Photo: iStock | Dzmitry Dzemidovich
Why Are Chief Diversity Officers Heading for the Exits?
The recent departure of chief diversity officers (CDO) from Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery highlights the high turnover and burnout rate of the position.
According to HR Grapevine, some HR professionals have expressed on LinkedIn that the exodus of DEI execs illustrates that the role is increasingly being considered nonessential and should be integrated across departments.
Marvyn Harrison, chief growth officer at BELOVD Agency, wrote on LinkedIn: “Moving forward, let’s merge DEI into our people and culture strategies. We need to advance HR education and equip all people and culture leaders with the necessary tools and knowledge to champion a workplace that is equitable, safe, and centered around every individual.”
Turnover at the CDO position was high even before the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 both hiked investments in and stirred up backlash against diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“Frustrated by talk but little action and a lack of resources, many diversity executives find themselves rotating through C-suites,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in an article in July 2020.
Among others challenged establishing diversity leadership, Nike this past March hired its fourth head of diversity efforts since 2020. In late May, Uber’s diversity head was placed on leave after infuriating corporate employees by holding a series of “Don’t Call Me Karen” events.
According to a 2021 McKinsey report, 53% of Fortune 500 companies have a CDO or equivalent role. A study by Russell Reynolds, however, found the average CDO tenure was only 1.8 years.
A recent article from Senior Executive found one reason for the higher turnover rate for CDOs is plentiful opportunities available at other organizations, but other factors include officers becoming frustrated or burned out by inadequate resources, unrealistic expectations, lack of engagement in DEI initiatives by other C-level executives, and fluctuating DEI commitments from the top level.Monster’s January 2023 Future of Work report found 38% of recruiters indicating that workers ask about their potential employers’ DEI efforts “more than ever,” but 11% of employers said DEI programs “are among the first to go when they are forced to cut costs,” only behind company events and bonuses.
Discussion Questions
Discussion questions: What’s driving the high turnover rates for the chief diversity officer position? Should the CDO role be retired to better embed DEI into all facets of the business, or is an individual necessary to guide such efforts?
Poll
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If something is important, that usually it deserves at least one person/team solely focused on that objective. Yes, DEI should be embedded into all facets of business, but that is unlikely to happen without an internal champion.
The single internal champion must be nothing less than the CEO.
Well, for one thing being a CDO is generally an impossible and thankless job. Impossible because no matter how many protected or recognized diverse classes you create there always seems to be at least one or two you missed.
With all due respect to Marvyn Harrison, if you have even one employee – let alone 10,000 you really can’t ever create a workplace that is, “… centered around every individual.” Most DEI programs for existence don’t really address age discrimination or individuals whose “center” is conservative. This isn’t to say that the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, women, and other current DEI focuses are wrong because the most certainly aren’t. But, it is to say that an organization of any significant scale can’t possibly accommodate each and every employees’ views, preferences, biases, etc., etc. Or, put more simply, none of us is the actual center of the universe of the employed.
And that’s why the CDO’s job is also thankless. For every one person you make happy there is probably at least one more that you upset. It’s not surprising that the burnout rate is so high and it is likely to continue to get worse.
Some dating apps, for example, identify over 60 genders but I’m not aware on any DEI programs that go that far … yet.
There are three challenges facing CDOs making their hiring difficult. First, profit making companies may prefer to hire the best person for the job, not be constrained by DEI rules. Second, the Supreme Court just ruled that Affirmative Actions are not acceptable to be used for college admissions. Employers likely watched this decision thinking the use of AA might not be pushed for employers. Those employers who want to enforce AA in their hiring will continue to do so, but others may feel pressure to do so has been reduced. Third, enforcing DEI initiatives may fail due to one mistake and a lawsuit making being a CDO a risky position.
One wonders if a company chooses a minority for a key position if the AA challenges will be far behind. Unlike SATs and GPAs, business choices are not based on statistics and are easily open to attack.
These positions are (in general) thankless ones with no real “pull” within an organization. You are a “minister without portfolio” attempting to make an impact in a matrix. So the job takes a lot of energy and is hard to measure the business impact.
The recent affirmative action decision is going to “bleed over” to corporations, and I believe that is going to have an impact on these positions and goals as well.
Is 1.8 years (average duration) “high turnover”?? There were no stats presented to support the claim, and my intuition tells me that’s a rather typical duration for a VP level position.
But whether it is, or not, I think there’s an inherent problem with the very concept (of it being a separate position): the more important one thinks the issue is, the more – as Tom put it – it should be embedded in all facets of the business. One seldom sees a ‘Chief Profitability Officer’, but that’s not because profit doesn’t matter…OTC it’s because everyone understands that goal is part of everyone’s job.
Why was the position added to the C-suite in the first place? The idea of adding another member to the C-suite strikes me as adding one more silo to the decision-making process. The function of providing evolving data for the balance of the organization is complex. Data must be related to the need — is it operations? Is it marketing? Is it logistics?
If a company does establish a CDO, that person should be next in line for the CEO job. To be successful, this person must be a real systems thinker, understanding all the aspects of company operations and needs. Few of us can do that. The real data needs of a company and the priorities are so diverse that the CDO is positioned to prioritize the company’s functions, which is counter to good strategic implementation.
I see this only adding to conflict and wasted resources. I suspect the CDOs found they were last in the C-suite hierarchy.
This is an unfortunate manifestation of corporate DEI: all talk, little action and a Chief Diversity Officer often without a single direct report. What are the options after a year on this playing field other than to look for a different place where you can make meaningful impact?
Most DEI roles are token roles with little intent behind them from the people who create these roles. Priorities change, budgets are cut and you need a magnifying glass to find progress; but the role looks good on paper.
Yes, DEI efforts should be integrated at department or business unit levels. But companies should also have an empowered and resource-supported chief officer looking after those efforts and upholding ccorporate accountability. Anything less is a farce.