ACCENTURE, A MULTINATIONAL company that employs thousands of people in Ireland, is ending programmes that try to support equality and diversity in its workforce in the wake of anti-inclusion policy orders issued by US President Donald Trump.

The global company, which has its headquarters in Dublin, is reacting to executive orders signed by Trump in the first weeks of his presidency that are trying to quash any measures designed to help put people from groups that usually face structural barriers, discrimination or disadvantages on an even playing field.

In an email to staff seen by The Journal, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said she was writing to share updates about inclusion and diversity after an evaluation the company’s internal policies and practices in the context of “the evolving landscape in the United States, including recent executive orders with which we must comply”.

Accenture staff were informed that the company is ending several initiatives that had previously been in place to try to help put people from groups that usually face structural barriers or disadvantages on an even playing field.

It is abandoning global employee representation goals that set targets for representation in areas like gender and race.

For instance, in the UK, in 2020, only 4% of Accenture’s staff members were Black; it was aiming to increase this to 7% by 2025. Another target for 2025 was for 30% of the company’s managing directors to be women.

Additionally, Accenture is ending career development programmes that were offered to people of specific demographic groups.

It is also freezing submissions to external surveys about diversity.

“We are and always have been a meritocracy. 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, feel a sense of belonging and have equal opportunity,” Sweet told said to staff in the company-wide email.

“We have always believed that attracting, hiring and developing people who have different backgrounds, different perspectives and different experiences are essential to driving innovation and serving global companies across multiple industries. This talent strategy has been and continues to be fundamental to our goal to be the most innovative company in our industry and to our success, as demonstrated by our results,” she said.

“We will make the updates noted above and continue to refresh our talent strategy by evaluating our policies and practices to ensure they support our business strategy, are effective, inclusive, fit the needs of all our people, comply with applicable laws globally, and address the continually evolving landscape.”

Accenture declined to provide a comment to The Journal.

The company, which specialises in consultancy and IT services, employs more than 700,000 people globally.

In 2023, it announced redundancies in Ireland that involved cutting 890 jobs from its Irish workforce, which stood at 6,500 at that time.

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Trump’s orders

Trump’s attacks on inclusion measures in workplaces has caused significant concern among many observers who see his orders as a tactic to sow division and play to his far-right supporters.  

In the US state of Maryland, a lawsuit has been filed by a coalition of groups suing Trump and his administration over his anti-diversity orders.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the mayor and city council of Baltimore along with three groups (the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United), is asking a federal court to declare Trump’s orders targeting diversity measures to be unlaw and unconstitutional. 

It argues that the orders went beyond authority of a US president under the country’s constitution.

“In the United States, there is no king,” the lawsuit says.

A former US Secretary of Labour, Robert Reich, wrote in The Guardian last month that the US is facing the “forces of Trumpian repression and neofascism”.