Diversity goals ADE: How German corporations deal with the US diversity policy

The SAP software giant bends the new US policy under President Donald Trump and will no longer promote the proportion of women in the group in the future. Trump and his government have been leading a campaign against the programs that are known as the abbreviation Dei (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) for months. This is supposed to promote disadvantaged groups of people – but the President believes that the competence suffers.

Another case is now becoming known with SAP, in which a German company with a large US business is accompanied by the new course in the United States. How do other corporations deal with the new regulations in Germany?

The US business is by far the most important thing for Deutsche Telekom: the Bonn group recently made two thirds of the total sales with the daughter T-Mobile US. Due to the new US regulations, this had to make “smaller adjustments”, for example in the supplier selection process, a group spokesman said. At the same time, it was said: “T-Mobile US is characterized by the fact that your employees and suppliers bring in a variety of skills and backgrounds”.

At the beginning of April it became known that T-Mobile US largely gave up their DEI initiatives. In a letter to the US regulatory authority FCC, it was said that specific goals should be rejected. The day after the letter, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the takeover of the cable network operator Lumos.

The Munich Siemens Group does not want to comment on whether the US government has already threatened with sanctions if the company’s own inclusion programs are not reduced or hired. However, there is currently “no need to change our efforts in terms of diverse teams and an inclusive work environment based on the current developments,” says request.

The group operates 22 production sites in the USA and, including the daughters Siemens Mobility and Siemens Healthineers, employs 48,000 people. The United States are Siemens’ largest market: In the financial year 2024, the group redeemed 20.0 billion euros there.

The Persil and Schwarzkopf manufacturer has so far not been contacted by the US government. “We observe the development in the United States and are in regular exchange with our US colleagues.” In North America, Henkel has around 8,000 employees, many of them in production. Overall, the group in the USA and Canada has more than 50 locations. In 2024, Henkel generated sales of around 6 billion euros in North America in North America – the essential part in the USA.

The car manufacturer wants to act carefully and do not follow any “short -term trends”. “In the United States in particular, we are currently observing the situation particularly attentively and bring our guidelines and measures in line with the new US law,” says request. Last year, BMW achieved 16.3 percent of the total vehicle sentence in the United States. The work in Spartanburg (South Carolina) is the largest location in the USA with around 11,000 employees.

The pharmaceutical and agricultural group Bayer has so far not received an official letter with the request to stop the internal diversity programs. “We watch them very carefully to evaluate the extent to which they could affect our business there,” it says. The United States are the largest and most important market for Bayer. The group achieved more than 30 percent of total sales last year.

SAP dodges diversity topics

Previously, it became known that SAP would give up its targeted women’s quota of 40 percent in the workforce. Due to the latest legal developments, your own initiatives would have to be adapted to diversity and inclusion in order to be in accordance with the law, according to an internal email that is available to the German Press Agency. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported. In addition to the abolition of the overall women’s quota in the group, women at SAP will no longer be specifically encouraged in management positions at SAP at certain levels.

On “Handelsblatt” request, SAP confirmed that there is a change in the criteria for the board remuneration. As the internal mail continues, the diversity and inclusion starting point and the “Corporate Social Responsibility” area – an area that stands for social responsibility are also merged.