Why do employee retention strategies start failing when a company crosses 100 people?

I've been through it myself. Years ago, I founded an ethical, non-profit community organization called Planet Angel. Over two decades, it grew from a handful of lovely people to an ecosystem of over 200 Crew and volunteer Contributors.

As we grew, a kind of ‘separation’ started to happen, groups and teams stayed seperate.  I noticed the people running front-of-house rarely got time to speak to the tech teams doing lighting and sound. I found it difficult myself to stay connected with everyone.  It was something I didn't expect, or know how to deal with.

We tried having more meetings in pubs across London, but it didn't really work.  Then I came up with the idea (or maybe it grew naturally!?) of a camping weekend for all of us to really connect and say hi.  So we started Crew Weekenders

Working from 10am to rig, all through the night to 10am to derig is brutal ‘just get on with it’ work. But the weekends changed everything. People connected, mostly like "Hey, I saw you running front of house at the last event, right?" "Yeah, that was me! Wanna grab a beer?"

Boom. That is the exact moment Social Capital is born, and I noticed it.  If people don't really get the chance to connect at the ‘work place’ I’m sure we can all agree, there is a separation thing.

If you run a remote-first or hybrid company today, I can confidently say your people are probably experiencing that exact same disconnect.

I actually founded The Soul Camp a bit by accident, because I couldn't find a campsite that would feel comfortable with 200+ Planet Angel volunteers just wanting to connect in lovely countryside.

Over the last 20 years, we’ve honed the exact science of how to do this for our lovely clients.

I’ve watched Accounting departments build genuine empathy with Sales teams (yes, really!). 

I’ve seen global CEOs sit on a log and listen intently to a young new marketing recruit. And my absolute favorite: I’ve had neurodivergent team members pull me aside and say, "Thanks Pete, this is the first company event where I’ve actually felt comfortable being myself."

That doesn't happen by accident. It happens when you move away from transactional "forced fun" and craft an environment for people to connect.

There’s a reason why our festival production for MPG scored a 9.8/10 on their internal staff survey.

We can't do magic, (we’re working on that...) but we are total experts in crafting amazing festival productions that you and your people will love, feel included and be of huge social capital for your company.