Data shows that hiring for chief diversity officers (CDOs) spiked over the summer following the killing of George Floyd, then slowly tapered off as the year went on, Bloomberg reported. In May, hiring of new CDOs in S&P 500 companies was actually lower than average, before increasing sharply in June. This wave of hiring was then sustained at roughly similar levels through August until, in September, the number fell back down to levels slightly higher than at the start. From there,the rate of hiring rose slightly again in October and November, then dropped again to even lower levels roughly comparable to the autumn of 2019. Bloomberg noted that, overall, about 60 companies in this group hired CDOs for the first time in this period. This brought the proportion of firms with such a position to 53 percent, up from 47 percent in 2018.

Bloomberg noted, however, that turnover for such positions tends to be high, with an average tenure of 3.2 years, compared to 5.5 years for a CEO. And during those tenures, CDOs often are not allocated sufficient resources to meet the high demands placed upon them. It is a sort of a microcosm for diversity practices as a whole: During the NYSSCPA's first Women's Leadership Forum, in January 2019, Michele Meyer-Shipp, who at the time was KPMG's chief diversity officer, 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, who is now Major League Baseball's chief people & culture officer, said at the forum 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.