The European Business Review - July-August 2019

http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com 69

People Management

HOW TO MAXIMISE EMPLOYEE

RETENTION RATES IN THE

JOB-HOPPING AGE

BY STEFAN KLUMPP AND GARETH PLATT

In a world where 1 in 4 employees quits within
90 days, how do you hang on to your best and
brightest? Software company Mobile Jazz has
come up with a winning formula which any
company can follow - even if they don’t have the
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t a time of near-full employment, with a
booming gig economy and a scarcity of
digital skills, it’s becoming harder and harder
to cling on to talented staff. Research from LinkedIn
shows the average global staff turnover rate is now
10.9 percent, and over 1 in 4 employees quit within
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For employers, this trend is potentially disas-
trous. If someone new quits, it paints a picture of
discontent within the company and can destabilise
more senior employees. If the resignee is a long-
standing member of the team, they take a huge
bank of knowledge with them, which will take
months if not years to replace.
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they can to maximise employee retention rates.
For companies such as Mobile Jazz, this is doubly
important; we’re tryingtoestablishourselvesin
the technology sector,
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year, which could have
additional challenge,as
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offer greater security.
We’ve put a dedicated
retention system in pl

drawing on the advantages of being a distributed

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years or more, while the average stay for people

in top tech companies is only 2.1 years. None of

the people who were with us when we became a

fully remote company last spring have decided to

quit. They’ve supported our vision and bought a

ticket for our journey.

Personal growth

Why are people so keen to stay with us? Well

we pay a very good base salary, but we certainly

don’t try to compete with the giants of the tech

world, the Googles, the Apples or the Facebooks.

Thankfully we’re living in an age where people are

less motivated by money than their predecessors,

and we feel we’ve built a seriously competitive

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our people’s day-to-day working life.

A lot of companies, particularly in our space,

have gone down the ‘whacky’ route to building

their culture. They’ve installed all kinds of novelty

furniture, from ping-pong tables to Arcade

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oday’s tech workers really think about such

cks,you’ll understand why.

eadof cheapening our employee experience

novelty fads, we’ve given our team some-

they actually want: a personalised growth

hich lets them develop within the company.

read reams of research that emphasise the

Most of our

employees have

been with the

company for

five years or

more, while the

average stay for

people in top

tech companies

is only 2.1 years.

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