IBM abruptly announced major changes to its DEI practices last month, potentially upending decades of work. It’s the latest company to reverse course after public pressure from a conservative influencer and the Trump administration.
The changes. On April 10, news broke that the company was drastically changing its DEI programming via right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck. IBM also made an internal announcement to its employees. Among the various changes, IBM will reportedly no longer have a DEI department and eliminated its Diversity Council, which was established in the 1990s.
The changes don’t stop there, according to Starbuck. IBM has also ended its allyship campaign and allyship training, will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) workplace index, and will not encourage employees to recognize preferred pronouns.
IBM told employees that the changes were a result of the “inherent tensions of practicing inclusion” and legal factors, as the company had been under scrutiny in the last year, Bloomberg reported.
In the summer of 2024, the state of Missouri sued IBM, claiming it was giving preference to certain races during the hiring process. A former white employee, represented by America First Legal, also sued the company alleging he was fired to help fulfill racial quotas. IBM has denied the former worker’s claims, but the lawsuit is moving forward, Reuters reported.
IBM declined to comment for this story, but it appears the company would rather that everyone forget about its decades of DEI work—most messaging that hinted at the company’s inclusive culture or previous diversity efforts has been scrubbed from its website.
Readers will have to search the internet archives, if for instance, they want to understand how IBM advanced inclusion for deaf workers or read its 2020 report on Black leaders in business. What appears untouched, for now, is information about the company’s neurodiversity inclusion efforts, its eight employee resource groups, and a few blog posts about underrepresented groups.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, had issued a proposal for IBM shareholders to vote to end DEI during an April 30 shareholder meeting. However, the organization withdrew the motion following the company’s retreat.
A shift from decades of work. Established in 1911, IBM once boasted about its leadership in diversity and inclusion. The company hired its first disabled employee in 1914, the ERGs were established in 1995, and the company has had partnerships with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers since at least 2003.
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The company, in a 2019 letter to urge congress to pass the Equality Act, referred to diversity, advocacy and innovation as core to its mission and values, saying it was “part of the fabric of our company.”
IBM had a history of hiring with racial equality in mind dating back to the 1950s and launched its formal diversity and inclusion programming in the 1990s. It went on to build a DEI audit process, although that information has vanished too.
LGBTQ+ workers were previously openly supported as well. IBM partnered with HRC in 2018, advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace, and in 2020 presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Lynn Conway, a transgender woman that it had fired in 1968. This information can no longer be found on IBM’s website.
The industry is shifting. With the marked pushback against DEI programs in recent months, tech companies have had a wide range of reactions. While Apple and Microsoft have stood firm, companies like Meta have eliminated programs and policies that once represented their commitments to inclusion. Others, like Amazon and Salesforce, appear to be trying to have it both ways by sticking with their DEI programs but calling them something else.
“You’re seeing companies that are rebranding, who maybe don’t know what to do,” Kristen Kavanaugh, former head of inclusion at Tesla and author of the forthcoming book, Courage Over Fear, told HR Brew. “They recognize that there is some threat to their business, but they also recognize that they still have values, and so they don’t want to get rid of everything, that they’re rebranding or repackaging in a way that they feel is safer.”
Kavanaugh said that executives may be changing their policies out of fear of the Trump administration or because they’re not fully sure at this point if they still believe in the DEI policies they previously invested in.
Either way, she believes executives who do believe in DEI work should have the courage to say so. “Until we start seeing that level of courage, it’s hard for everyday folks like you and me to feel like we can do something…you need people who are willing to risk it all.”
You can stay up to speed on the latest changes to company programs with HR Brew’s DEI evolution tracker here.
