European companies' diversity policies under US pressure

GSK, British and listed, dropped its diversity targets for leadership and suppliers in early 2025, citing the US presidential executive orders and the United States as its largest market. The bill came in November 2025: in the European Diversity Leaders ranking compiled by the Financial Times and Statista, the company fell from 7th to 224th place, because its own staff had lost faith in the company’s commitment. The ranking rests on what employees themselves say: more than 100,000 employees in 16 countries gave over 300,000 ratings, leaving 800 companies out of the more than 13,000 assessed. Drop the words, and the first feedback comes from inside.

NEOMA Business School in France studied how European organisations are responding to the pressure. Under the supervision of Jean-Baptiste Suquet, students conducted 32 interviews, averaging forty minutes, with DEI leads and HR professionals, mostly French, across a range of sectors and company sizes. Five strategies emerge, each occurring about equally often: scaling back the policy, containing informal resistance through dialogue, quietly cutting support and budget, persevering through awareness and training, or strengthening the policy against the tide. The backlash in Europe is milder than in the US, the authors write, thanks to the legal framework, but legal protection alone does not stop key stakeholders from quietly disengaging. They see the backlash partly as disappointment at high expectations that were not met.

In August 2026 HRD lists the examples outside the US. Lego removed diversity terminology from its sustainability report; British employers are reviewing their approach. In March 2025 three EU member states, including France, refused the US demand that government suppliers declare compliance with the anti-DEI executive orders, because it conflicts with European law on equal treatment. The US figures show what is at stake: the number of Fortune 500 companies disclosing their diversity policy fell by 65 per cent in 2026, and one in five US companies scrapped its programme after the election.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, is moving the other way, at least in the Dutch House of Representatives. The DENK party reintroduced the bill on supervising equal opportunities in recruitment and selection, after the Dutch Senate rejected an earlier version in March 2024. Employers and intermediaries with 25 or more employees would have to use a method that makes selection objective, set down in writing from 50 employees, with the Netherlands Labour Authority as supervisor. The Council of State, the government’s chief advisory body, issued its advice on 29 April 2026 and agrees that an effective approach to unequal treatment in recruitment is important; its full verdict on necessity and feasibility could not be viewed.

How solid is this? The evidence consists of individual cases (GSK, Lego), one qualitative study with 32 interviews and US percentages. A European survey measuring how many companies are scaling back their policy is missing, and Dutch legislation is moving in the opposite direction. The breadth and a series of figures are not there yet.