Embracing the Future of Work: Lessons from Atlassian's Shift to Remote Work
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a sudden shift to remote work for many companies, including Atlassian. As employees were sent home to work remotely, the company saw a significant change in its workforce. With the flexibility to work from anywhere, many employees chose to relocate to different parts of the country or even the world. This shift has brought about new opportunities and challenges, and Atlassian has been at the forefront of embracing the future of work.
The Power of Flexibility
Atlassian's flexibility policy has enabled its employees to live and work in a place that suits their needs. Over the past two years, 10% of the company's staff have moved to another state or country, allowing them to find a better work-life balance. This flexibility has also enabled the company to attract new talent, with 42% of new hires working from a location more than two hours away from their traditional office.
Indexing Pay to Cost of Living
Atlassian pays its employees according to the local market rate, taking into account the cost of living in their chosen location. This approach helps to reduce the risk of overpaying or underpaying employees for their services. By indexing pay to cost of living, the company can ensure that its employees are fairly compensated for their work, regardless of where they choose to live.
The Future of Hybrid Work
While remote work has brought about many benefits, Atlassian believes that people will still need to get together in person to build social bonds and work together effectively. The company is exploring ways to enable intentional togetherness, such as regular meetups and social events, while also supporting remote work arrangements. This hybrid approach will allow employees to reap the benefits of remote work while still maintaining the social connections that are essential for collaboration and innovation.
Customer Insights
Atlassian has gathered insights from its customers, with 225,000 companies using its products worldwide. The data suggests that people are working longer hours and experiencing a "collaboration tax" as they navigate the challenges of remote work. This collaboration tax refers to the extra time and effort required to coordinate and communicate with team members in a remote work environment.
Challenges and Opportunities
Atlassian is working to address the challenges of remote work, such as communication breakdowns and the need for intentional togetherness. The company is also seizing opportunities to build new products and features that support the future of work, including tools for enhanced collaboration and communication.
Changing Work Hours and Collaboration Tax
Atlassian's data has revealed changes in work hours and collaboration patterns during the pandemic. Pre-COVID, people typically started work around 9:37 am and ended around 4:20 pm. During the pandemic, people started earlier and ended later, with a significant increase in work hours. In 2022, people started earlier in the morning and finished earlier in the afternoon, with a decrease in total work hours. This shift is attributed to the "collaboration tax" of trying to work out how to collaborate in a remote environment.
Atlassian Products
The company is working on products to support the future of work, including Atlas, a product that helps teams collaborate by bringing together goals, status, and team information in a teamwork directory. Atlas aims to reduce the collaboration tax and improve teamwork and communication. Atlassian is also working on products to help teams within different organizations collaborate, such as customer-supplier organizations.
Company History and Personal Background
Atlassian was founded by two co-founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who met while studying at the University of New South Wales. The company grew and became successful, with a focus on helping teams collaborate and communicate effectively. Scott Farquhar, one of the co-founders, has a passion for lego, bike riding, and the outdoors, and was involved in the scouts as a young person. He has no real business role models and did not have any entrepreneurial experience until after starting Atlassian.
Entrepreneurship and Business
Scott learned about business on the job and through reading books, such as "The E-Myth". He never attended a formal entrepreneurship program, but learned through self-study and experience. He joined a boarding school and gained frequent flyer points, which helped him get a computer.
Computing and Programming
Scott got his first computer, a Commodore 64, at a young age. He spent two years trying to make non-IBM compatible computers work with games, learning programming and setting up computers, but never got games working on that particular computer. He worked on the bleeding edge of computer technology, troubleshooting issues and finding ways to make things work.
Outdoors and Problem-Solving
Scott grew up in the outdoors, enjoying activities like scouting and camping. He developed problem-solving skills through experiences like trying to make non-IBM compatible computers work, which he brought to business, where he had to adapt and innovate to succeed.
Hacking and Resilience
As a child, Scott would take apart and reassemble toys, like Lego sets, to create new things. This ability to hack and reassemble things is still important in his business life. He worries about raising children who may not develop similar skills due to the ease of modern technology.
College Applications and Military Service
Scott applied to colleges in Australia, but also considered a defense force scholarship. He received a scholarship to study computing at the University of New South Wales. He accepted a military scholarship, but the acceptance letter was lost in the mail. He wonders what would have happened if the postal service had been more efficient, and whether he would have joined the military instead of becoming a software developer.
The Early Days of Atlassian
Scott and Mike dropped out of their scholarship program and started a startup together, providing support for another company's products. They quickly realized that this business was not lucrative and decided to build their own software. Their first product was Jira, which is still going strong 20 years later.
Product-Led Growth
The constraint of not having a sales force led them to focus on product development and marketing. They built Jira quickly and sold it for $800, with a discount for the first customer. This led to a virtuous cycle of building, selling, and iterating on their product. They eventually transitioned to a cloud-based model with free versions of their products and invested in their platform to bring new products to market faster.
Death Valley Moment
The toughest moment for Scott was when he received a message on his honeymoon that his company was under a cyber attack. He and Mike had to fly back to Sydney to help deal with the crisis. Scott's wife was understanding and flexible, allowing them to cut their honeymoon short. The lesson learned was the importance of teamwork and partnership, as Mike covered for Scott during his honeymoon and they worked together to respond to the crisis.
Core Belief
The core belief of Atlassian is that all good things come from collaboration between different people who bring different ideas and skill sets to the table. Scott and Mike believe that teamwork is what drives the company and makes it possible to achieve great things. This belief is reflected in their mission to help teams get the most out of their staff and is a driving force behind the products they develop.