The upcoming change in the presidency has seen a number of companies make changes to long-standing policies, in fields spanning content moderation to DEI policies.
As we reported on Friday, however, Apple is holding firm on its own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, urging shareholders to reject a resolution to abandon them …
Apple’s DEI policies
Apple takes a holistic view of DEI, with just a few examples highlighted below.
Accessibility in product design
Our focus on inclusive design remains a priority — and we’re working to be even more inclusive. Jerremy Holland, Joshua Cohen of Apple University, and Denise Hui of AIML created the Inclusive Products Initiative – an internal knowledge-sharing website and network for anyone at Apple interested in inclusive product design. As part of this initiative, the Inclusion & Diversity team developed a workflow that lets product design teams connect with Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) to review their work.
Access to customer service
SignTime helps deaf and hard-of-hearing people communicate with AppleCare and Retail Customer Care in their web browsers using American Sign Language (ASL) in the United States and Canada, British Sign Language (BSL) in the United Kingdom, and French Sign Language (LSF) in France. In 2023, the service launched in Australia, Japan (where it is known as HandTime), Germany (where it is known as SignChat), Spain, Italy, and Korea. In addition to in-person interpreters, customers visiting Apple Store locations can use SignTime to access a sign language interpreter remotely without booking ahead of time.
Recruitment
For years, Apple employees all over the world have found community through our Diversity Network Associations (DNAs). These member-led groups are designed to inspire a culture of belonging that helps their colleagues feel supported, connected, and empowered […] Brian Rekasis of Global Recruiting Marketing has also seen the benefits of the website. “Our Careers at Apple site is one of the first ways candidates get a sense of Apple’s culture and values, and our DNAs are a huge part of that,” he says.
Supply chain
Our work to make Apple more inclusive extends to the businesses we work with. The Supplier Diversity Program partners with nearly every team within Apple and is dedicated to working with suppliers from historically underrepresented communities to create a more equitable world.
Education
One way we’ve expanded opportunities is by bringing the Apple Developer Academy to downtown Detroit — its first U.S. location — through a partnership with Michigan State University (MSU). The academy reaches nearly 750 participants from the Detroit metropolitan area every year, with both short-term and long-term programs that teach the fundamentals of coding, design, project management, marketing, and iOS app development. The Developer Academy is also committed to helping public high school seniors continue their education by providing them with stipends to attend the academy.
Entertainment
As part of our efforts, we collaborate with creators from around the world, including women’s rights activist and youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, and award-winning storytellers Alfonso Cuarón, Maya Rudolph, and Natalie Portman. We do this because we firmly believe that Apple TV+ is a destination to explore the full spectrum of the human experience. And because we believe in the power of entertainment to bring us closer together, while also helping us gain a better understanding of each other, ourselves, and the world around us.
The anti-DEI shareholder resolution
A resolution filed by the National Center for Public Policy Research claims that Apple’s DEI policies put the company at risk of discrimination lawsuits.
DEI poses litigation, reputational and financial risks to companies, and therefore financial risks to their shareholders, and therefore further risks to companies for not abiding by their fiduciary duties […] Shareholders request that the Company consider abolishing its Inclusion & Diversity program, policies, department and goals.
Apple disagrees, pointing out that its policies represent the opposite of discrimination.
Apple is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, or business strategies. Apple is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, or promoting [and our] approach reflects careful determinations regarding our legal compliance and business practices that require complex analysis, extensive knowledge and understanding of the employment and other laws and regulations in multiple jurisdictions, and analysis, extensive knowledge and understanding of the employment and other laws and regulations in multiple jurisdictions, and judgments as to the appropriate policies, programs, and means of implementation.
In other words, ‘we know a lot more about this stuff than you do.’
DEI is often misunderstood or misrepresented
One of the challenges with DEI policies – especially in the area of recruitment – is that it is very commonly misunderstood, or deliberately misrepresented.
One of the most common myths is that it means employing unqualified candidates, or rejecting better-qualified majority candidates over less-qualified minority ones. Neither is true.
Apple makes it clear that it seeks to hire the best candidates from its recruitment and employment pools. What DEI policies are designed to ensure is that those pools are are large as possible. Without active DEI policies, then historic barriers to minorities will continue to reduce the size of them, and Apple will be missing out on the opportunity to recruit the most able people.
The same is true when it comes to promotion. Apple promotes the best employees, but it wants to ensure that the pool of those seeking promotion includes all of those qualified for the roles.
For example, when statistics reveal that certain ethnic minorities don’t have access to the same educational opportunities as others, then Apple initiatives like its developer academies can ensure that they have the same chance to learn and to prove themselves as everyone else. That increases the number of qualified candidates available to Apple.
Similarly, when HR monitoring shows that fewer qualified women put themselves forward for promotion opportunities, then internal programs to boost self-confidence can make sure that Apple is actually able to promote the best people.
DEI policies make money
There are those who don’t fall for the DEI myths, but still think that Apple should just make hard-nosed decisions to make as much money as possible.
Leaving aside that Apple doesn’t think like this – and CEO Tim Cook has told people with that attitude to “get out of this stock” – there is plenty of evidence that DEI policies are profitable. For example, a large-scale McKinsey study showed that the most diverse companies are also the most profitable, and concluded that this is not coincidence.
This report shows not only that the business case remains robust, but also that the relationship between diversity on executive teams and the likelihood of financial outperformance is now even stronger than before. These findings are underpinned by our largest data set to date, encompassing 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies […]
Our 2019 analysis finds that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to experience above-average profitability than peer companies in the fourth quartile. This is up from 21 percent in 2017 and 15 percent in 2014 […]
In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity, the findings are equally compelling. We found that companies in the top quartile outperformed those in the fourth by 36 percent in terms of profitability in 2019, slightly up from 33 percent in 2017 and 35 percent in 2014. And, as we have previously found, there continues to be a higher likelihood of outperformance difference with ethnicity than with gender.
A Boston Consulting Group study found that diversity was especially important when it comes to innovation.
Companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity.
None of this should be surprising. Global companies have incredibly diverse markets, and the more your workforce reflects this fact, the better able you’ll be to come up with products which appeal to the broadest possible demographics, and ensure they are accessible to the greatest number of people.
Apple has always said that you do what you think is right, and the money will follow. Given that the shareholder resolution says that Apple’s DEI policies go further than anyone else’s, and it’s the most profitable company in the world, you might imagine they would be able to do the math.
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