Since reaching a high-water mark a few years ago, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives are being rolled back across America. Critics like Elon Musk and investor Bill Ackman have called DEI efforts inherently unfair, illegal, and discriminatory. Companies like Tesla, Google, and Meta, and many others, have either eliminated or drastically scaled back their DEI programs.
The legal landscape is changing, too. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court barred colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions. In a concurring opinion, Justice Gorsuch wrote that the same result should apply to private employers, and that race should not be a factor in hiring decisions. Meanwhile Florida and Texas have banned DEI in their colleges and universities.
The reason for the backlash is simple: DEI doesn’t work. In fact, it runs against the mandate to hire regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, class, or sexual orientation. Moreover, studies show that DEI has negative consequences, including lower quality, lower productivity, and less innovation. It can also lead to lower product safety, as has happened at Boeing.
Instead of continuing a failing policy, leaders should look for ways to ensure they hire the best, brightest, and most qualified, regardless of background. This article will discuss an alternative to DEI and how leaders can make sure they are making the best hiring decisions now and in the future.
There is a better way. It has been called “Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence” (MEI). According to Scale AI Chief Executive Alexadr Wang, MEI calls for hiring the best candidates for open roles, regardless of background. Just as supporting DEI doesn’t make a person tolerant of differences, supporting MEI doesn’t make a person racist, sexist, or intolerant of differences.
As Wang says, “A hiring process based on merit will naturally yield a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas.” He cautions, “We will not pick winners and losers based on someone being the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ gender, race, and so on.” As Elon Musk puts it, “The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.” Even proponents of DEI concede that a large proportion of diversity interventions don’t generate measurable positive results. Moreover, DEI “has been found to backfire on marginalized groups’ feelings of belonging and weaken support for diversity programs when organizational performance drops,” according to the Harvard Business Review.
In the MEI approach, hiring decisions are based strictly on merit. Diversity, whether of race, gender, or worldview, emerges naturally as the best candidates rise to the top. In other words, diversity isn’t a goal to be chased by picking winners and losers in advance. It is simply the result of picking the best people for each role.
There’s another problem with DEI: Organizations cannot mandate diversity through the hiring process. Unless they pick the best fit candidates, those candidates will leave, whether voluntarily because of poor fit, or involuntarily because of poor performance. You can’t hold water in a colander.
The first line of defense against poor hiring decisions is to involve more people in the process to eliminate unconscious bias. We all enjoy being around people who share our interests, have similar experiences, and come from similar backgrounds. But that kind of bias can lead to problematic hiring decisions – and “problem” employees. MEI proponents report that group hiring decisions can lead to naturally diverse and successful workforces.
Once people are in place, the challenge is to keep them there. Excess turnover has a high cost and organizations have a vested interest in having their employees succeed. That’s an area where DEI falls flat. We know what “diversity” means, but what qualifies as “equity” or “inclusion?”
Let’s look at inclusion first. In a perfectly inclusive organization, nothing interferes with an employee’s ability to perform at his or her peak. Things that can interfere with peak performance include not treating people with respect, making unreasonable workload demands, and not recognizing exceptional performance. To keep good people, organizations need to treat them fairly. It’s as simple as that.
Now let’s look at equity. That really means treating everyone the same way, without regard to background, race, gender, and so forth. That means paying equal salaries for equal roles and giving equal opportunities for training and advancement. When people see that organizations don’t play favorites, they’re more likely to stay.
The result of treating people fairly and equally is that more will stay, regardless of their backgrounds. With objective standards and a fair starting point, organizations can keep and retain a high performing workforce.
The time for DEI has passed. It’s divisive, ineffective, and is receiving critical scrutiny from employers, courts, and legislatures. By contrast, MEI is inherently fair and doesn’t pick winners and losers in advance. The time for MEI is now.
© Dr. Vic all rights reserved.
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