On culture: an interview with Mark Levy, head of employee experience at Airbnb. Leading industry experts answer your strategic questions
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| Pages | 278-279 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-09-2016-0083 |
| Author | Javier Bajer |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
On culture: an interview with Mark Levy,
head of employee experience at Airbnb
Leading industry experts answer your strategic questions
Javier Bajer
Javier Bajer is Editor-in-Chief,
Strategic HR Review and Founding
CEO at The Talent Foundation,
London, UK.
From a meeting with Mark Levy,
head of employee experience at
online vacation rental marketplace
Airbnb, we talked about the role of
culture in his organization and what
they are doing to create such a
success story.
Q: Mark, how does the culture of
your organisation affect the
business? Please give me a
concrete example?
A: We define culture as our shared
values and behaviours. Our mission
and values were defined by our
founders before they hired their first
employee. We hire based on
technical functional experience and
skills as well as whether an
individual has passion for our
mission and would further our
values. It’s important that they
possess both in order to be a good
fit for our company.
Our culture is based on our mission
of creating a world where anyone
can belong anywhere. Our
employee experience mission is to
ensure our employees feel that they
belong here at Airbnb. This
inside-out strategy helps bring our
mission to life, not just within the
community, but in our offices too.
To sum it all up, our culture is what
helps us to deliver on our business
goals. It’s what connects our
employees, hosts and guests and it
is what has helped us fuel our
growth and create connections
across the world in 191 countries!
Q: What do you find most difficult
when driving the culture at Airbnb?
A: Being a global company with
offices in 21 locations across the
globe, we need to understand and
be mindful about the different
customs, cultures and backgrounds
of our employees, which can pose
itself as an interesting challenge
when you’re in an environment that
is experiencing such rapid growth.
We want to be sure that our Airbnb
culture is strong among all of our
offices and that what makes us
special, the passion for our mission
and values, resonates in the way we
treat each other and the way we
embrace, respect and honour the
different culture of our global offices.
Q: How do you balance the need for
profit with the purpose of your
organization?
A: There is no question we are a
mission driven company. Our
mission is clear and it is why people
get up in the morning to come to
work, why we work so hard, and
what has each of us being a brand
ambassador. As I mentioned, we
interview for mission and values
and we use them to make the hard
decisions. With a mission to
change the world and create
belonging anywhere, we need to
start within.
Q&A
PAGE 278 STRATEGIC HR REVIEW VOL. 15 NO. 6 2016, pp. 278-279, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/SHR-09-2016-0083
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