http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com 71this, we actively encourage our people to work
with charities, and even match their donations
(we also blog about our team’s charity work
as much as we can). Many of our folks take
on marathons and other challenges for charity,
and they do so with our full backing.
Another key aspect of our culture-building
initiative is language. We’ve referred to ‘our team’
and ‘our people’ several times in this article, and
that’s no accident - we never call them ‘our staff ’
or ‘our employees’. We want to show everyone
that this is a community rather than a company,
a collective of talented people working together
to take on inspirational projects.
Indeed we try to ensure that, even though
we work remotely and are spread across several
different countries, we still have a real family
vibe. We’ve got dedicated Slack groups to chat
during the day, and we actively encourage our
team to plan trips on their own and visit each
other wherever they are in the world.
To back this up, we hold multiple worka-
tions per year. As well as being a reward for
our team (we hold the workations in fun,
exotic destinations and it’s all fully paid),
these trips reinforce our identity. We started
out as a group of friends who wanted to work
together, and, if we want to retain our people,
we need to retain this spirit.
There’s plenty more information about our
employee retention strategies in our recently
published culture book. (‘A quick Google
search for ‘Mobile Jazz Company Handbook’
will bring it up straightaway’). But we hope
there are plenty of useful takeaways in the
material we’ve provided.
We’re not saying our strategy is perfect - we
once had to part company with someone on
WKHLUÀUVWGD\EHFDXVHZHNQHZZH·GPDGHD
major mistake in the hiring process - but we
feel our retention record speaks to its success.
If you create a company which works for your
people, you’ve got a better chance of keeping
WKHPHYHQLI\RXGRQ·WKDYHWKHÀQDQFLDO
resources of a Google or Facebook to sweeten
the deal.AbouttheAuthors
Stefan Klumpp is an entrepre-
neur and investor who founded
Mobile Jazz in 2011. He has since
steered the company to seven-
ÀJXUH WXUQRYHU ZRUNLQJ ZLWK
companies such as Airbus, Skyscanner and
AVG. He previously worked on Stanford
University's driverless car project and is a
SURPLQHQWÀJXUHLQWKHJOREDOVWDUWXSFRPPX-
nity, thanks to his role as co-organiser of
TechCrunch Mobile in Barcelona.
Gareth Platt works as a consultant
with Mobile Jazz and has previously
worked with a number of promi-
nent business titles including The
Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.
He blogs regularly on the subject of telecom-
muting and the future of work.Studies have found that a majority of employees identify trust
as a key reason to stay, or leave, a company. Mobile Jazz is
living, breathing proof of that correlation.