Ever since Mobile Jazz was born, we’ve put a strong emphasis on creating a solid company culture and we are proud of the philosophy we built around the business. Nowadays, more and more companies follow this new strategy where team happiness is as important as running a successful business, but this has not always been the case. At Mobile Jazz however, we’ve done things differently right from the start, building on remote work, flexible schedules and work-life balance.

Over the last nine years, the team has gone on more than 18 workations, including tropical places like Thailand, Martinique, and Cape Town – accommodation costs were covered by the company, of course. As a fully remote business, everyone can work according to their own schedule based on their personality and preferences. We’ve seen many engineers and designers achieving their personal goals – cycling over Europe, traveling around the world or simply building a family – while delivering high-quality, successful software solutions for big and small companies, including Airbus, Medtronic, and Worldreader, among others.

But to build this flexible ecosystem, it’s essential to have a robust company culture, team cooperation and proactiveness, which means that finding the right talent is crucial. When hiring new team members, we look for suitable candidates based on their skill set as well as personality. Someone who can not only do the job but who is aligned with our lifestyle and shares the same values.

Our website and blog mention some of the benefits we offer, but the truth is that it is difficult conveying what life at Mobile Jazz is like without experiencing it. To some of you, we might look just like any other digital agency, but that is certainly not the case. Continuously building upon a strong trust relationship, we offer more than workations and flexible schedules. But how can we paint the right picture for clients as well as for potential team members? With this question at hand the brainstorming began …

Conveying Our Vision

A few years ago, one of our team members shared Valve’s company handbook in our Slack coffee channel, the place for everyday chit-chats and for sharing things we find interesting. We liked the approach and thought, why don’t we try something similar? So our designers put together the contents and visuals for a 40-page document, diving deep into Mobile Jazz philosophy and culture. It covers many different topics, starting with an overview of the company history, efficiency rules and guidelines, rights and responsibilities of the team, and concluding with showcasing the events and workations we have organized with lots of fun pictures and visuals.

And just like that, we had our very own Company Handbook, one of our greatest assets to communicate who we are and how we work. Whenever we had to hire new people, we’d first send them the handbook. The reactions were always extremely positive as people were interested in learning more about us and wanted to join the team just because they liked what they’ve read in the document.

But it didn’t stop there – our philosophy is contagious. Many of our clients were amazed at how efficient our processes are and how good the lifestyle is that we created for the team. We were often asked how we did it, to a point where some of them even embraced our methodologies in their own companies.

“You’ve revolutionized the way we work.”

Eduardo Chavez – CTO Medtronic EMEA Diabetes Division

After questioning whether to make the document public or not, we realized that some people might get inspired or discover ideas that could be useful in running their own businesses. Little did we know what would happen next.

The Impact of the Company Handbook

After making the company handbook available on our website for anyone to download, we also shared it in discussions on Hacker News and Reddit about improving the team motivation and making a workspace more appealing.

Within 24 hours our Company Handbook had +50,000 downloads! We didn’t see this coming and were impressed with the lovely feedback we received. So many people got inspired by our company culture and asked for more information.

Recently, we were invited to attend a conference on software strategies for the automotive industry. Instead of speaking about code (like everyone else), we showed them how disrupting it can be to create the company culture we have, based on the information we gathered for the Company Handbook. We received excellent feedback and lots of questions about how our methods could be applied to their companies or departments.

Company Handbook 2.0

Mobile Jazz is constantly evolving. We always find new ways to improve efficiency, experiment with new technologies and create team events. Recently we launched MJ University, where we are closing our virtual doors for a week to run workshops and spend time together as a team, making the company better year after year.

To showcase these changes, we updated our Company Handbook and released a second edition which is now available for anyone who wants to take a closer look under the Mobile Jazz hood.

As mentioned before, our company relies on a solid trust relationship within the team, which is something you need to experience to fully understand. Thanks to the Company Handbook though, it’s easier than ever conveying what we’ve built over the past decade.

This little booklet has become a key asset for us. People who join Mobile Jazz come with the right expectations and values, and the integration happens faster and smoother. We are continuously striving to create an environment where you’re working with colleagues who share the same goals and interests.

If you want to know how we attract and retain talent, go ahead and download your Company Handbook copy for free! All we ask for is an email, where you’ll receive our quarterly updates that more than 10,000 people are enjoying already. And in case you need to give your inbox a break, you can unsubscribe at any time, of course!