What Happened to DEI in Recruiting? New data reveals declining social engagement.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been essential pillars of Recruitment Marketing and employer branding strategy for many years. Practically every employer with a defined employee value proposition (EVP) has a pillar about diversity or at least talks about diversity on their careers site. Yet, while you’re working to represent your employees’ diverse voices and increase representation among your candidate pool, many strong forces – both external and internal – are affecting how you incorporate DEI into the story you tell about your company as an employer.

One of the topics in our recently published “2024 Social Recruiting Strategy Benchmark Report” is the performance of using diversity language in social recruiting content. Our latest data shows that changing attitudes and policies about DEI are impacting engagement with diversity-focused social recruiting content on social media. However, since the report’s dataset went through May 2024, and therefore didn’t include data from Pride Month, we decided to take an up-to-date look at the analytics to see what we could learn about diversity language in social recruiting for the first half of 2024.

In this blog post, I’ll share the latest data showing that the effectiveness of diversity posts varies widely on LinkedIn, and I’ll explain how understanding these nuances can significantly impact the success of your Recruitment Marketing strategy. In addition, I’ll explore the current trends about DEI that are impacting how people (and therefore, candidates) are responding (or not) to diversity content in their social media feeds. Of course, I’ll share valuable charts and graphs, diving into data on the performance of DEI keywords in terms of impressions, engagement and clicks. And finally, I’ll provide actionable recommendations to help you boost the success of your social recruiting efforts while staying true to your company’s DEI position.

By understanding these insights, you’ll be ready to better align your social media strategy with your company’s DEI goals, ensuring that your messaging is both authentic and effective, and that you’re attracting talent who align with your company’s culture and values.

Let’s dive in!

The Impact of DEI Changes on Recruitment Marketing

Keeping it real, social media can be a scary place, with all the trolling, negative comments and outright hate. It’s getting tougher to be authentic on social media without opening ourselves up to backlash. This is not only true for individuals, it’s also true for companies. Disney, Target, Bud Light, Oreo, Nike, Lego, Starbucks, Cracker Barrel and Peloton are all brands that have faced significant backlash in recent years for expressing their support for DEI on social media or in advertising campaigns.

It’s understandable why many practitioners in our community have told me that their C-suites have pulled back from celebrating holidays and cultural events publicly on their social channels, because they’re afraid of offending customers, partners, shareholders and even employees. You’ve seen the news too: the C-suite today is under a lot of pressure to reverse their DEI policies. Last year, according to reporting in the Washington Post, Eli Lilly’s annual shareholders letter referenced the DEI acronym 48 times. This year, “DEI” is nowhere to be found. In March, Starbucks got shareholder approval to replace “representation” goals with “talent” performance for executive bonus incentives. At Molson Coors, the acronym DEI has disappeared altogether.

Another Washington Post article from February reported that companies such as Meta, Tesla, DoorDash, Lyft, Home Depot and Wayfair were among major corporations slashing the size of their DEI teams by 50 percent or more.

In his widely read announcement on LinkedIn last year, Johnny C. Taylor Jr., head of SHRM, talked about how SHRM has shifted their focus from diversity to inclusion, and how he’s switched to using the acronym IED, putting the focus on inclusion. I’m curious — has your organization adopted the term IED instead of DEI?

According to our data, the term “IED” isn’t yet replacing “DEI” in Recruitment Marketing, but it’s something we’ll continue to monitor. For now, Rally Inside users — which represent employers of all industries and companies of all sizes — are still using the term “DEI” when talking about diversity on social media in their company’s organic channel. So let’s look at how the term “DEI” and other diversity-related keywords are performing to attract and engage talent, specifically on LinkedIn.

Social Recruiting Data on Diversity Keywords

Most Used Diversity Keywords on LinkedIn

Since we launched Rally Inside in 2021, we’ve been tracking the The Language of Recruiting™, and we’ve learned that words matter a lot if you want to break through the digital noise and influence a candidate to join your company. When it comes to social recruiting, your word choice can significantly impact the performance of your post, both in terms of the social platform’s algorithms and in terms of candidate engagement.

From January 1, 2024, to July 19, 2024, the most used diversity keywords by Rally Inside users on LinkedIn were:

• diversity
• inclusion
• women

These top-tier keywords reflect a broad focus on general diversity and gender inclusion. The second tier of keywords that frequently appear in employers’ LinkedIn content were:

• history
• Black
• equity
• pride
• equality

The term “DEI” falls in the third tier in terms of frequency, but when it is used, it gets more impressions and clicks than average content. More on this below.

Diversity Keywords – Impressions

Rally Inside data reveals a downward trend in LinkedIn impressions for posts containing diversity keywords. In 2022, words like “diversity” and “equality” were associated with posts receiving 130-183% more impressions than the average post. By 2023, these numbers had halved, and through July 19, 2024, posts with these keywords have been getting below-average impressions. The word “diversity” is now included in posts with 12% below-average impressions — a decline of 117% since 2023.

Interestingly, while “DEI” is not used as often as other diversity words, it continues to perform well in terms of impressions, getting 95% more than average organic corporate LinkedIn content. In addition, “inclusion” and “equity” still perform above average too. This suggests that while general diversity content may be losing their impact, posts with engaging recruiting content that also mentions diversity will resonate with social audiences.

Diversity Keywords – Engagement

When it comes to engagement, the performance of diversity-related posts has been disappointing. In 2024, words like “diversity,” “DEI,” “inclusion,” “equity” and “equality” have all performed significantly below average. This decline in engagement suggests that these posts are not only being seen by fewer people, they’re also not prompting the audience to interact. Notice that the word “DEI” has experienced a 153% decline in engagement since 2023. The word “equality” has dropped by over 500% in engagement!

This trend highlights the importance of not just using diversity keywords but, importantly, creating content that genuinely engages your audience. Posts that feel performative or insincere are likely to fall flat, while those that showcase people stories and commitments to DEI can inspire more meaningful interactions.

Diversity Keywords – Clicks

Despite the overall decline in engagement, posts with diversity keywords generally receive above-average clicks on LinkedIn. This is particularly true for terms like “inclusion” and “DEI,” which see significantly higher click rates. The word “DEI” received 174% more clicks than the average organic company post from January 1 – July 19, 2024. The discrepancy compared to the engagement rate suggests that while these posts may not generate a lot of likes or comments, if used correctly they can encourage people to learn more about an employer by clicking through to additional content.

Our data shows that this positive click through rate is largely due to Rally Inside users knowing how to create people-focused diversity content that drives candidates to continue the candidate journey. Including links to employee stories or DEI initiatives can turn a passive scroll into an active interest.

Social Recruiting Data on Identification Keywords

Identification Keywords – Impressions

We also track a group of diversity-related keywords which we call identification keywords. Words like “gender,” “women,” “Black” and “African” have also seen a downward trend in impressions on LinkedIn. These keywords are often used in posts celebrating specific heritage months. What the Rally Inside data shows is that the performance of these posts varies.

For example, posts celebrating Black History Month performed significantly well in February, while posts about Women’s History Month in March and Pride Month in June got below-average impressions. This variability suggests that LinkedIn audiences don’t respond to generic heritage month celebrations like “Happy [fill in the blank].” Instead, companies need to showcase how their employees and teams are celebrating or provide proof points about the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Identification Keywords – Engagement

The engagement rate for posts containing identification keywords has followed a similar downward trend, generally performing below average. Even during heritage months, posts with these keywords often fail to drive significant interaction, with a few exceptions like “Black” and “African” during February and “Pride” during June.

This data reiterates the need for more compelling and interactive content. Simply mentioning identification keywords isn’t enough to drive engagement; companies need to create posts that resonate emotionally and intellectually with their audience and that include an entertainment factor, even on LinkedIn.

Identification Keywords – Clicks

Clicks on posts with identification keywords show mixed results. While some posts perform well, the overall trend is a decline year-over-year. Again, maintaining interest in this type of content requires more than just seasonal posts. Companies need to create ongoing, engaging content that keeps these conversations alive throughout the year. I can’t emphasize enough that one of the most effective ways to do this is to share people-focused social posts. We provide lots of data proving this in our “2024 Social Recruiting Strategy Benchmark Report.”

Recommendations for Effective DEI Social Recruiting

Transitioning into actionable steps, it’s clear that understanding and leveraging these insights about diversity and identification language can significantly enhance your social recruiting strategy, or at the very least, help you know which words to avoid in your social content. Here are some recommendations to help you align your social media content with your company’s DEI goals effectively.

1. Align Internal and External Messaging

To effectively use DEI keywords in your social recruiting posts, it’s essential to align your internal and external messaging. Candidates are increasingly looking for authenticity and consistency. Your social media posts should reflect your company’s true commitment to DEI, supported by real actions and policies within your organization.

2. Leverage Employee Stories

One of the most effective ways to engage your audience is by showcasing your employees (I told you that I can’t emphasize this enough😊). I may sound like a broken record, but the data is the proof: people-centric content performs exceptionally well on social media. Share stories of your employees’ diverse backgrounds, experiences and contributions to create a more relatable and engaging narrative.

3. Use Data-Driven Insights

Utilize data-driven insights to inform your social media strategy. Get a free account to Rally Inside so you can monitor which keywords and types of content perform best and adjust your approach accordingly. This continuous optimization will help you stay ahead of trends and maintain high levels of engagement.

4. Be Consistent and Authentic

Consistency and authenticity are key to successfully incorporating DEI in social recruiting. Regularly post content that reflects your ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion. Avoid performative posts that only appear during heritage months, and instead, integrate DEI into your everyday social media strategy in the images, videos and stories you share. Just using the words alone doesn’t buy you much, and in fact, may actually result in fewer impressions and engagement, signaling to the social algorithms that your channel publishes low-value content.

Embracing DEI Authentically in Social Recruiting

There’s no question, there are changing attitudes and policies around DEI, and we must ensure this is reflected in how we do our jobs in recruiting. As we move through these changes in our culture and politics, it will affect how you can tell your company’s story as an employer and how you attract talent to your company’s culture and values.

What I want to tell all of you is to be courageous, be the champion of diversity, because if not you, then who? But that’s not my advice. My advice is to ensure your strategy is authentic to your organization. The reality is if your company has pulled back on DEI, then that’s authentic. And if your company partners with transgender influencers and doesn’t walk it back under pressure, then that’s authentic.

As you move forward, partnering with your corporate communications team will be essential. Your internal and external messaging to all audiences must be aligned. It’s more crucial than ever that you show the “real you” to both candidates and employees, so they can know the company they’re going to work for, or already work for, and choose the right employer for them.

You may not be in the C-suite or in a position to affect company policy, or even influence how the company’s leaders respond to politics or public opinion. But you are in a position to tell the stories of the people who work at your company. And there are many beautifully interesting, eccentric and diverse stories to be told. Remember the old saying, that a picture tells a thousand words!

For more data, insights and recommendations on social recruiting, be sure to download our latest our “2024 Social Recruiting Strategy Benchmark Report.” And to get real-time insights into how your social recruiting content is performing, be sure to join the 2,000+ practitioners with a free Rally Inside account.