Boeing is scaling back some workplace diversity programs to “ensure compliance with the law,” the company’s latest action to more closely align itself with the White House’s campaign against the diversity, equity and inclusion movement.

Boeing told employees last week it was pausing events and suspending funding for two internal programs — diversity councils and business resource groups, or BRGs — “in light of the dynamically shifting environment in the United States,” according to an email shared with The Seattle Times.

The company’s nine BRGs are affinity groups, employee-led organizations that are open to all workers while aiming to connect and develop individuals with a common interest or identity, including race and gender.

Boeing, one of the country’s largest defense contractors, is one of several companies that scaled back references to diversity in regulatory filings, on its website and in internal practices after President Donald Trump took office. Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office banning federal agencies and contractors from promoting diversity or hiring based on “race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.” He also took aim at private companies, universities and nonprofits.

Leaders of those groups at Boeing were directed to pause events, heritage month celebrations and lighting displays as the company took “inventory” of current activities and worked to “co-create a new approach,” according to the email.

In Washington, Amazon, Starbucks and law firm K&L Gates deleted or watered down references to diversity programs on their websites. Costco, meanwhile, doubled down on its commitment to DEI.

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Boeing quietly dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion department in November, folding it into another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience. The head of that DEI department, Sara Liang Bowen, stepped down and left the company.

Earlier this year, in a March regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Boeing also outlined a new pay structure for its top executives that deleted performance metrics based on diversity and climate change. Instead, executive compensation now more specifically targets safety and quality.

Boeing shareholders voted to approve the new pay structure, as well as $18.4 million in compensation for CEO Kelly Ortberg in 2024, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in April.

Boeing said in its annual proxy statement that it decided to review its executive pay structure after a harrowing safety incident in January 2024, when a panel flew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 midflight. Since then, safety regulators have increased oversight of the company as Boeing has worked to overhaul its manufacturing processes and company culture.

After a “comprehensive review,” and with input from shareholders, Boeing determined the operational performance metrics used to determine executive pay should be “exclusively focused on safety and quality,” according to the proxy statement.

In the past, those metrics included product safety and employee safety, as well as climate and equity, diversity and inclusion.

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The new pay structure kept the metric on employee safety, removed the targets focused on climate and diversity and added four new product safety benchmarks. Those included reducing the number of unfinished jobs that traveled through the factory and decreasing the number of hours spent reworking jobs to fix defects or missed tasks.

The new metrics also focused on working through the 737 MAX inventory and completing rework on an issue with its 787 widebody plane, as well as a reduction in unsafe shipments of dangerous goods.

In its latest change last week, Boeing told employees it had “decided to take a moment to assess how our global BRGs, Diversity Councils and other diversity-related groups can best contribute to our business needs and culture transformation,” Tommy Preston, Jr., Boeing’s vice president of global talent, development and employee experience, wrote in an email to leaders of those groups shared with The Seattle Times.

Boeing declined to comment on Thursday.

The “culture transformation” he referred to is a months-long effort led by CEO Ortberg to rebuild trust in senior leadership, and foster a culture that puts safety and quality at the forefront. The shift comes after Boeing suffered major safety setbacks, including two deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 and the January 2024 Alaska Airlines incident.

Ortberg outlined a new set of values and behaviors last month that would guide Boeing moving forward, including safety, “people focus,” trust, ownership and innovation.

Those replaced an earlier set of values put in place by Boeing’s former CEO Dave Calhoun that prioritized engineering excellence, accountability, and rewarding predictability and stability.

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Boeing’s prior set of values included a directive to build “diverse teams, appreciating one another’s differences as assets, and holding ourselves accountable to equitable processes that promote trust and transparency.”

The new values do not mention diversity, equity or inclusion.

In last week’s message, Boeing told leaders of diversity councils and business resource groups to “focus their attention” on the company’s “refreshed values and behaviors as part of our ongoing culture transformation,” according to an FAQ document included with the email.

Teams should “immediately replace any Diversity Moment content with transformation content as it is released,” the FAQ document continued.

In his message to employees, Preston Jr. said Boeing was still committed to “creating an inclusive work environment where all teammates feel respected, valued and able to contribute to our company’s mission.”