When employers wrongly prioritise diversity over competence, compromises are made to safety and justice.

Overview

Employers Are Lowering Competency Standards to Meet Diversity Quotas

When employers are pressured by rating agencies and activist groups to increase employee diversity, they might wrongly assume that the solution is to lower recruitment standards.

This practice can be perceived as patronising, and subsequent hires of minority groups may be viewed as tokenism.

Beyond public perceptions, organisations also risk offering poorer service as organisational culture prioritises diversity over competence.

Some examples mentioned below show that wrong hiring policies can impact life-and-death situations and even risk institutional injustice.

Examples:

Duke Department of Surgery boasts “abandoning all sorts of metrics” to promote diversity

“What we have done, really, is systemic changes to our recruitment process, to try to recruit diverse persons to our programme, and then to retain and support those diverse persons after they get to our programme. So part of this has involved transitioning to [a] holistic review process that we spoke about earlier today, abandoning all sorts of metrics and screens…” [1]

Federal Aviation Administration prioritises hiring for diversity over competence for airport operations

“We are troubled by some recent reports regarding your agency’s hiring practices and priorities,” wrote Kansas attorney general Kris Kobach, who led the four-page letter. “It seems that the FAA has placed ‘diversity’ bean counting over safety and expertise, and we worry that such misordered priorities could be catastrophic for American travelers.”

Washington State drops bar exam requirement to reduce “barriers” and inequities

“The Washington Bar Licensure Task Force initially proposed the changes last month to advance diversity, equity and inclusion and reduce “barriers” to the legal profession.”

“The best available data indicates that the bar exam disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks historically marginalized groups from entering the practice of law,” the task force explained. “In addition to the racism and classism written into the test itself, the time and financial costs of the test reinforce historical inequities in our profession.”

Delaware bar exam simplified to increase diversity

“No one’s really sure what percentage of Delaware’s roughly 5,000 lawyers are Black or Latino, but leaders in the state’s legal profession have been saying for nearly two years that it’s too low.”

“While court officials are currently in the process of gathering that data, the Supreme Court has responded to a report urging reforms by making three changes to the Delaware Bar Exam and several to the process for admission to the state bar — all in an effort to increase racial diversity.”

DEI is Going Sideways

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has taken a wrong turn, with far reaching consequences.

Global Activist Pressure to Favour Certain Affinity Groups

Powerful activist groups and international organisations show partiality to certain identities and political viewpoints and demand companies to enforce political views in the workplace.

Foreign Governments Intervening in Local Affairs

Foreign governments may pressure their companies to adopt controversial DEI policies that undermine the host country’s cultural values.

Pressure to Conform to Homogenous Values

DEI efforts may create an expectation of uniformity in values, potentially marginalising individuals with differing beliefs. Instead of promoting viewpoint diversity, DEI might impose homogenous values upon employees.

Discrimination against Companies with Different Values by Harming Investability

Rating agencies conflate sustainability with other political causes when evaluating company ESG scores. Companies that do not adopt politically controversial ideologies might suffer in their sustainability ratings.

Contradictory Policies Marginalise the People DEI Originally Intended to Support

When DEI becomes conflated with controversial politics, the result backfires and erases years of progress. True inclusion must recognise definitions of identity groups to protect justice and fairness.

Misplaced Diversity Policies Harms Service Quality, Safety & Justice

When DEI policies supersede the competencies needed in the hiring process, not only does this look patronising, it compromises the work quality of critical services.

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