After companies started dissolving DEI initiatives following the 2024 presidential election, and the Justice Department issued guidance suggesting employers stop having employee resource groups (ERGs), many DEI practitioners worried ERGs would disappear.

But they’re seemingly alive and well.

Of the 52 companies in an HR Brew analysis that changed course on their DEI policies between 2024 and 2025, only 11—including Target, Disney, and Pepsi—changed their ERGs. It’s a trend that Maceo Owens, founder and CEO of the ERG Movement, which provides resources and training for ERGs and the employees who run them, has observed as well.

“It’s been busier than ever in the last couple of years,” Owens told HR Brew. “Companies are still investing in their ERG programs…more or less, probably even kept their ERG program budgets the same.”

For more on how ERGs have fared amid DEI rollbacks, and what HR can do to better support their programs, keep reading here.—MC

On Feb. 5, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri dismissed a case against Starbucks, according to Reuters.

The lawsuit alleged Starbucks used its DEI programming to discriminate against certain job applicants and workers. It was filed by then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey in 2025 and continued by Catherine Hanaway when she took over for him following his FBI appointment later that year. Hanaway pointed to Starbucks’ 2020 policy which tied executive pay to DEI, and also accused the company of giving preferential treatment to “non-white, non-male” workers and other minorities, the Hill reported.

The state wanted Starbucks to rehire any individuals who the state claimed were discriminated against as a result of Starbucks’ DEI policies, but the judge ruled that the state did not clarify the demographic, “including whether and how many of these applicants were white, male, or heterosexual,” in Missouri that was allegedly “discharged or rejected” by Starbucks.

The decision provides a “lucid window” into a “split-screen,” David Glasgow, executive director at the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU Law School and co-author of the forthcoming book, How Equality Wins, said in a LinkedIn post. He noted that while the Trump administration has made certain claims about DEI programs, judges rule based on analyzing facts and precedent, so “the Starbucks decision provides a helpful illustration.”

For more on the dismissal of the case against Starbucks, keep reading here.—KP

Do your employees have love on the brain?

Kaila Lopez and Kyle Hagge, the co-hosts of Morning Brew’s work-life podcast, Per My Last Email, wouldn’t be surprised.

“You’re attracted to a place to work because of the mission, the values, the type of work. And so you are probably going to be around people that are interested in the same things as you, have the same values as you,” Hagge said during a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast. “So it’s not shocking that people who spend a lot of time together, have similar interests…develop feelings for other people at work.”

They sat down with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew, to discuss the dos and don’ts of office romance, and the role HR stands to play.

For more from our conversation with Lopez and Hagge, keep reading here.—VV

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.