Inside Atlassian – The #1 best place to work in Australia
Image painted in seconds by AI.
Try AI stories for employer branding
The work environment has come a long way in recent years, with Australian companies recognizing the importance of a happy workplace.
Once upon a time, employees would have been happy with unlimited access to the stationary cupboard, but with the standard being lifted, employees are now far more stimulated by a game of foosball at lunch, cold beers, and flexible work hours.
For more than 30 years, Great Place to Work® has studied the world’s most notable workplace cultures, from small start-ups to some of the best-known multinationals, and what makes them great.
Published by BRW, there were 25 Australian companies from a broad variety of industries and locations, ranked in order of best places to work.
There were a number of Information technology and software companies in the list, but topping it at number one for the second year running was Atlassian, one of Australia’s most successful tech start-ups.
Founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, Atlassian has grown exponentially. It now has more than 1000 employees across 12 cities.
Atlassian’s Chief People Officer Jeff Diana says the company’s dedication to its values make Atlassian stand out from a lot of other businesses, where core beliefs are merely abstract concepts.
Diana says that securing the right talent for roles is a big part of Atlassian’s success. Where some businesses take it for granted that people should naturally just want to work for them, Atlassian take nothing for granted; swooning their new hires with care packages containing information about the company and cool things from its swag store.
And not that you should be swayed purely by its perks, but Atlassian’s workspace features a full-stocked kitchen with four different beers on tap, a pool room and gamers lounge, showers with complimentary towel services, and free yoga, Pilates and boot camp.
Rather than shrink away at the mention of ‘flexible work’, Atlassian encourage it, and for five days of the year, they will even pay you to go and work at a charity of your choice.
Make it to five years and you will even get a free holiday.
Attrition rates at Atlassian are well below the average for the software field, which is surprising when you consider how hard it is to retain software engineers in the current market.
Co-founder Cannon-Brookes spoke to BRW and said that attracting good talent isn’t about being “cool”, it’s about being attractive and willing to fight. He says, “We need the best minds to work for us to make amazing products that compete on the world market. We do what it takes to attract, nurture and retain those incredibly talented people.”
Though Farquhar admits that his retention strategy is to ruin people (in a good way) so that they never want to work anywhere else, he adds that when people do leave, it is often to go and do their own thing.
But as is a familiar story for many Australian software companies, a shortage of local engineers is slowing down expansion plans.
Atlassian hired 100 people last quarter and expects to recruit another 200 in two years’ time. But Farquhar adds that there just aren’t enough good graduates coming out of university in Australia, which has forced them to turn their attention to south-east Asia, where they are planning to set up an engineering office.
The company, which was started with the help of a $10,000 credit card debt over 10 years ago, has a global revenue today of $215 million and growing.
