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Over the past year, a growing number of corporate employers have shown signs of backing away from diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the workplace, amid mounting social pressures and the risk of litigation from right-wing activists. President Trumps recent executive orderswhich explicitly threaten legal action against the private sector over illegal DEI practiceshave only exacerbated those concerns, leading companies to take more forceful action or, at a minimum, reevaluate their diversity programs. In a report released today by the research insights firm Gravity Research, nearly three-quarters of corporate executives claim that potential federal investigations into corporate DEI have been keeping them up at night. This sentiment was nearly universal across the finance sector, with 95% of leaders expressing those concernsin line with reports that Wall Street firms have pared back their DEI initiatives over the last year. When we actually talk to our clients, there’s a lot of question marks around: I thought we were legally compliant, says Gravity Research president Luke Hartig, noting that the group of employers surveyed includes Fortune 500 companies. We don’t have a clear answer to that question just yet. However, the fact that 74% said that they fear federal investigations tells us that its at least creating a sense of fear and anxiety among these large companies, even if we’re still uncertain as to exactly how far this can go. The report also captures how many companies have responded to the executive orders and anti-DEI movement, with 64% saying they were redefining or rebranding their DEI functionsa common shift among employers that have altered their DEI programs recently. Many companies reported altering their public messaging on DEI: In 2025 alone, 66% of companies say they have cut back on the use of DEI terminology in their external communications. That can mean curtailing mentions of equity or the acronym DEI, opting instead for terms like inclusion and belonging, which might be less loaded. We know terminology matters, but the work is more important, one executive explained as part of the survey. We are striving to communicate in a way that won’t attract undue attention so we can protect the work versus having to defend the work with external actors.” And yet, many companies are still worried about how their workers may react to these changes, with 60% of respondents saying they expected to see employees mobilize on political or social issues. In fact, the majority of respondents said they were feeling pressure to make an internal statement reaffirming their commitment to inclusion and belonging, according to Hartig, though only 28% have actually done so. Despite all the pushback to corporate DEIand the changes that have already been made at a number of companiesmost of them are still not entirely culling their ranks. Gravity Research found that most employers were not eliminating C-suite DEI roles, though certain sectors were more likely to do so; this shift was especially evident in the consumer staples sector, where 20% of employers had made changes to C-suite DEI positions. Even prior to Trumps executive orders, however, consumer companies and retailers have been particularly vulnerable to the DEI backlash, as evidenced by the response to conservative activist Robby Starbucks social media campaigns over the last year. When [we] talk to the chief diversity officer community, we definitely hear a lot of anxiety about the future of DEI-dedicated functions within companies, Hartig says. But certainly the research shows that they are not getting rid of it all together. As Fast Company has reported, plenty of companies have continued to stand their ground on DEI or have made minimal changes to protect against potential legal risks. That much is also clear from the report, which indicates that 80% of companies are actively monitoring anti-DEI laws and legal challenges, rather than taking immediate action. While a good share of employers have adopted semantic changes, their approach has been more conservative as it relates to cutting DEI programs. About half of respondents have revised DEI trainings, but few have taken more significant steps like cutting employee resource groups. That said, a sizable portion of employers (34%) are now reconsidering their participation in the Human Rights Campaigns annual survey measuring workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ workers, which can be traced back to the anti-DEI campaign that Starbuck has waged across social media. Several major companiesincluding McDonalds, Target, and Walmarthave already pulled out of the HRC survey in recent months. As Hartig points out, moves like this appear to be motivated more by social pressure than by legal consequences. Gravity Research has found that even companies that have yet to bow out of the survey are now more reticent to advertise their scores publiclywhich many employers have long used to send a signal to LGBTQ+ workers. At least from major companies, we’ve seen virtually no publicization of their HRC scores, Hartig says. This was something that companies previously touted and used as a sign of being an inclusive employer. Will that change as we get closer to Pride month? Will companies start to talk about that? Maybe. But it certainly reflects a broader movement from the corporate community.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump talks of big change in his second term of office. But he’s not forgetting small change, either. Trump ordered the Treasury Department to stop making pennies with a February 10 sentence on his social media account that followed years of conservatives pointing out that putting a copper-coated zinc disc in your pocket costs the government more than a centalmost 4 cents today. Will Trump’s order make the penny disappear? There is no sign that the U.S. Mint will stop pressing pennies in Denver and Philadelphia, and Mint officials did not respond to requests for clarification this week. But the presidential penny pledge is already being felt in one niche world. It’s a little-known world that depends on buying pennies wholesale, loading them into machines and persuading parents to feed a few dollars into machines that stamp designs on the penniesPaw Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesas they are stretched between metal rollers at funfairs. Small orbits of collectors and craftsmen have developed around them. And without the penny, the whole thing faces an uncertain future. The last pennies? New copper pennies vanished from circulation in 198273 years after the first Lincoln penny was minted. They were replaced by coins of mostly zinc thinly coated with copper. The solid copper old ones were more pliable and easier to stamp, making them hot items for kids at funfairs. Theyll clean em so when they elongate the dino or shark of the printed coin it maintains a ghost image of the printed head of Lincoln, said Brian Peters, general manager of Minnesota-based Penny Press Machine Co. Pre-1982 copper pennies, they bring those. Jeweler Angelo Rosato worked for decades in the 1960s and 70s hand-printing pennies with scenes of their New Milford, Connecticut, hometown and historical and sentimental scenes. Everything was obsessively cataloged, including more than 4,000 penny photographs. Were big fans of the penny. Keep the penny,” said Aaron Zablow of Roseland, New Jersey, who was with two of his sons at the American Dream mall. I like the pennies, his 9-year-old son Mason said. Some dont want the U.S. to stop making cents Critics say the rise of electronic commerce and the billions of pennies in circulation mean the U.S. could stop printing the copper coins tomorrow and see little widespread effect for decades. But some people are watching fearfully to see if Trumps public critique of the penny will affect their business. Alan Fleming, of Scotland, is the owner of Penny Press Factory, one of a number around the world that manufacture machines that flatten and stamp coins. A lovely retired gentleman in Boston sold me over 100,000 uncirculated cents a couple of years ago but he doesnt have any more, Fleming wrote. I will need to purchase new uncirculated cents within the next 12 months to keep my machines supplied and working! Regardless of what happens to niche businesses like Fleming’s, penny defenders say theyre an important tool for lubricating the economy even if theyre a money-losing proposition. Since the invention of money, humankind has wrangled with the question of small change, how to denominate amounts so small that the metal coin itself is actually worth more. In 2003, Thomas J. Sargent and another economist wrote The Big Problem of Small Change, billed as the first credible and analytically sound explanation of why governments had a hard time maintaining a steady supply of small change because of the high costs of production. Why pay money for coins? In a digital world with the line blurring between the real and the virtual, tactile coins have been reassuring. What this all tells you about the United States as a country is that its an incredibly conservative country when it comes to money, said Ute Wartenberg, executive director of the American Numismatic Society. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters are sometimes designed by artists laser-sculpting tiny portraits of leaders and landmarks using special software. Its pretty cool because when I tell people what I do I just say my initials are on the penny, Joseph Menna, the 14th chief engraver of the United States Mint, said in the 2019 film Heads-Up: Will We Stop Making Cents? Fleming is hoping some lobbying may help: Maybe we should take a trip to Washington and ask to speak to President Trump and Elon Musk and see if we can cut a deal on buying millions of pennies from them.” By Michael Weissenstein and Joseph B. Frederick, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
As artificial intelligence begins to devour the world, job seekers must adapt their strategy to stand out in the hiring process. Hiring managers have begun to populate their interviews with questions about how prospective employees use AI in their work. According to industry experts, these types of questions will become more common as time goes on and AI continues to advance. In fact, 88% of C-suite leaders say speeding up AI adoption is important over the next year, according to LinkedIn’s 2025 Work Change Report. This can be daunting for people who dont work in technology. You certainly dont want to tell a hiring manager that you use ChatGPT to write and ideate everything for you, but you also dont want to seem behind. We asked three hiring experts in different industries how non-techies can best navigate questions about AI in a job interview. Tip 1: Show curiosity Good news! Not being skilled in AI isnt a deal-breaker. Even if you are far from an AI expert, you should highlight your curiosity about the technology in your interviewing process, notes Gillian Davis, chief people officer at strategic communications firm Mission North. She recommends that job applicants speak about a willingness to learn and adapt quickly. Its most important that youre interested in AI, that you have a curiosity about it, and that youre willing to look at it as a powerful complement to talent, Davis says. AI is most powerful in the PR and communications space when it’s used as a way to tackle the mundane tasks, she says. Davis suggests showing off your understanding of what AIs capabilities are, how you can apply it to real-world scenarios, and your willingness to continue learning about and adapting to the new technology. For example, you could talk about ways youve used AI to be more productive and to free yourself up to perform the highest-value parts of your work. Davis says when she speaks with potential hires who are wary of integrating AI into their work, she sees it as a red flag for Mission North. Thats just not the world we live in anymore, she says. Tip 2: Know who youre dealing with Most of the largest organizations in the world are adopting AI and looking for creative ways to use the technology, according to Siobhan Savage, CEO of workplace intelligence platform Reejig. To best understand any companys outlook on AI, Savage recommends combing through its most recent earnings report, noting that CEOs are often very vocal about their companies AI attitudes. Savage suggests providing specific examples about how you use AI to optimize your work if youre interviewing for a company thats embracing the technology. If instead the company hasnt spoken much about AI adoption, she suggests highlighting the fact that youre keeping up to date with all the latest developments. For example, you could share that youve used AI to automate the more mundane parts of your job, or discuss how youve heard other people use it in your industry. Whether youre in tech or PR, it doesnt matter, Savage says. Everyone in a company cares about productivity. Tip 3: Even if theres no right opinion, have one When interviewing potential hires for his PR firm, Shore Fire president Mark Satlof likes to use questions about AI as small talk. But he treats applicants answers like a Rorschach test where he learns a lot about their work ethic and values, he says. You can answer it a million different ways and I dont know if theres a right or wrong answer, Satlof says. He notes, however, that he would not be interested in hiring someone who says they will never use AI. He wants prospective employees to have a stance and show engagement with technological developments. Its okay if someone is skeptical of AI or, alternatively, completely gung ho about the technology. Satlof just wants your opinion to be grounded in research and knowledge. He recommends that job applicants do their research before any interview about the various areas and capabilities of AI. For example, he says applicants should understand the difference between the broad catchall of AI versus the specifics of what a large language model is. (If youre wondering: AI refers to everything a computer does that simulates complex tasks, and LLMs are a type of AI that interprets and generates human language.) Applying for jobs can be a stressful experience, and it can be hard to know the right thing to say at all times. But by researching the company, brushing up on the basics of AI, and expressing a willingness to learn, you can present yourself as a good fit for any job.
Category:
E-Commerce
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