Ditching DEI is bad for employees and employers: HRC report

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Ditching DEI is bad for employees and employers: HRC report

https://www.advocate.com/news/ditching-dei-bad-business 🔗

Trudy Ring (4 Feb 2026)

LGBTQ+ employees at companies that have rescinded inclusionary policies are finding their workplaces hostile, and some say they've become less productive, according to a new Human Rights Campaign Foundation study. But inclusion pays off for workers and companies.

The foundation, the educational arm of HRC, released its 2026 State of the Workplace for LGBTQ+ Americans and Corporate Equality Index Wednesday. It found implications for both employees and employers.

Pressure from the federal government, under Donald Trump's administration, and from right-wing activists led many companies to end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in 2025.

"While not eliminating civil rights protections, these actions signaled increased scrutiny of DEI-related policies and practices, particularly where they intersect with federal funding or contracting," the report says. "For many employers, these signals created confusion and unease about how to comply with existing civil rights laws, continue legally permissible DEI programming, and avoid enforcement attention at the same time. For some, compliance concerns led to a significantly dialed back approach by companies, including by influencing how inclusion efforts are designed, documented, and communicated internally, and especially externally."

The researchers found that 39.1 percent of U.S. workers surveyed said their employers have rolled back DEI practices. At those companies, 54.2 percent of workers said they had experienced stigma or bias on the job, compared to 24.9 percent of those at organizations that maintained DEI policies.