Envato’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report for 2022

Report introduction courtesy of Envato’s Executive Sponsor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Anthony Burgon (CTO).

While Envato may face many challenges as a large, international business, we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing an environment for all of our Envatians that enables them to do their best work together safely. Looking back at our achievements for 2022 – whether it be partnerships, initiatives, investments, or training – there’s a lot of action taking place. But it’s only just beginning. While we’re proud of our continued journey to improve how we contribute to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for Envatians and those we work with, there’s always more to be done.

I’m grateful that Envato is a workplace that values people from all walks of life. With this value-based intent, people can bring their whole selves to their workplace with colleagues that value their contributions, where debates take place in respectful and constructive environments. Building an environment like this takes focus, effort, and most of all self-awareness, and it is this self-awareness that we are always looking to foster and grow. We need safety first before we can have a productive team-first environment, and this is where our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategy is working to ensure we have awareness of how people may feel excluded because of their gender, race, age, or otherwise. 

Being Envato’s executive sponsor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a role that’s both exciting and daunting; the responsibility is significant and important, but it enables me to work with a talented team of people that, like me, are passionate about how we can do our very best to continue how Envato evolves. 

While this report reflects on our outputs for 2022, I believe we have every reason to look forward to what we can achieve in 2023. This includes the creation of a DEI Leadership Group to own and develop our strategy. We’ll continue to engage with equity programs for women in tech via our Apprentice Program and through our revamped Tech Gender Diversity Network. We’re also enabling other diverse groups to gather and provide feedback via our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).

Most importantly though, we will endeavor to challenge ourselves and our unconscious biases to focus on a broader view of what diversity is and embrace it. A founding value of Envato is to “tell it like it is”, and with safety and respect the outcomes can only help us grow.

Anthony Burgon

Every year, we hold ourselves accountable to the Workplace Gender Equality Australia (WGEA) standards that promote and improve gender equality across Australian workplaces.

We also track our inclusion measures and benchmark annually against the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) to see how we compare to other organizations in relation to LGBTQIA+ inclusion.

Finally, we have been benchmarking against market insights and equity analysis from both Think & Grow and LinkedIn to ensure our salary data is in line with industry standards. 

Because we tell it like it is, here’s our key data from the last 12 months. 

Global headcount

Appointments and promotions

Over the last 12 months, we’ve made a number of updates to the policies and programs that underpin our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. 

We updated all of our policies to include an All In Commitment clause: a call out at the beginning of every policy template that reminds us all that Envato is focused on actively fostering diversity and promoting inclusion through our internal policies and procedures. We have a belief that everyone thrives if we champion diversity, equity and inclusion globally.

In November, we announced our Public Holiday Swap initiative. We recognize that Envatians have different religious and cultural practices, as well as different political beliefs. The Public Holiday Swap is an optional initiative and allows employees to swap up to four recognized public holidays for another day of significance to them.

Now in its sixth year, our incredibly successful Apprentice Developer Program is ​​a dedicated 12-month intensive learning program that provides new career pathways in tech for aspiring female developers. Off the back of its success, we grew the program further in 2022, expanding it by adding an additional mentor as well as doubling our intake to four apprentices a year.

Reflecting our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we deep-dived into our recruitment and hiring practices this year to ensure we are attracting diverse talent into the business. Gemma Saunders from ‘Workplace Edit‘ ran a workshop with our Talent team on ‘Equitable Hiring & Inclusive Candidate Experience’, with a follow-up session on the collection, storage, and use of diversity data which has helped drive some of the following changes: 

In 2022 we connected with a new cohort of partners to help grow our understanding of DEI, and support our ongoing activities. With these partners, we’re excited to continue to provide our staff with a workplace that allows them to bring their whole selves to work, whether it be in our offices or remotely. 

Grace Papers is Envato’s partner in supporting parents on their parental leave journey. It’s a coaching platform where employees and their managers can find support to care for themselves, their families, and their careers. In 2022 we held our first Keeping in Touch session for our people on parental leave hosted by our CEO Hichame Assi. We guided our parents through the Grace Papers platform and provided support for how to make use of their available Keeping In Touch days. From 2023 we plan to host these sessions quarterly.

Pride in Diversity’s employer support program has been essential in guiding us through LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion. Thanks to this program, in the last 12 months we were able to run LGBT Awareness and Ally Training for all our employees.

In 2022 we became a proud member of Transgender Victoria, an organization that works towards achieving justice and equity for trans and gender-diverse people, their partners, families, and friends.

In June 2022 we moved to a new Melbourne office. The workspace has been shaped with well-being and inclusivity in mind, including gender-neutral bathrooms, a space for meditation and prayer, a gender-neutral parents’ room, and a quiet working zone.

Our other office space based in Guadalajara, Mexico, was freshly refurbished this year to better provide onsite medical, psychological, and nutritional support. There is also a quiet space, a parent’s room, and increased signage around the office in both English and Spanish so that everyone can find their way around, regardless of nationality. We also offer coworking spaces for local Envatians who work outside Guadalajara so that everyone has an alternative, safe workplace if they experience issues at home. 

Finally, we held our first all-company connection event post-pandemic, with Envato Connect running across both Melbourne and Guadalajara in the last week of November 2022. To make these events as inclusive as possible we arranged quiet spaces in all our event venues, included pronouns on name tags, and had a diverse lineup of internal and external speakers, including Ben Bowen from the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, one of our inaugural Envato Foundation partners.

While Envato Connect was the biggest gathering on our calendar, we ran a number of other events across the year promoting inclusion, such as:

In 2022, the Envato Foundation entered its fifth year of operation, with more than $1.4 million in committed support to eight partners across Australia. From supporting school scholarships in regional Victoria to supplying books to remote Indigenous communities, the Foundation is well and truly honoring its commitment to partnering with charitable organizations to help our Indigenous communities have equal opportunity in achieving success through education and employment.

In addition to the activities undertaken by the Foundation, we also have four Mexico-based charity partners that we have funded totaling $108,800 USD; Cres Estipac, ONI, Mayama, and Operation Smile.

There is no end date to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. While this report gives us an opportunity to reflect and take stock of what we have achieved this year, it’s also essential in laying the foundation for our activities in 2023 and beyond. We have a number of big projects planned for the next 12 months already, including:

You can follow our Inside Envato blog for regular updates on our people, programs and events.