Some of the executive orders issued during the first week of the Trump administration directly called into question diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives.
“My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense,” President Trump said in an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. “These are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector,” he added.
While Trump has so far signed four executive orders directly targeting DE&I initiatives in the public and private sectors, HR Brew previously reported, Anuradha Hebbar, president of CEO Action for Inclusion & Diversity at SHRM, the largest association of HR professionals, told HR Brew, “We don't know what he has actually in plan, and that he wants to completely abolish DE&I in the federal government. His intent is not clear.”
Regardless of Trump’s priorities, Hebbar said that SHRM is still committed to DE&I. “There’s no question that diversity and inclusion are great for business, and our job is to really ensure companies and CEOs and all stakeholders continue to do this work and avoid legal risk, protecting their employees and making better worlds and workplaces,” she explained.
Federal agencies, meanwhile, have been encouraged to dismantle lawful DE&I practices, including downplaying cultural observances such as Black History Month, removing diversity posters, and pausing employee resource groups, according to NBC News. Hebbar said that SHRM is focused on making sure that its members comply with the law, while acknowledging that the government’s guidance on what’s considered DE&I has been vague so far. Despite Trump’s executive orders and statements, she believes that Trump’s priority is eliminating “illegal” DE&I initiatives. “I think compliance with the law here is really what he’s trying to stress.”
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However, it seems the Trump administration believes that all DE&I initiatives are illegal. (Lawyers who have talked to HR Brew have claimed that most DE&I initiatives are legal.)
We also asked Hebbar about SHRM’s position on nonbinary and transgender employees and protections, given Trump’s executive order that called for only two genders to be recognized at the federal level.
“We believe that it’s in a company’s best interest to do all that they can to foster inclusive workplace cultures where everyone feels valued for their contributions, and this has to be done within the content context of the law,” she responded.
When pressed further, Hebbar said that SHRM encourages employers to comply with the law. “Our job is not to agree or disagree with the Trump administration,” she said. “So right now, stick to the letter of the law here, and the executive orders, which clearly specify the requirement to end illegal discrimination and restore merit based opportunity. That is what we know at this point in time.”
Hebbar said that SHRM’s role is to interpret the executive orders for HR leaders so they can decipher how to move forward. “We know that most DE&I practices are in fact lawful. So that’s really where we are mitigating risk and then determining from there, you know, how we move forward, which is really based on what outcome.”