Poll finds NJ workers split on diversity programs

By: Daniel Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Amid national debates on corporate diversity programs, a new survey shows that the efforts remain controversial among New Jerseyans, with workers divided along partisan and racial lines.
..... The poll, conducted by New Jessey-based Taft Communications and the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, found that 42% of adult employees in the state consider a "diverse representation of genders, races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, ages and people of all types of abilities" to be "essential in the workplace.
..... If found that 56% of respondents felt that such diversity either wasn't essential or was not important at all.
..... Here is where New Jersey workers in the poll stand:

* Sixty-four percent of Democrats interviewed regard corporate diversity as "important," compared with 42% of independent voters and 17% of Republicans.

* Conversely, 52% of Republicans labeled workplace diversity as "not important," compared with 27% of independents and 9% of Democrats.

* The same question also revealed differences across race, the pollsters found, with more than twice as many Black respondents (73%) saying diversity is "essential" compared with white respondents (31%0.
..... "We may increasingly see a dividing line between those companies that continue to actively pursue [diversity, equity and inclusion] training and those that do not," said Ashley Koning, an assistant research professor and director of the Rutgers Eagleton polling center.
..... "As political culture wars only grow more intense with a presidential election a little over a year away, [2024] DEI is the workplace is susceptible to becoming yet another issue area that may face backlish given the deep division in views by race and political affiliations," he said.
..... The numbers were released on Tuesday [08/22/2023] and rely on interviews with 1,002 New Jersey adults conducted between April 27 and May 5. [2023] The results have an overall margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, while the subsample of 720 employed adults had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points, the pollsters said.

How diversity became a partisan issue

..... Corporate diversity programs - more formally known as diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI - have become a partisan issue joining debates about "cancel culture" and "wokeness" in schools, workplaces and public spaces. Several Republican-led states have made efforts to ban DEI, which can range form sensitivity training to efforts affecting pay, promotions and hiring.
..... Since the U.S. supreme court struck down affirmative action initiatives in college admissions this June, [2023] conservative groups have turned their focus to workplace DEI programs.

Who requires DEI training in NJ?

..... The study also looked at whether participants took part in DEI training or education programs. Sixty-two percent have, with Democrats and independents more likely than Republicans to take part in the training, women more likely than men, and younger respondents more likely than older ones. Workers with higher incomes and education levels were more likely to be involved in such workplace training, with 77% of those earning more than $150,000 a year more likely to be exposed to such programs, compared with 50% of those earning less than $75,000 a year according to the poll.
..... Meanwhile, 75% of participants with a college degree reported participation in workplace diversity efforts, compared with 50% of those with some college or less.
..... "While a majority of New Jersey employees report taking part in DEI training, stark differences by key socioeconomic factors indicate more variable experiences and less access among those with lower incomes and educational level," said Jessica Roman, a research associate at Eagleton.

Did employers move too fast after Floyd?

..... Michele Sicherka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association said DEI efforts garnered national attention during the George Floyd protests in 2020, and that many companies took on more than they were prepared to handle with diversity and inclusion.
..... "A lot of people jumped to say, 'OK, we must do this and we must do this tomorrow," and a lot of companies might not have had all the tools and resources they needed," she said. "Eventually the pendulum starts to balance out a little bit more to the middle."
..... Corporate position focusing on DEI increased 55% in 2020, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. But many of those potions have since been eliminated, said a report by Revelio Labs, a New York-based company that analyzes workforce trends.
..... The Rutgers-Tafe poll is not unique in its findings. In may, [2023] a nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center reported that women were more likely than men to find value in workplace diversity efforts, and that mostly Democratic workers, rather than Republicans, favored those efforts.

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