Companies are increasingly hiring chief diversity officers (CDOs) to help them address systemic inequalities within their organizations, but they often have trouble retaining them for very long, said the Wall Street Journal. It noted that several major firms recently announced the hiring of new CDOs, and that Facebook announced it would be promoting its existing role higher up the corporate chain. At this point, according to the Journal, about half of S&P 500 companies have a CDO.

At the same time, however, turnover among these positions is high, often because those stepping into the position find that there aren't enough resources and support to do their job effectively. Furthermore, sometimes they find themselves constrained by the nature of the officer to whom they report: The Journal noted, for example, that those who report directly to the company counsel tend to see their work focus on legal compliance, while those who report to a Human Resources officer tend to focus on recruitment and staffing issues. The most successful CDOs, said the Journal, tend to report directly to the CEO.

These seem to be larger-scale versions of the issues that generally face companies trying to address diversity and inclusion issues. During the NYSSCPA's first Women's Leadership Forum, in January 2019, KPMG Chief Diversity Officer Michele Meyer-Shipp, critiqued companies that implement diversity programs "in a way that is not strategic and that's rushed and that's not authentic." For example, some companies will hire a certain number of new female workers without then providing subsequent support. Hiring people from underrepresented populations means little if they're never put on teams or given good assignments, she observed. Meyer-Shipp said that many such hires, sensing the lack of authenticity in company rhetoric, will simply leave within a few years. She emphasized that diversity and inclusion initiatives must be about more than hiring the right people; they must also consider retention and promotion.