Atlassian co-founder says research finds a third of Australian and US workers will quit if they do not like employers’ values

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Company bosses need to speak out about environmental and social issues if they want to keep their staff and stay in business for the long term, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-chief executive of Atlassian, said.

Research done for Atlassian by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers showed almost a third of Australian and US workers were willing to quit their jobs if their employer acted in a way that did not align with their values.

“The responsibility of business leaders to provide leadership in areas of the community and participate in leadership alongside government and other groups is something they should be aware of,” Cannon-Brookes said.

The number of people willing to leave a company over its stance on social issues was “a lot higher than we expected across the generations”.

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“There’s a cost of inaction as much as there’s a cost of action here,” he said.

Top issues for Australian workers were the cost of living, the long-running drought and access to healthcare.

Mental health, the cost of healthcare, pollution and the climate crisis also featured heavily among workers surveyed in December, before the bushfire season hit its peak.

“Anecdotally, and obviously in the media and other areas, climate change, long-term planning, listening to experts – there’s a lot of things that I think the horrific summer that we’ve had have highlighted in the minds of society in general,” Cannon-Brookes said.

“People in society [whose] house was confronted by a bushfire emergency, they’re people that work in businesses. Businesses are collections of people; business leaders are people.”

In the US, workers were most concerned with the cost of healthcare, the highest in the developed world at almost 17% of gross domestic product.

Access to healthcare, mental health and poverty were among US workers’ top concerns, pushing environmental issues – including pollution and global heating – down the table.

Cannon-Brookes has been outspoken calling for companies to take positions on economic and social issues.

Grok Ventures, his and wife Annie’s private investment vehicle, has supported shareholder resolutions put forward by the activist group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, designed to put pressure on BHP to quit the Minerals Council.

Cannon-Brookes said other business leaders often told him they agreed with his positions on social and environmental issues but felt they could never go public.

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“If we could remove some of the hesitation, the fear, some of the sense that this is going to be a negative thing for one’s business or one’s personal position, I think we’ll have better conversations as a whole,” he said.

He slammed commentators who have called for business leaders to abandon social activism in favour of a narrower focus on generating returns for shareholders.

“I’m not sure that the people who are theoretically commenting on returns to shareholders understand how returns to shareholders work,” he said.

“Those returns are generated by the employees at some level in whatever business you are.

“Attracting and retaining fantastic people is a non-trivial exercise in business nowadays.

“There’s a huge correlation if you look at corporate social responsibility between profitable, sustainable businesses and those who care about their corporate social responsibility.

“One of businesses’ goals is to stay in business, and to be a sustainable business you need to have fantastic people and take longer-term sustainable positions on a lot of issues.”

He said the survey showed employees wanted their business leaders “not to hide in the corner when it comes to important issues for society at large”.

PwC surveyed 1,300 Australian and 2,500 US workers across age groups and industries.

A partner at PwC, Diane Rutter, said the research showed the risk of inaction for employers was high.

“There is a vocal younger cohort or generation coming through the workplace that are personally engaged and quite vocal around societal issues, and their expectations of workplaces are equally high,” she said.

Employers who thought they could ignore the data should also be aware there was a reward for taking action.

“There’s a large portion of employees that agree that businesses known for speaking out on issues important to them are much more attractive as future employers,” she said.

“We see that is significantly higher for Generation Z – so again, that generation coming through.”