Dive Brief:
- Software company Atlassian has made its own diversity and inclusion tool free to the public, it announced last week.
- Atlassian said the Balanced Teams Diversity Assessment enabled it to use data to improve balance and belonging in its workplace. Aubrey Blanche, Atlassian’s global head of diversity and belonging, said in a blog post that she spent her first four years on the job manually turning data into actionable solutions — a task she said few HR professionals have time for.
- Using the tool, Atlassian said it has cut attrition rates for women in technical roles in half during the past three years.
Dive Insight:
Team success can depend on each member feeling like a respected and equal participant. Blanche noted in her blog post that a lack of role models or balanced representation of a particular identity group is associated with a lack of belonging and that being an "only" on a team (such as the only woman) can be isolating and lead to attrition.
According to some research, diverse teams are the most successful. But diversity needs inclusion, and that starts with culture, Jim Barnett, founder and head of Glint, previously told HR Dive. "Diversity without inclusion leads to a low sense of belonging," increasing attrition rates, he said. "So you've got to get the whole equation right on your culture. You've got to create an inclusive culture where people feel like they belong at your company."
But despite many organizations' best D&I efforts, some workers still aren't seeing the benefits. According to a recent report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), roughly 25% of workers in diverse groups receive no benefit from these programs. The problem? Leaders often underestimate the barriers to recruiting, retaining and advancing diverse workers, BCG said, which leads them to misallocate resources.
