Growing a more inclusive and diverse Envato

When Envato enshrined diversity and inclusion in its values, it did so on a very clear understanding: that the company, and the people within it, will thrive if we continue to champion for positive change. Our leaders reflected at the time that it was on all staff to take up the responsibility for ensuring Envato was a place where talented, value-driven people thrive; a workplace that was welcoming, respectful and supportive.

A happy snap of some of the Envato staff at our Melbourne HQ

But such an approach still remains the exception, and not the rule. A recent Atlassian study revealed that while as many as 80% of the US tech sector believes diversity and inclusion (D&I) is an important issue, as many as 50% of those same respondents have decreased their participation in programs related to D&I. It’s an alarming figure when all evidence points to the number of easily definable benefitsa diverse workforce provides.

So while some of the biggest tech companies in the world, such as Spotify and Pinterest, took up the mantle and shared their diversity data in 2018, we continue to be served reminders of just how many challenges exist in continuing to make the sector a more inclusive place, despite the prominence of discussion around such issues.

Below you will find a summary of both new and existing activities that showcase how Envato has focussed on its commitments to growing a culture of inclusiveness and diversity across all aspects of our people experience and levels of the company, an approach that goes beyond just focussing on improved hiring practices as we scale our business.

This is now the fourth year we’ve reported on such activities, and you can read the 2017 report here.

Existing Activities

Gender equity across the business

One of the most visible and important measures we’ve set for ourselves at Envato is growing the number of female staff across all levels of the business. There’s never been a more important time to do this, with recent studies showing that while women are entering the tech force at an increased rate, the growth is still slowing(US), even if they’re able to land tech jobs at all (UK).

“We need to ensure that the possible pipeline of female tech talent feels empowered about their career and that opportunities will exist for them if they go down this path,” said our Chief People Officer Michelle Ridsdale. “The most inspired and proactive young women who are keen to get involved in tech are often still finishing their education, so it’s still going to take time for a major shift to happen.”

In 2018, we saw an increase in female representation across the business, growing by 6% when compared to the year before. It’s worth noting that we are well aware that our current reporting has a binary view of gender, and is not inclusive of those who are gender diverse or non-binary. This is something we are seeking to resolve in future reporting on this subject.

In technical roles – be they developers, product managers or UX and UI experts – we’ve also seen an equivalent increase.

Growth in representation across all other, non-technical, roles was slower, but in line with the previous two years.

Finally, Envato’s leadership structure has never been more diverse, with this cohort of female staff growing by 7% when compared to 2017 levels.

Developer Apprentice Program

In 2017 we launched a successful trial of a developer apprentice program targeted specifically at women wanting to enter the tech sector in a technical or development role. It was a lot of fun and we received a heap of great feedback from all involved. So in 2018, we offered it up again, with the second cohort of fantastic candidates currently embarking on their new career path.

From left: Envato co-founder Collis Ta’eed, Chief People Officer Michelle Ridsdale, inaugural apprentice Jaime Gunther, apprentice trainer Mario Visic and Sharon Vaughan, who was another of the inaugural apprentices. Photo courtesy of AFR/Josh Robenstone

Mental health training for managers

This has been a consistent part of our inclusiveness program for the last few years, and as part of R U OK Day, we ran another two mental health awareness and resilience sessions for Envato’s people managers.

Ally and pride training

This year we partnered with Pride in Diversity to run the second round of ally awareness training. The training focused on three different aspects of being an ally, as well as the importance of LGBTI inclusion and awareness.

Envato CXO Justin French joins in the Pride Month celebrations at HQ.

Targeted partnerships, including Code Like A Girl

One of Envato’s core values is that ‘When The Community Succeeds, We Succeed’. A big part of that is partnering with industry groups, not-for-profits and tech communities of all sizes, to try and have a positive impact in the areas in which we operate. One such partnership which entered its third year in 2018 was our sponsorship of Code Like a Girl. We love watching this organisation grow as it supports more and more girls and women to flourish in the world of coding. In turn, the team at Code Like a Girl have also provided group mentoring sessions to our own women in tech at Envato.

AWEI submission

For the third straight year we completed an Australian Workplace Equality Index submission. We’ve found that this process gives us a great gauge on our LGBTI inclusion practices, as benchmarked against other organisations around Australia, both within our sector and further afield. While we have great engagement within our LGBTI community, we know we have more work to do in providing more consistent practices to build on that level of inclusion.

Supporting international campaigns through local events

Envato is very lucky to have an active and engaged group of staff, not just in our Melbourne HQ but around the world as well. As a group, we’ve thrown our support behind major national and international awareness campaigns such as Wear It Purple Day, International Women’s Day and Pride Month.

Envato HQ was as vibrant as it’s ever been for Wear It Purple Day

New Activities Envato hosted a health and wellness expo at HQ for the first time in 2018.

Unconscious bias training

All new starters at Envato are now asked to complete a training program on unconscious bias as part of their onboarding program. While such programs won’t solve our problems of bias on their own, we believe it’s important that we are all aware of the effect our biases can have on who we are and how we work.

Family Violence Leave

The Australian Government has identified family violence as a major national health and welfare issue, with recent data highlighting just how prevalent and damaging such occurrences are. Envato has long supported the New Day Box project and in 2018 we introduced our first Family Violence Leave guideline, for any staff who experience a family violence-related challenge in their life. The guideline provides for 5 extra days of paid leave a year.

Updated Parental Leave

You may have seen our Chief People Officer Michelle Ridsdale talking about this issue already, but we feel like the Aussie tech sector could always do more to support parents who work in tech, especially as the number of women entering the local sector workforce increases.

Our updated parental leave policy includes:

• Increasing primary caregiver leave from 18 weeks to 20 weeks, full pay
• Increasing partner leave from two to three weeks, full pay
• Providing two professional coaching sessions to the parent taking primary leave, to better assist with their workforce and professional development planning
• All primary caregivers will also receive superannuation across both the paid and unpaid portions of their leave. For example, if a primary caregiver was to take 12 months of leave, Envato would continue to pay their superannuation contribution for the full year, even if the paid leave concluded at 20 weeks.

Safe Space Guidelines

Envato isn’t as small as it once was and we don’t always know each other well enough to know what’s okay and what’s not for someone else. We want Envato to be a place where people feel safe, heard, able to speak openly and with respect when communicating with others. Our new Safe Space Guidelines aims to ensure that as we grow, we continue to live by our values of Diverse and Inclusive, Fair Goand Tell It Like It Is.

Inaugural developer apprentice Sharon Vaughan and Organisational Development Consultant Bec Covington attend the Victorian Tech Diversity Awards in 2018, where Envato was shortlisted in the Business category.

LGBTQI representation in Great Place to Work survey

We introduced an LGBTI demographic to the annual Great Place To Work surveywe participate in every year. This has given our LGBTI community the opportunity to tell us how they feel about working at Envato, which will allow us to provide better awareness and support in the future.

--

This article was first published by Envato.