Almost four in ten senior HR, finance and c-suite professionals in the UK agree that the UK should roll back some diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) measures, research has revealed. The news comes as President Donald Trump moved to cut DEI polices, budgets and staff out of the US federal government yesterday, just a day after returning to office.
The sentiment among UK employers was revealed in a survey of more than 140 UK senior leaders, which found that 37 percent agree some DEI efforts should be reduced.
Within the group that agreed DEI should be rolled back, the vast majority said that some aspects of DEI policies require change, while a smaller proportion of this group said DEI “has already gone too far in the British workplace”.
However, the majority of UK employers (53 percent) continue to support equality and diversity policies and 22 percent would like to see such initiatives strengthened further, while 31 percent felt current initiatives were “about right”.
The backlash against DEI policies has been gathering pace in the US for a number of months as major tech firms such as Meta, Microsoft and Zoom have cut DEI staff and DEI‑related investments. However, this shift is not happening in all US workplaces. Earlier this month, the board of Apple pushed backed against a shareholder demand that it cease its DEI efforts, calling it an attempt to “micromanage” the company.
Asked about the impacts of changes happening across the atlantic, more than two-thirds (69 percent) of the UK survey respondents said they expect it to have at least some impact on British workplaces and policies. However, just 6 percent thought those changes would be major in nature, while only 16 percent of employers thought there would be no change in the UK with the same percentage unclear about what might happen.
Steve Herbert, brand ambassador at Occupational Health Assessment Ltd, said: “Reports in the American media suggest that a number of major employers – including many that have a very significant employment and business presence here in the United Kingdom – have formally announced the curtailment or complete rollback of elements of their previously established and promoted EDI [as DEI is termed in the US] policies. This process appears to have begun in the middle of 2024, and the number and scale of such announcements has increased rapidly as the presidential inauguration approached.”
“This raises the important question as to whether those same employers will change their approach to EDI policies here in the UK, and if so, what impact that will have on workplace culture, engagement, productivity, and of course employee wellbeing.”
Magnus Kauders, managing director of Occupational Health Assessment Ltd, commented: “It will be interesting to see if US parent companies expect their UK subsidiaries to follow suit in curtailing workplace DEI initiatives, not least because it would appear to conflict with some aspect of the government’s ambitious ‘Making Work Pay’ plans announced last year. We will watch developments in this space with interest.”
