Companies Must Rethink Diversity Officer Role, DOL Official Says

Employers should provide diversity officers with financial resources and access to top executives, or risk undermining their commitments to root out workplace inequities, a US Labor Department official said.

Companies’ failed commitments to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion officers create the potential for a revolving door of diverse talent and persistent workplace inequities, Alaysia Hackett, the DOL’s first chief diversity and equity officer, said Wednesday.

Employers must rethink the role DEI practitioners play and offer sufficient human resources and funding to maximize the impact of their work, she said at a conference hosted by the Society for Human Resource Management in Savannah, Ga.

“For them to stay in these roles, you have to commit to funding because one person cannot do everything for your organization,” she said. “The reason why there’s a revolving door with chief diversity officers is because there’s a lot of stress that associated with the job and a lot of responsibility that everyone believe that this one person can handle.”

Workplace DEI efforts boomed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis police custody in 2020. But those initiatives have faded amid layoffs and increased legal and political threats from conservatives challenging the legality of workplace diversity policies following the US Supreme Court’s ruling outlawing the use of race as a factor in college admissions.

Diversity programs are among the first to cut during an economic downturn and employers have slashed DEI roles at a higher rate than others, according to a February study from workforce analytics firm Revelio Labs. But the exodus of DEI leaders also stems from burnout and the lack of financial support and buy-in from their colleagues, reports have found.

DEI officers typically work with and report to companies’ HR departments. But that approach often limits DEI efforts to HR-related functions like hiring and training, and employers miss out on the opportunity to embed them into their broader business strategy and operations, Hackett said Wednesday.

Having DEI officers report to HR instead of corporate leadership also reinforces the power dynamics that are often the most resistant to change, she said.

“They need to report to the top of the organization. We are dismantling discriminatory systems and looking at polices and guidelines across the organization,” Hackett said. “DEI has no lane. We belong in every areas across the organization.”