Donald Trump’s executive order dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is making waves at international companies in Europe, Asia and beyond — but only on the surface. Quietly, many businesses are standing firm on diversity initiatives.
Companies from Roche Holding AG to Nissan Motor Co. have backpedaled on DEI policies in the US. But the Swiss drug maker says it has no plans to change its inclusion efforts elsewhere, while the Japanese car maker has left its international websites untouched. Volvo AB is going further: The car company hires “based on meritocracy, not quotas,” its spokesperson said, adding that positive action schemes such as its tecHER program will continue.
It’s what you might call DEI by stealth — an approach that, in various forms, has started to become the new normal for global companies outside the US since President Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
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For American companies, there’s a degree of uncertainty around the directive. While US federal agencies and their suppliers are required to end any form of what Trump calls “illegal DEI,” such as affirmative action in hiring, the order doesn’t definitively say what measures companies are no longer permitted to take. And with robust federal anti-discrimination statutes still in place, it’s not even clear that the directive is lawful.
Outside of the US, the picture is even more complicated. Companies may wish to avoid unwanted scrutiny from the Trump administration, but complying with the spread of international diversity regulations is non-negotiable.
In jurisdictions from the UK and the EU to Australia and Hong Kong — where inclusion measures have primarily focused on gender rather than race — comp