Days after Tesla ended up paying $137 million in damages to a former employee who accused the car manufacturing company of racial discrimination, the pressure to reveal the demographic details of its workforce seem to be mounting.
With investors increasingly becoming more committed to racial diversity and expecting it from companies, Tesla may have to become more transparent and release its diversity report.
More investors are of the belief that it makes business sense to invest in companies with a diverse workforce as diversity ensures better performance, productivity and success in the long run. Therefore, the demand for transparency with regard to diversity details of the workforce is more to do with being able to make sound investment-related decisions.
Meanwhile, Tesla maintains that it already prepares a diversity report with details of its diversity goals and initiatives.
However, if the pressure from the shareholders mounts, Tesla may have to now give finer jobwise details about the gender and race of its employees, which will help decide whether it gives equal employment opportunities. This report, which is usually filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does not have to be made public unless the concerned company chooses to do so.
Tesla’s previous disclosures reveal that a good majority of its leaders are men, with well over half of them being white. Only four per cent of the leaders are Black. The report revealed that 79 per cent of its team comprises men. In fact, 75 per cent of its new recruits are also men and a majority of the promotions (77 per cent) go to men only. Only a 10 per cent of its workforce comprises Blacks.
