2025 Chief Diversity Officer Priorities & Predictions

The reelection of former U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked questions regarding the future of various policies, including immigration, taxes, reproductive rights, and healthcare. However, Chief Diversity Officers are particularly concerned about how it will affect one key issue: the future of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Seventy percent (70%) of these CDOs perceive the global effect of the U.S. Presidential election as a threat to their organization’s ability to execute their strategy in 2025. Yet, despite this and the pushback driven by a relatively small outlier group of activists and exaggerated by media hype, CDOs are nevertheless actively addressing the issue.

From strategies such as increasing communications about DE&I’s impact on the business, to ensuring greater organizational alignment, including evaluating and mitigating any perceived risk for new initiatives, members of i4cp’s Chief Diversity Officer Board say the work continues and is—in many cases—expanding in scope. Moderating internal disruption related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is one example where CDOs have been tapped heavily to help with messaging and setting the tone for their organization’s public responses.

Anticipated DE&I budgets also reflect this—57% of i4cp’s CDO Board members anticipate no change to their 2025 budgets, while 29% expect “some” to “significant” budget increases, and only 10% anticipate a slight decrease (5% said it’s too soon to tell).

Also, while 24% of DE&I leaders cited addressing DE&I pushback both internally and externally as a priority, none reported that their organizations are cutting or deemphasizing any existing programs or ERG/BRG groups. Several, however, are restructuring some ERG/ BRG groups, broadening diversity definitions, and increasing emphasis on the data provided to the organization.

These leaders also report increased bias auditing of various HR functions, additional focus on both internal and external accessibility programs, creating more allyship/mentoring opportunities, along with rolling out programs to address workplace divisiveness. Evaluating alignment to the organization’s mission and values of various external partnerships is also an evergreen focus. 

“ Belonging shouldn’t just be rhetoric—it’s about shaping your culture. Identify your key indicators and tie them to strategy and outcomes. Then, communicate about it in a way that is simple, actionable, and where everyone understands their role. For our company, belonging means creating an environment where employees are encouraged to speak up, valued for their diverse perspectives, supported in their daily work, and aligned with our mission and values."

Agartha Larbi, VP Global Corporate Responsibility, Northrop Grumman

Priorities

Strengthening DE&I strategies to ensure alignment with organizational goals—nearly one-half (48%) of i4cp’s CDO Board members are prioritizing the integration of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into the fundamental business strategy to help foster better workplace culture, drive innovation, enhance employee experience, and boost business performance.

Consistent alignment with organizational goals, supported by metrics and accountability systems, will keep DE&I relevant and impactful. Of note: 43% of CDOs said that communicating the function’s strategic value to the organization remains a challenge— though few see internal resistance to DE&I and additional risk mitigation as an issue. Other challenges include collaborating with other functions on priority issues, upskilling DE&I function team members, and the need for technology upgrades.

Promoting and embedding inclusive leadership practices and habits—organizational culture flows from the top down; instilling and expecting inclusive behaviors from leaders is tantamount to fostering a healthy culture. Inclusion and belonging is one of the top five metrics for determining culture health, and low-performance organizations are 2x as likely as high-performance organizations to view it as a challenge—with similar finding related to trust within organizations. Shoring up the inclusiveness of their organization’s cultures and working to expand access to diversity offerings and allyship opportunities is a prime area for DE&I practitioners to help ensure a future-ready culture with diverse networks that foster both diversity and a greater sense of community and belonging. 

Building cultures that support inclusion, belonging, and psychological safety—tensions and divisiveness stemming from global political instability, tumultuous elections—especially in the U.S.—and activism focused on DE&I call for organizational cultures that foster civility and encourage respectful dialogue. Healthy cultures may start from the top, but inclusion and trust occur in the day-to-day with interactions within and among teams. Ensuring that all voices are heard within the boundaries of respectful workplace conduct is a message that needs continuous reinforcement and modeling.

“ These are challenging times as organizations grapple with the backlash against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) and with navigating the complexities of identity politics that are polarizing our societies and organizations. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we figure out a way to focus our energy, stay the course, and have an impact by partnering across the organization and considering ways to leverage DE&I to demonstrate its impact on business outcomes."

Rohini Anand, PhD Author and Chair of i4cp's Chief Diversity Officer Board, former SVP Corporate Responsibility and Global Chief Diversity Officer, Sodexo

Retaining and attracting diverse talent enterprise wide—this will require a culture of inclusion, growth, and opportunity that supports employees from all backgrounds. Efforts to this end include career development, clear pathways for advancement, nurturing inclusive leadership behaviors, sponsorship, and prioritizing psychological safety. Without these factors in place, i4cp research shows that diverse top talent will seek opportunities elsewhere.

Embedding DE&I practices and considerations into work processes—staying on course and maintaining focus on existing goals and perennial concerns such as broadening talent pipelines, retention of diverse talent, and weaving DE&I considerations into business processes. This will require strong partnership with the CHRO and other HR functional heads to ensure talent/leader selection, development, promotion, and rewards programs and decisions are reinforcing of these.

Chief Diversity Officer Predictions

• DE&I pressure will intensify in 2025—as a direct result of external activists over the last two years, several companies decided to scale back their visible support for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. With a new administration taking office in the U.S. in 2025, and with at least one prominent activist joining this administration, this pushback is likely to intensify. Despite this, most of the champions of DE&I in i4cp membership remain committed, and expect budgets to stay the same or increase (only 10% expect a decrease).
   
• Political and societal pressure related to DE&I will continue to be major drivers of changes within the function, however, there will also be increased emphasis on inclusion and belonging as drivers of culture health and engagement, as well as broadening of the scope of what comprises diversity to include socioeconomic background, degree attainment, neurodiversity, career stage, etc. Greater attention to existing diversity purviews such as disability accommodation, multi-generational worker needs, and military veterans is another probable outcome. i4cp’s CDO Board members acknowledge that increased scrutiny will require greater rigor in communication and data collection about how DE&I drives business and employee outcomes to their specific business and stakeholder groups.
   
• DE&I leaders expect AI to play a significant role in the advancement of DE&I objectives—the majority (52%) of DE&I leaders view AI adoption as “very” or “somewhat” important to achieving their functional objectives. But most (65%) view their organizations as only “somewhat prepared” for an AI-enabled future of work. Expect to see DE&I leaders prioritize their function’s own learning and utilization of AI in 2025.
   
• DE&I vendor offering selection will be impacted by the current climate—this will reward those who can contribute to and communicate the impact of their solutions or services on both business and employee outcomes. This trend could likely hamper experimentation in the DE&I space in the near-term, with more innovative new practices and products finding test markets among those with established organizational buy-in and less risk-averse cultures. 

To read the rest of the predictions from i4cp's other boards, download i4cp's 2025 Priorities & Predictions.