. the entire company and we may not always notice them immediately. But we will stick to it.
We will continue to provide ongoing updates and appreciate your hard work in driving this progress. We believe this is important work, and we will continue to invest in programs that help us reflect this audience, help employees grow, thrive and connect, and remain focused on delivering inclusive experiences for customers, employees and communities around the world.
#InThisTogether,
Candi