Fair-weather friends of equality & diversity

Blog posts

11 Feb 2025

Jonny Gifford, Principal Research Fellow

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As reported in the Financial Times, Accenture is "sunsetting" its diversity and inclusion goals. At least it’s holding on to the management tendency for BS jargon. "Sunsetting"? Seriously?

I once interviewed the Asia Pacific Director of HR at Accenture about its EDI (or DEI) practices. The commitment seemed embedded through the organisation and was palpable. There was a willingness to hold fast even in the face of client resistance. For example, on standing by flexible work arrangements to support gender equality, she said:

“[We have said] to the client, ‘We want to give you the best client team and the people that are most talented to deal with your business issue, and the person that I want to bring … happens to be working part time. So, I can give you most talented person, who has the flexible work arrangement, or I can give you the next most talented person, who may not have a flexible work arrangement. What would you prefer?’ And, you know, inevitably the client will say, ‘Well, I want the most talented person’.” Director of HR, Asia Pacific, Accenture, in Gifford (2011).

At the time, the organisation drew inspiration to ‘walk the talk’ from a story that it had once turned down a lucrative project because the client insisted on an all-male team. The dedication was explained as a desire to build a reputation for prioritising the best talent from around the world and a belief that supporting workforce diversity enabled this. But there was also a driver that, looking back, makes me wonder: the organisation wanted to reflect the ‘best’ practices seen in clients and competitors.

Management practice is undeniably faddish. As well as wanting to know what evidence suggests are the most effective courses of action, business leaders tend to look over their shoulder at what others are doing. No harm in being curious, but it’s a problem when there’s an unjustified sense of FOMO. Benchmarking practices typically involves a sizable leap of faith, assuming that because currently successful organisations are doing something it must be a contributor to their success – when it could be "in spite of", or unrelated. Fast forward to now and it strikes me that if EDI was partly about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, it's less surprising to see commitment evaporate under the intense challenge it’s facing in the USA.

If the news on Accenture is part of a wider trend, as seems the case, it may undermine voluntary corporate responsibility more generally. If apparently diehard supporters of EDI treat it as expendable, holding employers to account externally – through legislation, active policy and unions – may be the more reliable approach.

I hope business leaders who are committed to equality and diversity can hold fast to progressive values. HR leaders are especially important. HR holds an unusual place in being a management function – and thus subject to immediate business needs – but also the primary function responsible for adhering to equality law and a profession with a set of values. Other business leaders or shareholders may expect to "sunset" these values at the drop of a hat if it fits other agendas, but HR leaders should stand firm.

Standing firm is difficult by definition, but the CIPD has a great strapline that helps: the HR profession should strive to be ‘principles led, evidence based and outcomes driven’. In any field, professionals are best equipped to exercise their judgement and influence senior stakeholders when they have a decent handle on the body of evidence. Information overload can plague decision-making and having someone who can articulate the best research evidence and cut through the noise is invaluable. In a febrile era of culture wars, we need that evidence base more than ever.

Notes:
Gifford (2011) The Fair and Inclusive Journey of Leading Employers. Singapore: Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP).

There’s a lovely article on fads in management – you can see the first page here: Miller D, Hartwick J, Le Breton-Miller I (2004) How to detect a management fad—and distinguish it from a classic. Business Horizons, Volume 47, Issue 4, Pages 7-16, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-6813(04)00043-6

A nice case study of evidence-based practice in the BBC illustrates the value of this approach to influencing senior stakeholders.

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Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.