DE&I Didn’t Disappear. It Just Changed Its Hoodie.

If you’ve been in talent or people work long enough, you’ve noticed it. DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) roles quietly becoming Talent Strategy. DE&I teams folded into People Operations. DE&I initiatives renamed Culture, Engagement, or Workforce Effectiveness.

Different titles. Same job descriptions.

And while it’s easy to roll our eyes, this shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. To be fair, companies are responding to political pressure, legal scrutiny, and a broader climate where DE&I—right or wrong—has been framed as risky. So let’s be clear: this isn’t about blaming companies for adapting. It’s about naming the bigger issue they still haven’t solved.

Because rebranding the work doesn’t fix the reason it wasn’t working in the first place.

The Real Problem: DE&I Was Treated Like a Department, Not a Principle

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: DE&I should never have been a standalone function. At its core, DE&I is not radical. It’s not political. It’s not even complicated. It’s basic decency, respect, and fairness in how people are treated. Somehow, we turned that into a separate department whose job was to teach other adults how to treat other adults—and then acted surprised when it didn’t stick.

When inclusion lives in a silo, it becomes optional. When it’s optional, it gets activated on an “as needed” basis. When it’s “as needed,” it’s the first thing deprioritized when business pressure hits. And yet, companies still say, “business first.” Here’s the part that keeps getting missed: there is no business without people.

The Human Side of Business Is the Business

When people don’t feel included, respected, or valued, a few predictable things happen. They disengage. They stop going above and beyond.

They do exactly what’s required—and nothing more. Not because they’re lazy or entitled, but because the psychological contract is broken.

Every generation entering the workforce is clearer about this than the last. People want time. Autonomy. Dignity. Space for life outside of work. And when work feels hostile, performative, or transactional, they respond accordingly.

Call it “quiet quitting.”

Call it “using the system.”

Call it “low engagement.”

The label doesn’t matter. The outcome does. You can’t demand productivity from people who don’t feel like they belong. You can’t expect loyalty from people who feel tolerated instead of respected. And you definitely can’t be shocked by the results when inclusion is treated like a feature instead of infrastructure.

Research consistently shows that people don’t leave companies—they leave managers. In fact, studies have found that roughly 70% of employee engagement is directly influenced by managers, and a majority of voluntary turnover is tied to poor senior leadership and management behavior, not the work itself. And yet, in many organizations, the leaders who cause the most damage are the ones who remain untouched—promoted, protected, or quietly moved sideways. There’s little to no feedback, minimal accountability, and even fewer consequences. So the people who need development the most stay exactly where they are, while the people doing the emotional and relational labor quietly opt out—or walk away entirely.

So it’s fair to ask: if this is DE&I, how exactly is an inclusive workplace being fostered when employees experience unequal treatment, exclusion, and inconsistency—while the very managers expected to model equity and inclusion are neither held to a higher standard nor meaningfully accountable for the environments they create?

Don’t all answer at once :)

Why the Rebrand Still Isn’t Working

Many of these newly titled Talent Strategy or People Ops roles are being asked to drive culture without authority, tools, or structural alignment. They’re expected to influence outcomes without being embedded in:

• performance feedback systems

• promotion and sponsorship decisions

• manager capability and accountability

• workforce planning and resource allocation

That’s not strategy. That’s optics. You can’t out-message broken systems. You can’t workshop your way out of poor leadership behavior. And you can’t rebrand your way into trust.

What Embedding Inclusion Actually Looks Like

When inclusion is working, it doesn’t feel like a program. It shows up in how feedback is delivered, who gets developed versus overlooked, how managers are trained to lead employees—not just hit KPIs, whether people feel safe enough to speak up before there’s a problem. It feels less like a policy and more like walking into a space where you just know you belong. It’s like being invited to the cookout…IYKYK!

Where The Dezonie Collective Comes In

At The Dezonie Collective, we don’t treat DE&I—or whatever name it’s wearing today—as a standalone initiative. We work with companies to embed inclusive thinking into the actual mechanics of how work gets done:

• talent systems

• leadership behaviors

• promotion and feedback processes

• early-career and leadership pipelines

Not as a moral argument. Not as a political stance. But as a business design choice. Because when inclusion is built into the system, it doesn’t feel forced. It feels natural. It feels sustainable. And it actually shows up in performance.

The Bottom Line

DE&I didn’t fail because it wasn’t important. It failed because it was isolated. Changing the title without changing the structure just recreates the same problem—quieter, safer, and easier to ignore.

Belonging isn’t a department. It’s a principle.

And companies that understand that won’t need to keep rebranding the work—they’ll be too busy building cultures people actually want to show up for.