Salesforce Has Halted Its Diversity Targets: What Does This Mean?

It has been reported that Salesforce has dropped diversity hiring targets from its most recent annual financial disclosures. This comes as a result of executive orders surrounding the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as issued by the current Trump administration.

This comes as a shock to many in the ecosystem, especially as Salesforce has always emphasized their significant strides to ensure a diverse workforce, but the cloud giant is determined to reassure all of their true intentions in this space. 

What Has Happened?

Last week, Business Insider reported that Salesforce had dropped diversity hiring targets from its most recent annual financial disclosures and that the company had also removed references to diversity and inclusion as core company values. 

This rollback is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s executive orders put in place in January, which instructed that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government and its contractors were stopped. 

Salesforce has also ensured that any explicit language detailing diversity and inclusion as core company values is omitted, with a focus solely being put on equality. 

This move from the cloud giant means that Salesforce has now joined the likes of Amazon, Google, and Meta in the cuts to DEI programs. 

Community Response

Quite understandably, a proportion of the ecosystem has already voiced their concerns on this news, with some even stating that this move shows Salesforce’s true colors. 

One commenter on Reddit said: “Oh wow, so Salesforce was a disingenuous corporation that was touting social responsibility efforts only for clout? Who could have seen this coming?” 

Another went on to say that this move could very well signal the “end of Ohana” – Salesforce’s community-centered philosophy of collaboration, inclusivity, and support, inspired by the Hawaiian concept of family.

Additionally, some members of the ecosystem expressed their frustration at the matter in juxtaposition with the air of positivity that surrounded Salesforce’s inclusivity efforts at last week’s developer conference, TrailblazerDX. 

“Ironically, the article was published during the True to the Core session, which was from 2:30 pm-3:30 pm Pacific. In that session, someone got on the mic to thank Parker and all the Salesforce folks on stage for sticking to their DEI guns,” another commenter said. 

“If I remember correctly, there were cheers and acceptance of the praise… all at the exact moment the world was learning that the DEI was going away.”

However, one of the top comments on that same thread highlights something important: Salesforce contracts for the US government, so they are mandated to follow the executive order, citing the Business Insider article and wider discussion as “misleading”.

A Shift in Standards

Despite these notable changes, Salesforce have been eager to set the record straight on the matter, insisting that they “remain committed to [their] core value of equality.” 

In the same vein, they have also emphasized that their commitment to equality is “firmly rooted in compliance with federal law and other applicable laws” that allow them to operate this way.

Leah McGowen-Hare, Salesforce’s SVP of the Trailblazer Community, has always been vocal about Salesforce’s DEI efforts, and last week told Salesforce Ben that Salesforce hadn’t given up on this important area.

“If it wasn’t [the case], I wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” she said. 

“Our CEO has said – and I don’t need a CEO to tell me this – but equality is still part of our core values,” she said. 

“Now we know some people only did it for the metric, right? But that’s not what’s going to drive our value of equality and standing true to that.”

Insisting that there had been no erasure of this from Salesforce’s narrative, Leah said she looks forward to exploring different ways to bring forward not only underrepresented communities like they had been doing for years but also those that are and will be displaced by AI jobs.

“How do you show up in the world? How do you work to bring people along? How do you meet people where they are?” she asked. “That’s not in a DEI metric. That’s a core value that we hold whether I have a metric or not.”

It must be noted that Salesforce’s biggest inclusion groups, including Abilityforce, BOLDforce, Genforce, and Indigenousforce remain as strong as ever and can be explored more on Salesforce’s Equality Groups page. 

“It is our fourth core value, and it will continue to be. So I’m proud to work at a company that still holds that as a core value, especially when it’s being attacked.”

Final Thoughts

Salesforce has – in response to the Trump administration’s executive orders – changed the way they approach DEI initiatives. This is a legal and regulatory change that members of the federal government and their contracted companies have to abide by. 

However, Salesforce insists that they remain as dedicated as ever to these efforts, even if it looks slightly different on paper.