Atlassian, the enterprise software company behind HipChat and JIRA that went public back in December, just released its first-ever diversity report. There’s really nothing surprising nor commendable about it, but I’m all about releasing these reports for the sake of transparency. Quick note: Atlassian’s headquarters are in Sydney, Australia, but the numbers around race only pertain to employees based in the U.S.
Here are the key stats for Atlassian’s current workforce: 75 percent male worldwide, and 73 percent white, 17 percent Asian, 5 percent Latino and 2 percent black in the U.S. Since last year, Atlassian has improved in terms of increasing female representation and decreasing white representation. In the last year, for example, 29 percent of its hires have been women and 9 percent have been Latino. Though, very little progress has been made with hiring black people. Only 2 percent of Atlassian’s new hires in the last 12 months were black.
“We realize this is where we’ve made the least progress, and something we’re explicitly committed to addressing in the upcoming year,” Atlassian Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion Aubrey Blanche told TechCrunch. “We already started building relationships with professional organizations and nonprofits like Tech Inclusion, which will help us diversify our talent pipelines. Earlier this year we also invested in creating net new talent in the industry through our Atlassian Opportunity Scholarship with Galvanize Full Stack. Those partnerships are just a start as we seek to continue to grow our partnerships as a critical part of our overall diversity efforts.”
Atlassian says it has also launched and revamped unconscious bias training, employee resource groups and revised the way it evaluates potential employees. Below are all the stats:
Atlassian also reported team-wide diversity numbers because the company recognizes tht diverse teams are more productive. Some stats: 71 percent of all teams at Atlassian have at least one woman and 66 percent of U.S.-based teams have at least one person of color.
“Diversity cannot be just a corporate numbers game,” Blanche said in a release. “If we truly want to make a dent in the issue, we need to refocus the conversation on more meaningful indicators like team diversity and inclusiveness. That wider diversity lens needs to be met with investment in initiatives that can move those needles.”
Atlassian’s diversity report falls in line with reports from other big tech companies. Apple, for example, is also mostly white (54 percent) in the U.S. and male (69 percent) worldwide. Though, Atlassian is actually whiter and heavier on the testosterone than Apple.