JPMorgan Chase attempted one of the earliest return-to-office dates of the Fortune 500 on September 21, 2020. After a breakout of COVID occurred, the company backed off the mandate. From the beginning of the COVID lockdowns until early 2022, CEO Jamie Dimon took a hard stance against remote work and for office work. Dimon stated, “We want people back to work. And everyone is going…
Kroger has several public DEI programs, frameworks, and commitments on its website. However, many companies with public DEI profiles like this have started to publicly back off or quietly remove DEI programs in the past few months. What is the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Kroger? Here’s everything you need to know. Kroger’s DEI Program Department Status: Active Department Trend: Unchanged Recent DEI Report: 2023 Policy Title:…
Last week, NPR reported on several companies that have removed some DEI language from annual reports. PepsiCo, #44 in the Fortune 100, was briefly mentioned. We maintain the Fortune 100 DEI Database, so I wanted to investigate. Here’s what we found out about PepsiCo’s DEI language over the past few years. PepsiCo Stopped Producing DE&I Reports In 2022 PepsiCo released DE&I reports in 2020,…
Gap Inc. is the latest major corporation to announce a full return-to-office (RTO) mandate. San Francisco Business Times first reported the story on February 7, 2025. The order applies to all corporate employees who live near an office and will start in September 2025. Here’s everything you need to know about Gap’s RTO policy. Gap’s Return To Office Policy [Jan 2025] Notice Date: February…
In a subtle change that appears to be missed from last year, Best Buy has removed key diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments from its 2024 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (CRS) Report. I compared Best Buy’s 2023 CR&S Report to its 2024 CR&S Report. The difference revealed that measurable DEI hiring goals, once central to Best Buy’s strategy, have been replaced with broad statements about…
In its annual report released on October 10, 2024, Accenture wrote, “We have an unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity.” Less than four months later, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in a memo to employees that the company has canceled four DEI-related goals and programs. Here’s the recent timeline of Accenture’s DEI policy from 2017 until now. The State of Accenture’s DEI Policy Department Status: Active…
In early February, Meijer released a press release stating that the company “reaffirmed its commitment today to growing its selection of Black-owned brands.” The supplier inclusion program at Meijer started in 2021 and has grown the number of Black-owned brands by 35% since then. Meijer joins a growing list of companies that support DEI in recent months. Here’s everything you need to know about Meijer’s…
Fiona Cicconi, Chief People Office at Alphabet (parent company of Google), sent an internal email to staff on Wednesday. Reuters first reported on the story. In the email, Google announced that is has stopped its diversity-hiring goals. But this is just the latest step in Google’s steady retreat from DEI that started in 2023. Here’s the timeline. The State of Google’s DEI Policy Department Status: Active Department…
Arguably since the first agricultural revolution 10,000+ years ago, work has been tied to a fixed location. That location-based work – first a farm, then a manufacturing plant, then an office – created opportunity. Opportunity attracted workers (or new citizens). Therefore, we always formed cities, countries, and societies primarily through location-based opportunity. Go where the work is, as they say. For the first time in…
This is our latest research on the evolving dynamics of DEI. We’ve covered the companies ending DEI, others defending DEI, and the current DEI policies for every Fortune 100. Now, we look into the world of higher education. In this report, we cover US colleges and universities that have reduced or eliminated their DEI programs. Full list | Downloadable spreadsheet | Laws impacting colleges |…