Navigating DEI Backlash with Strategic Clarity
Executive Summary
Corbin helps companies ensure that strategy, language, and messaging are coherent and defensible, and that they appeal to your company’s stakeholders.
Many companies are reaching out to us for guidance as they navigate the fast-changing landscape surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). What was once considered table stakes in Human Capital Management is now politically charged, drawing scrutiny from policymakers and even procurement agencies. Yet employees, consumers, and investors still expect inclusive, thoughtful workplace practices.
This landscape brings both risk and opportunity. Now is the time to take stock: reassess what’s working and authentic to your business, what’s performative, and what’s legally vulnerable. Then, commit to the elements that demonstrably serve your business, your people, and your future, and ensure they are a part of your broader Human Capital Management strategy.
The external environment has changed. Your commitment to talent, culture, and resilience should not.
Recalibrating, Not Retreating
The political climate around DEI has shifted. Government directives and public pressure have made certain language and practices into a controversial, potential lightning rod. However, strong Human Capital Management remains essential to future growth. A well-developed workforce, welcoming culture, and deep talent pipelines are core to long-term business success.
The companies best navigating this moment are responding to these changes without over-correcting in response to headlines. Instead, they are reinforcing initiatives that support business outcomes, communicating in values-based language, and avoiding reactionary cycles of expansion and retreat.
This is about smart, durable strategy — not politics
Building Durable Value Through Human Capital
Your company should be clear about the ways in which many historically DEI-aligned programs are core Human Capital investments (e.g., leadership development, employee engagement, and culture-building). By anchoring Human Capital efforts in core business goals like talent acquisition, innovation, and resilience, companies can uphold a strong culture without courting unnecessary controversy.
Companies with durable programs ground them in measurable objectives, tie them to talent outcomes, and communicate them consistently as part of a holistic strategy.
Regional and Cultural Sensitivities
Multinational organizations must tailor their strategies to reflect jurisdictional nuances.
DEI remains well-supported in regions like the EU, Canada, and some U.S. states, where it is either incentivized or legally required. A consistent internal framework — adjusted for external norms — enables businesses to meet expectations while managing global reputation risk.
Companies like Banco Santander (SAN) — which is headquartered outside the U.S. but with significant U.S. operations — have adapted their programs to align with the expectations and regulatory environments of the regions where they operate, including the U.S.1
Maintaining consistent messaging across regions is challenging, especially as expectations around DEI vary widely. Still, companies must find a balance — because what triggers backlash in one market today may shape regulatory norms elsewhere tomorrow. A principles-driven approach and applied flexibly can offer both cohesion and adaptability.
Place-based Value Creation
Building value by engaging with the communities in which your company operates remains a business necessity. This is basic responsible stakeholder engagement, and these efforts deepen employee connection, enhance brand loyalty, and reduce reputational risk.
Understanding regional workforce dynamics, supporting local initiatives, and building feedback loops with underrepresented communities are pragmatic financial decisions.
Your company can underscore these efforts as durable, strategic commitments to people and performance.
Innovation Through Inclusive Thinking
Diversity of thought produces better ideas, challenges groupthink, and helps companies outperform peers. Emphasizing diversity of thought and experience — including political thought — can give your company a competitive edge and demonstrate that inclusion applies to everyone.
Research consistently shows that teams with diverse types of thinkers outperform on decision-making, problem-solving, and collaboration. Reinforcing diversity in this context strengthens your company’s defensible rationale for people-centered investments.
The Importance of Clear Language
Words matter. Many companies are finding success by refining how they describe people-related initiatives. Moving away from “DEI” toward terms like “Inclusion & Belonging” or “Opportunity & Equality” can help deescalate controversy.
In addition, reframing “pay equity” as “fair pay,” renaming committees to reflect values like merit or fairness, and integrating inclusion work into broader Human Capital programs are all ways to maintain integrity while improving clarity. JPMorgan Chase (JPM), for example, rebranded its diversity programs from “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) to “Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion” (DOI). By adjusting the terminology, the company aims to continue the programs that matter to the company in a manner that aligns with its business values and mitigates external backlash.
These aren’t semantic tricks — your Company should reevaluate the initiatives that are ineffective or carry risk — and develop practical strategies that align with both internal values and external realities.
Some areas of historical DEI do carry elevated risk and are worth reevaluating, especially in the areas of hiring, promotion, executive compensation, and training. In response to recent developments, companies like Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), McDonald’s (MCD), and Amazon (AMZN) have refined their DEI approaches—adjusting language and scaling back in certain areas while preserving the elements most critical to their business success.
To refine a durable Human Capital Management approach for the future, companies should emphasize robust pipelines over quotas, ensure that hiring targets are aspirational goals (not mandates), and confirm that executive compensation incentives do not hinge on demographic outcomes. In addition, companies should reevaluate specific content modules in training programs for effectiveness and methodological soundness.
Your strategy should reflect your industry, workforce composition, and stakeholder expectations.
In general, it should involve a combination of recommitting to durable values and revisiting activities that may not be as core to the success of the company. While some companies are significantly eliminating commitments and others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, are making defiant public commitments to stay the course, for the most part a middle ground is the best strategy.
To get started:
- Align your company’s communications with the values and business imperatives that are authentic to your employees, customers, and investors
- Emphasize the business centrality of place-based value creation and different ways of thinking
- Highlight the business centrality of strong recruitment, retention, and leadership development outcomes
Reach out to Corbin for a free consultation on how we can work with your company to find the right posture, one that builds trust, coherence, and resilience — and ultimately contributes to long-term value
Let us help you build a strategy that endures
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- “‘Anti-Woke’ in the U.S., DEI at Home: the New Playbook for European Companies,” The Wall Street Journal, March 20, 2025