Diversity efforts have dominated the national conversation in the last six months as sweeping policy changes by the Trump administration reverberated through the private and non-profit sectors.
Yet, for HR professionals, the issue is more than just sound bites and headlines. Many must confront it daily.
To better understand the current environment, HRCI surveyed hundreds of HR professionals worldwide to find out how organizations are addressing diversity and how HR professionals feel. What the survey found was widespread support for diversity initiatives—and great concern as well.
The survey is part of a new whitepaper called HR Weighs In: Diversity in 2025, which offers detailed information on important questions in HR, including what companies and non-profits are doing, who is helped and who is hurt, how strategies are being adjusted, and what HR professionals think about what they see. It also contains case studies, suggestions, and a full discussion of how companies can assess and adapt their efforts.
“To navigate these challenges, leaders need to get deeply in touch with their company values, and not just within the C-suite,” said Dr. Amy Dufrane, CEO of HRCI. “They have to understand how employees, customers, and shareholders feel about DEI to proceed with an approach that matches their goals and objectives.”
Want to see full survey results? Download the whitepaper.
The survey made one thing clear: most HR professionals support diversity initiatives and believe they are enhancing the workplace.
Fully 96% said that diversity leads to a better-functioning company and 84% said that diversity, equity and inclusion programs result in more workplace equality. From a personal standpoint, 71% said they support DEI programs, while only 11% said they did not. Another 18% chose not to say whether they support or oppose these initiatives.
Of course, how HR professionals feel is not the only relevant sentiment when it comes to assessing diversity efforts.
“Understanding how employees, customers, and shareholders feel about DEI is essential for making decisions that align with both organizational values and business goals,” Dufrane said.
The survey showed that 91% of respondents consider employees an important factor when making diversity decisions and 51% consider customers to be vital, compared to 42% who cite management, 34% who say it is the bottom line, and 28% who value the opinion of regulators.
Want to learn more about what your company can do? Download the whitepaper.
It is also clear that many HR professionals are worried that the current climate will bring about great change, and not always for the better.
More than half (51%) worry the political climate will require their organization to make changes to diversity efforts and 21%—one in five—said those changes were already taking place. More than one in three (37%) said they worry the current political climate will result in less diversity, while almost two thirds (63%) said they have no such concerns.
Among those who report that their organization is making changes, 69% said they are reevaluating programs; 15% said they are eliminating programs; and 9% said they are freezing funding. Another 15% said they are increasing programs.
Widespread research presents a business case for hiring a diverse workforce (not only in race, but also in gender, age, experience, education, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and geographic location), and HR professionals have had to swiftly adjust policies to remain inclusive while also being sensitive to the new climate.
However, HR experts say that, regardless of administration policies or political trends, antidiscrimination laws remain intact—and American companies and non-profits are required to practice fair hiring.
“Discrimination is never legal,” said Neil Reichenberg, attorney and former executive director of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources.
Longstanding laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and many other factors.
“The conversation over DEI should not be confused with efforts to combat workplace discrimination that has existed for decades,” he said. “Most core protections are not being challenged and organizations have to adhere to those laws. That is very likely to remain the case, regardless of where the [DEI discussion] takes us.”
Dufrane says one way to address diversity programs is to reframe the issue through the prism of values: what is important to vital constituencies like leadership, customers, employees, and investors. Understanding those values can help determine how to act with integrity and make decisions that weigh both business and stakeholder priorities.
“Companies should not be imposing these values, they should be ascertaining these values,” she said. “This then becomes the lens through which DEI initiatives can be properly evaluated. The values drive the programs, not the other way around.”
Dufrane said organizations that uphold values held by important stakeholders can largely avoid negative consequences, while companies that make decisions out of alignment with company values send those stakeholders mixed messages.
“The painful lesson many companies have learned is that values matter,” she said. “When DEI decisions clash with company values, the outcome is almost always problematic.”