In 2022, just two years after Tesla recommitted to DEI, Elon Musk decried “wokeness.” Kristen Kavanaugh, Tesla’s head of inclusion at the time, recently spoke to HR Brew about the shift at Tesla, how misinformation fuels anti-DEI rhetoric, and why executives should show more courage.
From potholes to ruins. Like many major companies after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Tesla spoke out in support of racial justice. “We reaffirm our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” the company stated. “We are proud to employ people of all backgrounds who possess the talent, energy and focus to accelerate our vision forward.”
According to the company’s first DEI impact report, published in 2020, the majority of Tesla’s employees were BIPOC, although 59% of the leadership team was white. And while women accounted for roughly one-in-five employees, the company appeared to be on the road to improvement. Tesla’s report mapped out a plan for inclusion, focused on attracting and retaining diverse talent, integrating DEI principles across the company through training opportunities, and working with its seven employee resource groups.
By 2021, the company’s commitment to DEI appeared less clear. A court awarded $137 million to a Black former Tesla employee who had accused the company of racial discrimination and harassment (later reduced to $3.2 million in a second 2023 hearing). The S&P 500 ESG index dropped Tesla in 2022, in part because of allegations of racism and poor working conditions. Musk also posted an insensitive anti-LGBTQ tweet, an image of Hitler, and spoke against “wokeism.”
Something had changed. “We were doing fine,” Kristen Kavanaugh, former head of inclusion at Tesla and co-author of Courage Over Fear, told HR Brew of how the company’s DEI was performing when Musk began attacking DEI. She said “there was never pushback”on the DEI programming before. “That’s why it was so mind-blowing to me when Elon’s rhetoric started to change…there was a dissonance of what I was seeing and experiencing, and what I was feeling when I was hearing.”
While Musk hadn’t issued a company-wide directive to end DEI, Kavanaugh felt it coming. “For me, it was vibes,” she said. “I basically stood in the gap between Elon’s tweets, our employees, and the media, and so trying to hold that space for everyone to keep us building cars—that was my goal.”
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Companies reassess their values. Tesla is hardly the first or last company to shift its stance or messaging on DEI, as HR Brew previously reported. Several companies, including Walmart, Amazon, McDonald’s, and CitiGroup have rebranded DEI.
Kavanaugh noted this approach may be a compromise for some executives who are uncertain what to do with their DEI programs. They see value in DEI, but are also afraid of the potential government or public threats to the business. “They don’t want to get rid of everything, that they’re rebranding or repackaging in a way that they feel is safer,” she said.
While many companies are putting the brakes on DEI, there are several, including Costco, Apple, and JPMorgan that are pressing ahead. “These are the ones you have to focus on…They really understand that it is a business imperative—that DEI makes their business stronger.”
Kavanaugh believes some criticism of how programs are built is valid, but also believes that misinformation is largely fueling backlash against DEI. “We’re fighting people who are willing to be dishonest. And so how do you fight them with the truth and facts when that doesn’t matter anymore?”
The privilege of courage. Kavanaugh spent nearly six years at Tesla, and went on to examine DEI progress at the Department of Defense, but she never thought her job would be politicized. “We are sometimes just called to this work, and that’s the life that I have been given to experience some adversity,” Kavanaugh said, as she recalled several professional experiences, including serving in the Navy as a lesbian during Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and how her experiences shaped her views on work and society. “Now it is my choice to go and use that for good of other people, instead of just sitting and wallowing in it myself.”
In the wake of the threats against DEI, Kavanaugh believes the world needs more people who are willing to risk everything to speak up for what they believe in. “We need to see those big acts of courage from folks who have a lot to lose, and we watch and see that they don’t lose everything,” she said, noting it’s harder for everyday people to speak out if those in power aren’t courageous. “That’s when other dominoes start to fall for us, and we keep moving forward.”