By Shane Nelson
Bloomberg Businessweek posted the article “Deloitte Thinks Diversity Groups Are Passé” on July 19 about Deloitte’s plans to do away with its “employee affinity groups.” My first thought was, were they referring to the firm’s business resource groups (BRG)? That was confirmed as I read on and the article mentioned that the firm will end its women BRG, known as the Women Initiatives (WIN). My second thought was that this is a huge mistake. I sought to understand the rationale so I read on and finished the article.
Deloitte’s rationale for doing away with business resource groups is that it wants to get a broader buy-in, specifically from white males. The firm will move to set up “Inclusion councils,” which will include a mixture of people to tackle diversity issues. The firm’s managing principal for inclusion, Deepa Purushothaman, explains, “By having everyone in the room, you get more allies, advocates and sponsors. A lot of our leaders are still older white men, and they need to be part of the conversation and advocate for women. But they’re not going to do that as much if they don’t hear the stories and understand what that means.”
