Today, Atlassian has been named one of the World’s Best Workplaces! We’re thrilled at this recognition and humbled that our employees have given us this vote of confidence.
We’re especially proud to receive this recognition in a year that came with so much change. No one needs reminding of how difficult the past 18 months have been, but through it all, our employees have shown resilience and adaptability, and have lived our TEAM values to the fullest.
It’s been a big year for Atlassian: we began our transformation toward becoming a distributed-first company with TEAM Anywhere; we’ve nearly doubled in the size of our employee base; and we continued to use our voice to advocate for societal issues like climate, voting rights, and women’s rights – all without being physically together.
So what makes a World’s Best Workplace, after you strip away the in-office perks and office experiences? We’ve done some reflecting and read what our employees had to say, and we have some ideas to share on building a great (remote) culture.
Do we have all the answers? No. But, spoiler alert: being honest about that is part of the equation.
How to build a great place to work in 2021 and beyond
Lead with values
Atlassian is a values-led company, and throughout our history, those values have not changed. While each country we operate in has a unique culture influenced by local customs and behaviors, our values are universal.
These values aren’t just a poster on a wall. They’re used and referenced in conversations across Atlassian every day. Our employees are proud of them and use them to determine how they show up for their teams and for our customers. In fact, our values are used in the performance evaluation framework that drives employee rewards, recognition, and promotions.
Our values are modeled in our company decisions, too. When we announced TEAM Anywhere last year, we ensured the new policy, and the way we rolled it out to Atlassians, were aligned to our values. We were honest with employees about the reasons behind the decision and admitted that while we didn’t have all the answers from the outset, we believed this was the right move for the company and the team. We used employee feedback to help shape the policies and build this new future together, so everyone felt they had a say in the process. And that leads us to…
Openness above all else
In a high-growth company where we’re constantly adapting to challenges, trust within our team has to be at the forefront, and this is built through our open culture. One of our core values is “Open Company, No Bullshit”; Atlassian is committed to creating a culture where people believe they can show up as their true authentic selves, voice their opinion, and actively contribute to the future we are building.
But in order to make that a reality, employees need to trust that leadership is guided by values and committed to transparency. So we’re also honest with our teams – we don’t get all the decisions right, but we’re always open. We believe that owning up to not knowing something as a leader or admitting a mistake helps foster trust across the company.
And every employee feels they have the opportunity to make their voice heard. Atlassian uses our own tool, Confluence, as the central hub for all things happening across the company. It’s a place where work, conversations, and personal stories converge and help people feel connected, even as we continue to grow. Confluence is open by default, so people at all levels of the company can follow along on a project, engage in conversations, and understand each other better. This is also where we share company news and big decisions – and it allows for a two-way conversation to happen that is visible to the whole company.
We know that encouraging this kind of dialogue with our staff helps build trust, and it will remain a priority as we continue to grow.
Be the change
Atlassian strives to stand up for what’s right and make the hard calls, and we aren’t afraid to plunge into the unknown. We try to be courageous and let our values lead us. Sometimes we do fail, but we’ll never give up on this as a guiding principle.
We firmly believe that the future of work is highly flexible and distributed, and we’re building our products with that future in mind. So when the pandemic hit, it didn’t take us long to decide to offer this flexibility permanently. We unveiled a new transformation called TEAM Anywhere, which allows our employees to choose where they work, whether that’s in an office, from home, or a combination of both. It also allows our employees to decide where they should live based on what’s best for them and their families.
This is new territory for us, and a huge change for our employees. For many, this means a complete lifestyle shift. For others, it means only seeing their team members in person a few times a year.
We’ve been honest with our employees that this is uncharted territory, and we don’t have all the answers. But we’re committed to sharing each decision and our progress along the way.
We also aren’t shy about standing up for what’s right. Atlassians see how we use our voice to stand up for social and environmental issues, and it gives them confidence that they’re contributing to creating a better world. We also put philanthropy at the forefront via the Atlassian Foundation, donation matching, and five full days of volunteer time for each employee. We all take great pride in striving to do the right thing by way of our team, the communities where we operate, and the planet.
We know Atlassians feel they can make a positive impact on the world by working with us and by building great products for our customers, but also by contributing to philanthropic and corporate responsibility initiatives that make the world a better place.
Of course, there are many considerations to make when determining how to build a world-class culture. These three keys are helpful reminders to us, but they’ll continue to evolve as we grow and learn. We’re extremely proud to be a World’s Greatest Workplace, and that our global team is inspired by what we’re building.
Interested in joining the team? If you’re curious about careers with Atlassian, check out our opportunities for more information. We’re hiring in all of our offices around the globe!