The co -founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, said that he expects companies that abandon Dei to train in hiring to reverse the course quickly.
Ohanian told Forbes in a video interview this week that he thought that many “short -sighted organizations” follow a cultural trend “by removing Dei in hiring practices.
“I think you have an opportunity right now for leaders who understand the real why, which is your organization will be better if you create the widest funnel for the talents you can, and they are going to do really well at the moment,” said Ohanian.
He added that companies that have successfully completed “an acronym” or “box check” but “actually realize your organization’s policies that support a wide range of people”.
“I think that the greatest sham is that we have somehow identified these types of objectives not to be meritocratic,” Ohanian told Forbes. “Those of us who came here by building companies of several billion dollars, making sure to have diversity, fairness and inclusion, we are hiring for greatness. This has never stopped.”
Ohanian’s comments arise while the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion continues to intensify under President Donald Trump, who signed anti-dei decrees. A former American lawyer said he had been on leave after criticizing the Trump administration’s anti-DEC policies in education. The FCC, under Trump, also launched surveys on Comcast and Disney on Dei practices.
“In particular, I would like to make sure that Disney and ABC have not violated the regulations on the equal opportunities for the employment of the FCC by promoting prompt forms of discrimination of Dei,” wrote the FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, in the letter, which was obtained by Peter Kafka of Business Insider.
Ohanian, who is married to the legend of tennis Serena Williams, said in the interview with Forbes that companies continue to hire with Dei in mind “would have our choice of so many great people”.
“It’s disappointing, but that’s what it is,” he said. “You have to play the game on the field. And therefore at the moment, I think that for the CEOs who are interested in hiring for the best, you will have an even larger talent pool.
Ohanian, 41, co -founded Reddit in 2005 and left the company in 2020, asking to be replaced on its board of directors by a black member after the murder of George Floyd. Ohanian earlier this month announced his intention to relaunch his Rival of Reddit Digg with the former CEO of Digg, Kevin Rodes.
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