Dive Brief:
- Eighty-six percent of financial executives at companies in North America are expanding their budgets for training in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to a survey by OneStream Software.
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Seventy-seven percent of financial executives working in finance and 65% of those working in information technology are investing more in DEI training compared with 52% in other industries, according to the April survey of 340 finance decision makers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
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Eighty-five percent of companies are expanding spending on managing efforts to align business practices with environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, according to the survey.
Dive Insight:
U.S. companies have stepped up support for DEI training and related programs since George Floyd's murder in May 2020.
In October the Business Roundtable, an organization of CEOs at many of the largest U.S. companies, pledged support for corporate and government programs aimed at reducing the economic opportunity gap in communities of color. Roundtable companies generate more than $9 trillion in annual revenues and employ 20 million workers.
The organization’s commitments and recommendations focus on employment, finance, education, health, housing and criminal justice. Its CEOs pledged to regularly review pay equity and provide more information about the racial diversity of company leadership and staff.
Nasdaq in December proposed that it require all companies listed with it to disclose diversity statistics and to either have at least two diverse members on their boards or explain why they have not made such appointments. The Securities and Exchange Commission in March postponed a decision on the proposal.
The OneStream Software survey also found that 89% of financial executives have made plans to change hiring and staffing to adjust to any increase in the federal minimum wage, while 73% believe their companies will return to normal, pre-pandemic growth by the end of 2021.
