Atlassian chief Mike Cannon-Brookes: Values crucial to staff

Australia’s business leaders need to step up and be vocal about important issues, according to Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes Picture: John Feder

Australia’s business leaders need to step up and be vocal about important issues like climate change, according to Atlassian co-CEO and billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, who says workers — particularly millennials — will leave businesses that don’t fit their personal values.

Tech outfit Atlassian commissioned a study from PwC that found 39 per cent of employees agreed or strongly agreed that if their employer was to act in a way that didn’t align with their values, they would quit their job.

Twenty-two per cent of baby-boomers and 25 per cent of Gen X said the same, in the survey that Mr Cannon-Brookes said was proof workers were now expecting their businesses to show leadership and not just stay quiet.

“There is a responsibility for businesses and business leaders now to provide leadership in a lot of areas,” Mr Cannon-Brookes told The Australian. “And at the same time there’s a hesitation among business leaders to speak out. People say to me ‘I love what you said here, but I couldn’t say that’, and I’m like … ‘you could’.

“If we can do anything to remove that hesitation from speaking out about issues that matter, I think that would be a win. And it does make a difference, if you look at the statistics around what can be gained from taking action, and the cost of inaction.”

The co-CEO, who has been an outspoken critic of Scott Morrison’s leadership, added that it was not just up to Canberra to find ­solutions to societal challenges.

“Business has a huge role to play here,” he said. “And the benefits are not trivial. Businesses are collections of people sitting in a building with a common goal. And the war for talent is real. Some of the bigger issues we’ve taken, like RE100 last year for example, we saw recruitment go up afterwards.

“That’s the return on action, you get people into the business and there is a cost of inaction, which is people leaving your business for somewhere that does care more.”

As The Australian previously reported, Atlassian paid zero tax in Australia despite drawing in more than $1bn in local revenue, after using research and development tax credits to offset $137m in taxable income.

Mr Cannon-Brookes rejected the premise that a company needed to pay tax in Australia to have a voice in how the country should be shaped.

“We spend a huge amount of income on R&D to create new things and create jobs in Australia and that’s what we try to do,” he said.

“And it’s not just young people caring about this stuff. When I talk to people who have been in business for 40 or 50 years, they say they’ve never been asked so many questions now about ‘why should I work for these guys?’ They’re now being asked, ‘what’s your policy on this?’ or ‘how do you feel about that?’

“People should vote with their feet and think about where they work. Life’s too short to work somewhere that’s not making a difference at the same time.”

The research found that cost of living, drought or access to water and health (access to healthcare, cost of healthcare and mental health) were the issues most important to Australian employees.

It also found 62 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that big business had increased responsibility, now more than ever, to address key societal issues facing the ­nation, while 67 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that business leaders should hold politicians to account on major issues.

Sixty-nine per cent agreed that businesses should be just as concerned with their societal impact as they were with their financial performance. Only a third of employees (34 per cent) said they were satisfied with the level of ­action their employer was taking on key societal issues.

“This was a robust piece of research,” PwC partner Diane Rutter said. “The workforce is really engaged on issues that matter most to them. And I’d suggest to business leaders, how deeply are they aligned to issues that matter to their employees. And how are businesses creating two-way dialogues with employees to understand what matters to them. Especially for that younger generation, because we can see their voice coming through.”