SHRM began a long-awaited trial Monday in a 2022 lawsuit filed by a former instructional designer who accused the organization of race discrimination and retaliation.
The former employee, a self-described “brown-skinned Egyptian Arab woman,” accused her supervisor of systematically favoring White charges over those who weren’t White. After the employee complained to her supervisor’s superior, she said the supervisor retaliated by excluding her from meetings and professional opportunities, unfairly critiquing her work and setting her up to be fired.
The case has dogged SHRM since its filing more than three years ago. While it moved to have the lawsuit dismissed multiple times, reasserting that the employee was fired for poor performance, a judge last year determined a jury should hear the case.
SHRM’s rocky few years
The trial begins at a time of exposure and controversy for SHRM — particularly when it comes to issues of diversity.
In 2024, SHRM dropped “equity” from its “inclusion and diversity” messaging, setting off a debate about language and HR’s role in the fair treatment of workers. This year, CEO Johnny C. Taylor acknowledged the move during the organization’s annual conference, noting the legal precariousness of “equity,” particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision.
SHRM then changed the name of its annual Inclusion conference to “SHRM Blueprint,” puzzling some HR practitioners, who said the organization was backpedaling even further. SHRM told HR Dive at the time that rather than backing away from inclusion, the rebrand reinforced its commitment with “deeper rigor, sharper guidance, and legal foresight.”
When SHRM announced a Blueprint session featuring conservative firebrand Robby Starbuck, some in HR were alarmed, although the event was ultimately civil and restrained.
A little over a week ago, Business Insider reported internal issues at the organization, including a spate of layoffs, a reportedly punitive culture and alleged tolerance for inappropriate behavior.
A jury decision on the former worker’s case may appear to HR leaders as a kind of referendum on some of the issues the organization has wrestled with recently, including how it treats its staff.
SHRM, which calls itself “the trusted authority on all things work,” asked the judge in the case to prevent the worker from arguing SHRM is a “so-called ‘model employer.’”
“The fact that SHRM has expertise in human resources does not make it more or less likely that SHRM unlawfully discriminated or retaliated against Plaintiff,” the organization argued in the Sept. 26 filing. The judge declined SHRM’s request.
Catch up on the lawsuit — and some of SHRM’s recent controversies — below.