As President Trump seeks to quickly dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is walking a fine line emphasizing merit-based hiring while maintaining the carrier’s progressive DEI policies.
United Airlines CEO Stresses Merit Without Adjusting DEI Policy
One of Mr. Trump’s first acts as 47th President was an executive order seeking to eliminate DEI initiatives at the federal level:
“[T]he American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”
As part of that change, Trump has ordered that job performance reviews for those in “critical safety positions” at the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) occur.
Kirby was asked during an investor call this week whether these efforts would further exacerbate Air Traffic Control staffing issues and also whether United is considering rescinding its own DEI policies.
His answer:
“So I will answer for United and let DOT answer for themselves. Although we’re positive — feel good about the DOT and administration and the impact that they will have on the air traffic control. I think there is a ton of upside there. But at United, we have always have today and we’ll continue to hire based on merit. But we are in the fortunate position that we’re a very high-quality employer, and we make efforts to cast a wide net for people coming into United. In fact, last year, we had over 600,000 applications for fewer than 10,000 positions. And because of that, we can be incredibly selective about who we pick. And while we do hire on merit, we can hire the absolute best of the best and have a naturally diverse workforce. So at United we can do — and the proof is in the results. We are performing better coming out of the COVID for the last few years than any other airline in the world. And our workforce having a diverse but also very best people is a huge part of the reason why we are the best airline in the world.”
(bolding mine)
Kirby’s walking a very fine line. He is trying to cozy up to the new administration (United donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and Kirby and his wife attended a candlelight dinner with the President last Sunday), which he views as pro-business and less likely to enforce or implement new consumer protections.
He wants Trump and incoming Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to focus on improving the gridlocked Air Traffic Control system. Kirby even praised Trump personally for his knowledge and focus on the issue:
“And when I talk to the President, he knows a lot about airplanes. He knows a lot about the airspace. He is focused even at his level on fixing it. Incoming Secretary Duffy, I spoke to this weekend, also focused on fixing it. And I think that they will do the basic blocking and tackling, get the FAA the right resources, the right technology to run effectively.”
> Read More: Senate Poised To Confirm Sean Duffy, Trump’s Pick For Secretary Of Transportation
At the same time, Kriby is not walking away from DEI…not at all. He points out that the question is never whether United is hiring an unqualified person, but rather which qualified person it should hire? Should skin color, orientation, or gender matter? Per Messr. Kirby, yes… because he believes that a more diverse workforce gives United a further comparative advantage in effectively catering to a very diverse nation and world. Kirby therefore argues diversity is good for the bottom line and that the question of merit is not relevant to DEI discussions since any new hire must be “merit qualified” to even be considered in the first place.
CONCLUSION
While federal DEI programs may be on the chopping block, don’t look for any change at United Airlines. While Kirby is quick to stress that United only hires based on merit, he stopped well short of abandoning the sort of DEI initiatives that have earned United scorn in the Trump camp.
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Hiring on merit AND DEI is a contradiction in terms, since DEI prioritizes race/sexual orientation/other victim status over merit.
DEI just means no straight white males, who are usually the most qualified.
It’s quite amusing that many people continue to believe that any organisation or social system can be ‘meritocratic’. Kirby is convinced that his managers have an uncanny ability to select ‘the best’ by looking at a 2-page PDF and then undertaking whatever selection exercise. The reality is that people are a bit messier than that. It would be very easy to say ‘we want to give all of our candidates the opportunity to impress us with their diverse skills and abilities, and we are fortunate enough to be able to choose from an impressive pool of candidates’ before saying something along the lines of what you mentioned about diversity being good for the bottom line. Instead the insinuation is ‘if we didn’t hire you, it’s exclusively down to you because you’re not among the best’ (he did not even say ‘the best person for the job’, it’s some kind of intrinsic merit).
You obviously don’t have access to the photos of the New Hire Pilot classes, you’d quickly realize this is just DEI rhetoric.
Class breakdown is 99% white males aged 30-40.
A pilot forwards me those…you are quite right.
How about establishing “blind recruitment”? You do most of the recruiting process without knowing the name, color, gender, weird pronouns, etc… until you select the best based purely on merit. You then have to interview them either via video or in person but at the time only the best of the best are participating in the process and then it is up to “trusting” companies will not favor someone because of their color, gender, etc… I have worked in organizations that tried to filter candidates by color and gender and that did not go well since the merit was missing and the people hired quit before being fired because they were not delivering at all.
Santastico-
In the “real world” of DEI, that is how it’s actually done (in institutions that know what they’re doing). Blind recruiting. The DEI portion is about increasing the applicant pool and expanding the numbers of those underrepresented populations who seek out the position. In some cases, it’s enhanced targeted recruiting, in others it’s targeting underrepresented populations to seek out the prerequisites and consider the field in the first place.
Unfortunately, these issue have become a punching bag for those ignorant of best practices (both critics as well as those who implement this poorly). When done well there is no contradiction between DEI and meritocracy, unlike what some ignorant fools wish to believe and spread.
So you are saying that non-White males are unqualified to work?
Also which organizations are you referring to?
Where did I say that? I said that among the pool of applicants, the hiring manager favored two minority candidates that were not qualified for the job but I heard from the hiring manager that “we need diversity in our department” so she made the decision to focus on diversity vs merit. Two really nice people were hired but within 6 months they both quitted because they literally had no clue what they were doing there. Second example, was very similar but in a different organization and different skills needed. And no, I am not sharing the name of the organizations on a public blog.
Criminal Trump does seem to be determined to break the social order and turn Trumpitaina into a place no one will want to visit let alone live in. It’s just as well none of us here want to cross the Great British and Canadian Ocean to get there because as predicted and obvious to all, he’s utterly mad.
Still, you only now have three years and three hundred and sixty two days to enjoy buyers remorse.
I wish Kirby would quit sucking up to Trump. He clearly disagrees with him. “He knows a lot about airplanes.” Give me a break!
I respect that he basically said he’s not abandoning DEI, I just wish he wasn’t so afraid of Trump. Trump will be gone in 4 years; Kirby won’t. UA isn’t entrusting a 787 to someone not qualified to fly it.