Diversity efforts in business have become a lightning rod. Photo from Getty Images.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Among the Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s 50-plus conferences and seminars is a diversity, equity and inclusion summit, now in its fourth year.

The event includes the crowning of a DEI “champion,” sponsored by a national employer-focused law firm.

“I think that the chamber can play an important role as a convener,” Chamber President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders told the Capital Chronicle.

“This conference is another example of us trying to convene stakeholders … around an issue that people care about, to try to move the state forward,” she said. “And people can have different views on that, right? There’s a diversity of views.”

DEI efforts became widespread after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd and subsequent, nationwide protests.

The initiatives are intended to promote the fair treatment of all people, and, in particular, those who’ve previously faced discrimination or barriers. But backlash has grown, with opponents labeling the initiatives as ineffective or pejoratively “woke.”

DEI efforts remain popular with some prominent members of the Hoosier business community even as companies elsewhere back away from what has become a culture war flashpoint.

Agricultural machinery firm John Deere, based in Illinois, announced last Tuesday that it would eliminate “socially motivated messages” from company-mandated materials and would no longer participate in “external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals, or events.”

It also assured customers that “diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been … company policy,” but said it would still “continue to track and advance” company diversity.

Washington-based technology giant Microsoft laid off a DEI team this month, Business Insider reported last week, with the team’s ex-lead blasting the company in an internal email to thousands. Microsoft, however, maintained that its DEI commitments “remain unchanged.”

Video communications platform Zoom, headquartered in California, also cut a DEI-focused team early in 2024 but similarly said it “remains committed” to DEI principles, Bloomberg reported.

Hoosier businesses, however, are still interested in the initiatives.

“We have a whole part of the chamber that’s focused on business education for our members,” Sinders noted. “And we are a membership organization, so we are responding to the needs and the desires of our members.”

“Our members tell us (that) attracting, retaining, training (and) supporting our workforce is everything,” Sinders said. “… I think that having a diverse workforce and thinking through these issues is something that they care a lot about.”

Sinders said that, through the summit, the chamber provides “best practices and resources and speakers to help our members navigate through all of this.”

She said such efforts align with the chamber’s goals.

“Our mission is to cultivate and maintain that world-class environment for businesses to operate and contribute to that economic growth and prosperity for the state,” Sinders said. “We stay focused as much as possible around economic policies that are helping cultivate and maintain that world-class environment. And we’re going to continue to approach all issues with that lens.”

Individual businesses continue to work on their commitments.

Homegrown pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly & Co. runs numerous DEI initiatives, including a professional apprenticeship program to train qualified employees without four-year degrees.

The company also researches barriers and opportunities for female and disabled employees, runs company-wide training sessions and offers a variety of employee resource groups, among other efforts.

Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer Julie Dunlap called DEI “essential for fulfilling our purpose of creating medicines that make life better for people around the world.”

In a statement, Dunlap said the company’s initiatives have helped it attract and retain “the best talent,” and better serve customers.

“Therefore, it is not only the right thing to do but also a business imperative for Lilly,” she said.

“We remain committed to embedding DEI across all levels and aspects of our organization, from our leadership and governance to our policies and practices, and our culture and behaviors,” Dunlap concluded.