ED&I rollbacks in the US - why is this happening and what will it mean for the UK?

This is a guest article by one of Ben's partners, Byrne Dean, workplace behaviour and culture experts. This article is part of a series of content from Ben's partners.

A wave of companies in the US have decided to roll back their ED&I policies in the past month, ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump.

This has included large companies such as Meta and Amazon pulling back from various hiring and training initiatives, with the former citing a "shifting legal and policy landscape".  

What is causing this backlash against ED&I in the US?

Byrne Dean's affiliate in the US, Elena Paraskevas-Thadani of EPT Legal, has given us a really insightful back and forth on this point. It’s fascinating how we see it differently.  

The US has had a proliferation of mandated anti-harassment and non-discrimination training for far longer than we have in the UK. Programmes were well established in the 90s. Many were forced on employers by their customers or clients requiring them for firms in their supply chains, rather than being adopted by choice. Much of the training has an obvious tick box feel and is perceived by many to be ineffective.    

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