Accenture ditches DEI

Consulting giant Accenture is scrapping its DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hiring strategy and ending career development programs for “people of specific demographic groups,” according to a memo from CEO Julie Sweet.

This makes Accenture the latest large company to ditch their DEI goals following a series of executive orders from US President Donald Trump that cut DEI programs within the federal government - and which also seek to end the programs in any companies that do business with the federal government.

Registered in Ireland for tax purposes, Accenture is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and much of its global revenue comes from contracts in the US. 

“We are and always have been a meritocracy,” said Sweet in the memo, referring to the idea that the company hires based on experience, skill, and potential.

“We are and always have been committed to an inclusive, merit-based workplace free from bias, and a culture in which all our people are respected and have equal opportunity.”

The crux of the criticism of DEI hiring is that it can amount to a "box-checking exercise," with companies hiring more people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations solely for the purpose of meeting quotas. Trump has called DEI programs “absolute nonsense” and “discriminatory.”

Despite canning the programs, Sweet simultaneously pointed to their success, noting in the memo that the firm has largely achieved its diversity targets, with a 30% ratio of female managing directors. The firm was also recently awarded a perfect score by The Human Rights Campaign for being a leader in “LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion.”

These changes also come despite Accenture reaffirming its “unwavering” commitment to DEI as recently as October of last year. Some of those goals included hiring more employees of certain races, like African American, Hispanic, and Indian.

Federal contracts

The move does not exactly come as a surprise, considering the large amount of fees consulting firms such as Accenture garner from federal contracts.

The rationale for ditching DEI is that if Accenture continued with its DEI programs, it could face a vengeful Trump administration cancelling all of these contracts. The Trump administration has laid a legal minefield that any firm with federal contracts will need to cautiously navigate.

Accenture Federal Services (AFS) is a subsidiary of Accenture established specifically to offer consulting services to the US federal government. AFS holds numerous contracts with the US government across various departments and agencies.

Last year AFS signed a $250 million contract with the US Department of the Interior for an IT project and a $1.6 billion contract to enhance the US Air Force, to give just two examples. And 2025 has already started with a bang for AFS, with a $3.5 billion contract signed with the Department of Energy to provide IT services.

One Reddit user on the subreddit for employees of Accenture put it bluntly: “You can see the way the wind is blowing. It’s just a matter of time until federal contracts with any company engaged in DEI are cancelled. It’s about money.”

CEO holds a "town hall"

CEO Julie Sweet was said to have held a "town hall" meeting within the past several days, though it was not a public event. In this town hall it appears that she clarified what the coming changes will entail and took questions from employees.

Perhaps Reddit is often used for venting and complaining, but if the general sentiment in the Accenture subreddit is at all indicative of the wider atmosphere in the firm’s offices, there is a lot of frustration and bitterness. Posts and comments there have been overwhelmingly critical.

“I asked if this decision is going to be reversed in four years but they didn’t read my question. Weird...” was one comment in a post about the town hall.

Another chimed in: “They didn’t answer any of my questions either! This is a terrible company.” Still another lamented: “A whole lot of nothing and empty buzzwords.”

Pivot to "meritocracy"

There had already been a shift occurring in the consulting world: A shift away from a perceived ‘elitism’ towards ‘meritocracy’, in which employees are recruited based on their skills and potential, not on their degree or connections.

This trend in hiring appeared to be an attempt to address criticism of top consultancies hiring based on connections, alma mater, or socio-economic background. But Julie Sweet has now pushed the meritocracy discourse in a new way: Attempting to turn a negative (trashing diversity and inclusion) into a positive (hiring based on merit), despite DEI having nothing to do with elitism.

Donald Trump and other Republicans have been pushing this anti-elitism discourse for years. Trump has used the term "elite" as an insult to disparage the Democratic Party and other "establishment" organizations, like mainstream media outlets. This rhetoric arrives alongside Trump, a Manhattan real estate baron, teaming up with elite billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and others

As the tide shifts in the US and DEI is politically deprecated, the consulting world is likely to follow suit. So-called "woke" policies began gaining ground in the wake of anti-racism protests in 2020 when many companies felt huge pressure to enact DEI programs. Many firms will now likely reverse course to fall in line with the current political climate.