Attracting and Retaining Gen Y: Atlassian’s Got The Answers

In 2013, a global generational study called “NextGen” was jointly conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the University of Southern California and the London Business School to examine the aspirations, work styles and values of “Millennial”/”Generation Y” employees (defined as those born between 1980 and 1995).

The study, which included more than 40,000 responses and is the largest comprehensive global generational study ever conducted into “Milennial” employees, identified many of Gen Y’s key influences in terms of career and work. The findings established the following primary drivers in the workplace for this generation:

• Flexible work environment;
• Strong cohesive team-oriented culture;
• Fully leveraging technology;
• Increased transparency around {nolink}compensation{/nolink}, rewards and career decisions;
• Sense of community;
• Global mobility program;
• Evaluation of the impact that “Millennials” may have on the contingent workforce strategy of your organisation;
• Investment of time, resources and energy to listen to and stay connected with employees;
• Remember that one size does not fit all.

Atlassian’s Got It Right

Atlassian is Australia’s fastest growing software engineering company, and was voted the best place to work in Australia for 2014, and the seventh best place to work in the USA in the Great Place to Work Institute’s national survey of more than 28,000 workers. A private company headquartered in Sydney, it has grown to over 900 employees around the world during its ten-year history.

Atlassian’s employee population consists mainly of people between the ages of 25 — 34 (Generation Y), and I recently met Rick Von Feldt, Head of Learning and Development at Atlassian, to take a closer look at how the company manages to attract and retain this next generation of talent.

Is This the Workplace of The Future?

Intriguingly, Atlassian aims to create such an appealing work environment and culture that it “ruins people for life,” so that they will never be able to find a better job or a better place to work than Atlassian. The company operates according to the following five agreed values that resonate with their Generation Y employee population:

1. Open company, no bullshit;
2. Build with the heart and balance;
3. Don’t #%@& the customer;
4. Play as a team;
5. Be the change you seek.

Atlassian hires in line with these values, which have become the common language of the company. New employees enjoy a one-week induction program prior to commencement, where the above standards and expectations are reinforced. Other appealing aspects of the workplace include:

• It’s a “Founder Driven” Business: Founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquar are hands-on, humble and very present in the organisation. They want to build a business that will last 50 years and will grow far beyond the two of them.
• Evolved Motivation: As explained in Daniel Pink’s book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” (Canongate, Edinburgh 2009), Atlassian enables people to be their best through providing opportunities for autonomy, mastery and purpose:
  • Autonomy — people work in teams, each individual knowing what they need to accomplish. They receive lots of perks and{nolink}benefits{/nolink}, and there is also a strong culture of accountability;
  • Mastery — people are challenged. They’re also supported to do the work that they are most passionate about, with trust and respect;
  • Purpose — employees believe they are helping humanity by building software that people need, such as team based software.
• Culture: Adding more than 600 employees this financial year, Atlassian is effectively re-creating itself every 18 months. How do you preserve the company culture with this headcount growth? According to Jeff Diana, Chief People Officer,“You can never preserve a culture. What you can preserve are your values, and your values drive what you do.”
• Work Environment: Being a 100% team based culture, there are no offices. Instead, there are rooms and open spaces with couches, tables and chairs, pool table/games room so that colleagues can collaborate and work in a relaxed yet inspiring setting.

Other Uniquely Atlassian Ideas:

• Open and transparent isn’t just a slogan: the company’s financial statements and plans are published internally for comment, and leaders have “open mike” time answering questions from employees;
• HackHouse Induction: graduate hires spend a week at the beach completing challenges and getting to know the company;
• Twenty Percent Time: similar to Google, people can spend a fifth of the week working on their own projects;
• ShipIt Days: each quarter time is set aside for employees to spend 24 hours working on anything they want, and then they can present their ideas to the rest of the company;
• Beer Cart: at 4pm on Fridays newbie staff members will ride the beer cart (bicycle cart filled with drinks and snacks) around the office, as a way of meeting the rest of the staff;
• Other Cool Stuff: a drinks fridge, craft beer on tap, pool table, table tennis, video games, board games, frequent celebration of wins, t-shirt wearing, bike-to-work culture and parties.

Atlassian is clearly getting quite a few things right. Last month the company announced a rise in sales of 44% to $215 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, an acceleration on last years’ numbers when sales rose 35% to $149 million.

In addition to this success, the organisation – primarily made up of Generation Y employees – is winning international accolades for being a great place to work. The Society for Human Resources recently reported that 30% of the worldwide workforce, or 81 million people are Generation Y, and this is set to increase over the next two decades. While the Atlassian environment and culture won’t work for all businesses, it is certainly interesting and worthwhile to understand what appeals to – and brings out the best in – Generation Y.

1. Article “The Best Places to Work” by Fiona Smith, Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Vanessa Desloires, Boss Australian Financial Review Magazine, September 2014, Volume 15.