Is DEI dead? What do I do now?

In his first week in office in 2025, President Trump issued several executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in both public and private sectors. Utah’s legislature also passed a bill in the 2024 legislative session that affected DEI actions in public education and employment in Utah.

As an employer, you may be wondering what you can (or cannot) do and how to avoid getting your business into legal trouble. The following guidelines may be useful to your business:

• Audit your job descriptions: remove unnecessary job and degree requirements and/or language that implies race or sex preferences.
• Audit job ads and interview questions: verify that your ads and interview questions do not include race or sex preferences.
• Standardize interviews: use uniform questions when interviewing a pool of candidates, eliminating any subjective measures that may be part of the hiring process. Do not measure “fit” for the job because that term is often code for “race” or “sex”.
• Formalize promotions: use transparent, standardized processes for promotions that are based on objective, job-related criteria. Do not allow promotions because the boss likes someone.
• Individualized training: ensure training opportunities are open to all employees, but tailor them to specific needs of the employee and the business.
• Conduct workplace audits: evaluate your workplace to discover where discrimination or harassment might be happening and take appropriate steps to stop it.
• Expand your recruitment efforts: to expand your applicant pool, consider using diverse recruitment channels, such as adding more colleges and additional advertising formats. If possible, lower job requirements (if reasonable) to attract more applicants.
• Rethink workplace culture: avoid excessively high workload requirements, which disproportionately impact women and economically-disadvantaged employees. Instead, promote a healthier work-life balance, which will improve retention and motivation of all employees.

These ideas were shared by the EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas in a podcast on March 1, 2024, and they are as applicable today as they were in 2024. Link to Podcast: https://www.employmentlawnow.com/2024/03/01/viii-141-dei-perspectives-from-eeoc-commissioner-andrea-lucas/

For more information on how to implement these ideas, reach out to our legal team! The HR attorneys at Employer-Lawyer are here to answer your questions and guide you to best practices to meet the needs of your business!