Atlassian’s New Diversity Report Shows You Can’t Make Progress Without Transparency – Fast Company

Transparency is a tricky thing. Its easy to shine a light on what youre proud of when things are going great, and a lot harder to put on display anything that isntespecially when it comes to diversity and inclusion. To its credit, Atlassian justreleased adiversity reportthat isnt all As.

Like other tech companies,the Australian enterprise software company has made incremental gains by hiring more underrepresented minorities, but its still gotwork to do as its global workforce ofover2,200 continues to grow. Unlike other tech companies, Atlassian isnt shy about acknowledging that. Some choose not to report at all,even though delivering regular demographicsnapshots (good or bad) canbring business benefits all on its ownif only to learn whats workingand what isnt.

Related: These Entrepreneurs Are Done Waiting For Silicon Valley To Close The Racial Wealth Gap

Aubrey Blanche, Atlassians global head of diversity and inclusion, tells Fast Companythat the number of underrepresented minorities hired into itsmore than 700-person U.S. workforce (the only country that counts race when parsing the numbers) fell over the past 12 months, from 13% to 10.2%. Blanche says candidly that its largely because priority wasnt placed on hiring those candidates as the company grew.

Underrepresented minorities in tech roles did increase to 13.1%. Over one-third (32%) of all new hires since last Augustwere women, including 36% inleadership roles. And the shareof staff over 40 years old went from 11% to 15.7%.

Whats different about Atlassians report is that it focuses on its teamcomposition, not overall employeenumbers. While that team-level data looks promising at first glance (100% of teams in customer support, finance, and IThave at least one woman), Blanche admits that simply having one person from an underrepresented minority group on a team of mostly white males doesnt equal inclusion.

We realized we need to develop a stronger signal of belonging, and that needs to happen at the team level, she says. Team-level reporting suggested the experience of belonging is a great predictor of success.

To make staff feel like they belong,Blanche says Atlassian is focusing on teams cognitive diversitynot just gender, race, age, etc., but difference of experiences and ideaswhich she admits is really hard to measure because of the number of ways individuals can be different.

But in order for all these cognitive and other differences to make a positive impact, she maintains that companies and individual employees need a shared set ofvalues.Thats why Atlassian assesses candidates forvalues fit rather than culture fit, which Blanche notes can be riddled with unconscious bias. Lots of research finds that behavioral interviewing is the most accurate prediction of fit, she explains.So interviewers at the company ask specific questions like,Would you be willing to reconsider your original point of view? instead of relying on old standbys like, Where do you see yourself in five years?

In the meantime, Atlassian plans to continue sharing snapshots of its progress on diversity and inclusion.Adds Blanche, We need to create space for honest reporting of failures and learnings and constructive dialogue that respects the dignity and accomplishments of all of our teammates. Without that degree of transparencynot just at Atlassian but throughout the tech sectorthere isnt much chance for real progress.

Lydia Dishman is a reporter writing about the intersection of tech, leadership, and innovation. She is a regular contributor to Fast Company and has written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others.

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Atlassian's New Diversity Report Shows You Can't Make Progress Without Transparency - Fast Company