Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing week Amer­i­can Job Board Doc­tor friends and hap­py Black Week to the rest! I have some­thing to get off my chest before I sign out for the hol­i­day, so let’s dive right in.

This week, in a blind­ing­ly bone-head­ed pre-Black Fri­day move, Wal­mart went from being one of the long-stand­ing roost­ers – always strut­ting around and crow­ing about their com­mit­ment to raise up mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties –  in the Diver­si­ty, Equi­ty, and Inclu­sion (DEI) world – to a world-class chick­en.

As one of the largest employ­ers glob­al­ly, they’ve caved to the pres­sure of a small but vocal group of anti-diver­si­ty activists. And unlike com­pa­nies like Harley-David­son and Lowe’s, who’ve made sim­i­lar moves in recent weeks, Wal­mart took it a step fur­ther. They did­n’t just step back from LGBTQIA+ inclu­sion—they also ditched sup­port for race and eth­nic­i­ty ini­tia­tives. It’s a slip­pery slope.

Hold on… Keep reading—step away from the unsub­scribe but­ton!
I know some of you are already rolling your eyes. “Julie, stop being a squeaky wheel and talk to us about busi­ness and job boards.”

Well, no, I’m not going to stop— AND this is about busi­ness. Specif­i­cal­ly, how niche job boards and oth­er solu­tions that serve under­rep­re­sent­ed com­mu­ni­ties should approach this new real­i­ty as a busi­ness. But it’s not just us—backing off from focused DEI efforts isn’t good for any  of our busi­ness­es.

Let’s break this down:

Wal­mart’s Deci­sion

Let’s be real: Wal­mart isn’t as clue­less as their pub­lic state­ment would sug­gest. They aren’t bow­ing to pub­lic pres­sure because they care about the pub­lic’s opin­ion. If they did, they’d know that most Amer­i­cans sup­port DEI efforts and pre­fer to spend mon­ey with com­pa­nies that pro­mote diver­si­ty.

No, Wal­mart’s retreat isn’t about respond­ing to the pub­lic; it’s about a busi­ness deci­sion to scale back on DEI in antic­i­pa­tion of less enforce­ment of affir­ma­tive action under the incom­ing admin­is­tra­tion. They’ve used the clas­sic excuse of “respon­sive­ness” to back­track on some­thing they nev­er real­ly believed in. It’s all about cut­ting oper­a­tional costs so they can fat­ten up their share­hold­ers’ pock­ets in the next quar­ter – as you can see in their Q3 earn­ings report. Clas­sic chick­en move.

So, what should diver­si­ty-focused solu­tions do?

1. Don’t Stop. Nev­er Stop.
   This is not the time to pack up and go home. We’ve been through worse and come out stronger. Remem­ber, we’re bet­ter togeth­er. There will be a temp­ta­tion to revert to the “old days” when we did­n’t embrace the full val­ue of inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty and allowed pow­er struc­tures to divide us. But we can’t afford to divide a piece of the pie while they hoard the rest. We’ve got work to do and we do it bet­ter togeth­er.
2. Focus on Per­for­mance and Out­comes.
   A decade ago, the Dis­abil­i­ty Solu­tions’ team made a promise to each oth­er: We would­n’t do any­thing we could­n’t mea­sure. Qual­i­ty and key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors (KPIs) are more crit­i­cal than ever—because they should always be. Mea­sure every­thing, show the results, and don’t be shy about it. The more evi­dence you have that your solu­tion and your com­mu­ni­ty have strate­gic, mea­sur­able busi­ness val­ue, the stronger your posi­tion will be.
3. Don’t Low­er Your Prices.
   If you’re per­for­mance-focused and have built a prod­uct that’s more than just a com­pli­ance tool, stay the course. Don’t low­er your prices (includ­ing pro­gram­mat­ic floors) out of a fear response. If your prod­uct works and deliv­ers results, don’t apol­o­gize for it. I reg­u­lar­ly talk to job board own­ers who are too hum­ble about their accomplishments—stop being shy, peo­ple.
4. Focus on Busi­ness­es Com­mit­ted to the Work. I am sure that Wal­mart’s com­peti­tors would be more than hap­py to share their com­mit­ments to DEI and spend a lit­tle mon­ey with a great solu­tion.  Have you con­nect­ed with them?

For the Rest of the World.

Dou­ble Down.
Here’s your chance to take advan­tage of what will inevitably be Amer­i­ca’s loss—and your win. As Wal­mart and oth­ers in the U.S. retreat from diver­si­ty, you’ll have a pow­er­ful exam­ple of how neglect­ing diver­si­ty will hurt com­mu­ni­ties, com­pa­nies, and economies. Use Amer­i­ca’s fail­ure to show how your solu­tions can fill the gap. Let the world see what they’re miss­ing.

For non-diver­si­ty boards and prod­uct own­ers, we need you too. We need part­ner­ships that focus on deliv­er­ing bet­ter, more effi­cient out­comes. Let’s col­lab­o­rate and show how we can mon­e­tize togeth­er—because it’s good for all of us.

Before every­one checks out for the hol­i­days and Black Fri­day deals, the Job Board Doc­tor team is thank­ful for all of you and for Jeff trust­ing us with his busi­ness. Next month, we’ll focus on what we all need to do to kick­start 2025. Hope you’ll join us!

DJAx Awards are now accept­ing sub­mis­sions.

Speak­ing of kick­start­ing 2025 – As a proud judge for the Dig­i­tal Job Adver­tis­ing Excel­lence Awards (DJAx Awards), I’m delight­ed to share that nom­i­na­tions are now open! These glob­al awards are a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty for job boards and job board sup­pli­ers to show­case their achieve­ments and gain indus­try recog­ni­tion.

Check out the cat­e­gories here, infor­ma­tion on the judges, details of the awards evening and pho­tos from this year’s event.

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