McDonald’s, one of the largest corporations in the United States, has decided to adjust its focus towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. The company announced that it will no longer set specific diversity goals for its suppliers and will suspend participation in external surveys measuring corporate diversity. Additionally, the company will rename its diversity team, which will now be known as the “Global Inclusion Team.”
“This name change better reflects McDonald’s values of inclusion and aligns the team’s work with our global vision,” the company explained in an official statement.
Is McDonald’s changing its DEI practices?
While these adjustments may be interpreted as a step back, McDonald’s has emphasized that it remains committed to inclusion in its operations. The company stated that it will continue to work with its suppliers to foster inclusive practices and will maintain affinity networks for franchisees and business groups.
“Our position and commitment to inclusion are unwavering,” McDonald’s assured, highlighting that its success as a business is grounded in its people.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action has prompted many corporations, including McDonald’s, to reevaluate their DEI commitments. Additionally, legal pressures and reactions from certain conservative groups have influenced this decision.
ALSO READ: McDonald’s launches McValue platform with incredible offers! We tell you
Brands adjusting their DEI practices
McDonald’s is not alone in this movement adjusting their DEI practices. Major companies like Walmart, Ford, and John Deere have also adjusted their diversity initiatives, opting for strategies they consider more sustainable in the face of current social and economic changes.
It is worth noting that these changes among brands come in the context of the impending second term of Donald Trump as President of the United States. The upcoming president has been critical of some of these practices.
Despite the adjustments, McDonald’s has achieved significant milestones in recent years. In 2024, 30% of the company’s leaders in the United States came from underrepresented groups, and 78% of employees rated inclusion at the company positively. Additionally, 25% of its supply chain spending was directed to diverse-owned suppliers.
However, McDonald’s acknowledged that these achievements are not enough. “We are immensely proud of these advances, but we are not satisfied,” the company stated.
McDonald’s case reflects a broader trend among major corporations. While some observers perceive these measures as setbacks, other experts argue that DEI is not disappearing but evolving.
For example, Costco has reaffirmed the benefits of its DEI policies, highlighting how they have enhanced creativity in product offerings and helped retain diverse employees.
Anti-DEI activists have pressured companies like McDonald’s to reconsider their policies, arguing that they do not align with the expectations of certain consumer groups. However, the criticism has also sparked debates about the role of corporations in promoting social justice.
Is this the end of DEI initiatives in large corporations?
The future of DEI is uncertain, but experts agree that these practices will continue to evolve to adapt to a changing business and legal environment. Meanwhile, McDonald’s and other companies must find a balance between market demands and their commitment to inclusion.
Official McDonald’s statement on inclusion and DEI practices
As we start the New Year and set our ambitions for McDonald’s, we want to also update you on our accomplishments embedding inclusion throughout our system and highlight a few important changes to our approach.
“Inclusion” is one of our core values and in 2024 “we opened our doors” to hundreds of millions of customers and two million crew people from all walks of life. Everyone is welcome under our Golden Arches, and this broad-based appeal is why McDonald’s is one of the world’s most beloved brands. We’re proud of our culture at McDonald’s, and we want to thank all of you for living our values.
Our success has come through purposeful actions that have supported inclusion throughout our system. As we close out 2024, we want to highlight a few of our accomplishments that touch all three legs of the stool at McDonald’s:
- Employees – We achieved strong leadership diversity with over 30% of our U.S. leaders from underrepresented groups. On pay equity, we achieved gender pay equity at all levels and in every market as you can see in our 2024 Purpose and Impact Report. The most recent employee Pulse Survey also highlighted that, 84% of employees feel that ‘McDonald’s is an environment that allows me to be myself’ and 78% of employees scored McDonald’s positively on our Inclusion Index overall.
- Suppliers – We met our supplier diversity U.S. systemwide aspirational spend goal of 25% of diverse-owned supplier spend by the end of 2025, three years ahead of schedule.
- Franchisees – We recruited the largest Registered Applicant (RA) pipeline in recent years, including the largest number of RAs from underrepresented groups in our history. In the U.S. we have made meaningful progress addressing cashflow gaps across our franchisee groups.
We are immensely proud of these accomplishments, but we are not satisfied. Our commitment to inclusion requires ongoing focus, and following these successes the SLT has reflected on how best to continue our efforts.
Last year, we completed a comprehensive Civil Rights Audit (CRA) that looked at all aspects of inclusion across our system. We also engaged with shareholders to understand their expectations and assessed the overall landscape of shareholder proposals. Following the Supreme Court ruling in STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, we also assessed the shifting legal landscape to anticipate how this ruling may impact corporations such as McDonald’s. And finally, we benchmarked our approach to other companies who are also re-evaluating their own programs.
Based on this comprehensive review, we are affirming the following:
McDonald’s position and our commitment to inclusion is steadfast. Since our founding, we’ve prided ourselves on understanding that the foundation of our business is people. As Fred Turner said, “We’re a people business, and never forget it.”
Our success is a direct result of the work our collective system has done to become the world’s community restaurant. We are shaped by the communities we serve and open our doors to everyone. Whether it’s recruiting restaurant team members directly from the communities in which we operate or creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs and growing a robust and innovative supply chain, our system leverages inclusion to operate successfully and grow our businesses.
We take great pride in the programs we have in place to drive our business and support the three legs of the stool. This includes our internal focus on efforts that support building a diverse employee, Registered Applicant and supplier pipeline and taking seriously our commitment to pay equity to ensure we can retain world-class talent.
Our business model relies on franchisees supporting their communities. Part of our commitment includes empowering them to champion causes and participate in activities that resonate with their customers and communities in a way that’s true to our Brand’s DNA. We also lean on employee business networks and franchisee affinity groups to help us solve business problems. This important work will continue and McDonald’s leaders will continue to be held accountable for fostering an inclusive environment within their teams.
Additionally, McDonald’s will continue to transparently report our demographic information in our annual Purpose & Impact report with respect to the Board, employees and suppliers.
We are also excited to introduce a new concept: the power of OUR “Golden Rule” – treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always. For the last several months, a small team has been working on refining our language to better capture McDonald’s commitment to inclusion.
As part of this, there are four guiding principles we will apply to evaluate our work: (1) Our system thrives when we are shaped by the communities in which we operate, (2) Our early and full adoption of inclusion gives us a competitive advantage, (3) Individuals perform their best when they feel they belong, and (4) Our priority is to be a responsible business, acting lawfully and being responsive to the business environment.
At the same time, following our comprehensive review, we also identified a few practices that we plan to modify. Specifically:
- We are retiring setting aspirational representation goals and instead keeping our focus on continuing to embed inclusion practices that grow our business into our everyday process and operations.
- We are pausing external surveys to focus on the work we are doing internally to grow the business.
- We are retiring Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance.
- We are evolving how we refer to our diversity team, which will now be the Global Inclusion Team. This name change is more fitting for McDonald’s in light of our inclusion value and better aligns with this team’s work.
We are proud of the work that we do at McDonald’s. We will continue to drive business results through all three legs of the McDonald’s stool, specifically with our people practices, by fueling economic impact and innovation through our robust supply chain and by building a franchisee pipeline that thrives in the communities we serve and fuels our growth.
It takes all of us to continue to create an environment where we can all be successful. Thank you for your dedication to making McDonald’s a place where everyone feels welcome and included.
Chris Kempczinski
Chairman and CEO
