Queensland University of Technology

CRICOS No. 000213J

ITB751/ITN751 Games Production Lecture 8

Human Resource Management

Ross Brown

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Lecture Contents

• Organisational Factors• Marketing Factors• Guest Lecture – Kirsten Boud, Pandemic

Studios

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Readings

• Textbook Chapters:– Chapter 12

• Websites:– http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010907/davies_03.htm -

mentions some aspects of team building and human resources– http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=5739

– a games company won a HRM award, so it can be done– http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1789/the_designers_not

ebook_employees_.php?print=1 – some notes on personnel management

– http://www.igda.org/articles/erobinson_crunch.php - great article against crunch time

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Human Resources

• “The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television” - Unknown

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Supporting Positions

• We now start looking at more supporting or surrounding positions within the games industry

• This is because a number of people in this unit will be from non-gaming backgrounds who may wish to enter the industry

• It also allows you to consider other positions that may interest you in the games industry

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Human Resource Management (HRM)

• Is the process of managing employees to help them achieve satisfaction in their job challenges, career progression, relationships with co-workers

• HRM is also seen as a far more effective way of managing employees full-stop

• Instead of controlling the employees, the intent is to win the employees commitment

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

How do you want your yolks?

• There are are two basic models of HRM– Soft– Hard

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Soft HRM

• Personnel and labour relationships can be dealt with under four human resource categories:– employee influence – responsibility delegated by management

to employee– human resource flow – flow of people through and out of the

organisation (recruitment, selection, promotion and termination)– reward systems – extrinsic (tangibles, pay etc.) and intrinsic

rewards ( from the work itself, to employees– work systems – the way people, information, activities and

technology are arranged to get work done efficiently and effectively

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Soft HRM

• Policy within the organisation must satisfy all the stakeholders:

• shareholders• Employees• Customers• Suppliers

• Communities• Trade unions• Associations• Government

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Four Cs

• Commitment – elicited on the part of employees• Competence – obtaining good employees• Congruence – between management and

employees• Cost-effectiveness – wage budgets, employee

turnover

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

How soft?

• This approach is soft due to reliance on people outcomes

• Shareholders are not seen as more important than other stakeholders – criticised as unrealistic

• However, employee needs can contribute to bottom line factors

• Other soft models come from the UK by Guest [1] – with 7 components instead of four

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Hard Models

• Often presented as the “Michigan” model due to the main advocate coming from Michigan University

• Employees are treated as a means to the organisation achieving its ends – Strategic HRM

• Performed in a purely calculative and rational manner

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Hard Models

• Focussed on the competitive success of the organisation

• Not such a simplistic issue – a business has to survive

• Focuses on the organisation and its existence in an environment

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Hard Models

• Management may overestimate its influence• Seeks to improve productivity thus…

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Four Components of Hard Model

• Selecting people who are best able to perform• Appraising performance to distribute rewards• Motivating employees by linking rewards to high

levels of performance• Development of employees to enhance their

current performance

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Soft and Hard

• Understandably most models used by firms have both approaches included into their management of personnel

• HRM is about an integrated approach to personnel management that seeks to develop an effective team – see the 25 point system in [1]

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Vision and Mission

Corporate Goals and Strategies

Business Strategy Marketing, HRM, Finance strategy

HRM Policy

HRM Plans

HRM Procedures

HRM Practice

A Model of Strategic Management, showing the place of HRM [2]

A Model of Strategic Management, showing the place of HRM [2]

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Main Tasks [2]

• Recruiting• Employee Development• Performance Assessment• Motivation• Rewards and remuneration

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Recruiting

• Implementation of recruitment programmes to find staff

• Systems – treating recruitment as a system with inputs/processing/outputs

• Procedures – what are the tasks to hiring

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Recruiting

• Advertising – placing of job advertising in a correct manner

• Shortlisting – filtering of applications• Organisation of selection – sitting down with

other team members to select the person according to selection criteria

• Overall administration of process

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Employee Development

• Aiding employees to progress their careers• Identification of developmental needs – don’t leave it to

the people themselves in all cases• Allowing for autonomy in training – time off for study• Provision of training in–house or as part of work time• Systems to keep track of all this information in a diverse

workforce – part timers, outsourced work…

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Performance Assessment

• Implementation of the rules regarding employee performance

• Work that must be accomplished• Criteria upon which it will be assessed• Objectives of exercise - not to fire the employee,

but to help them develop• Feedback to employee

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Motivation

• Facilitating peak performance from your employees

• Is strongly related to rewards• Includes recognition of intrinsic factors in

employees - eg. the creation of “kick-ass” games

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Rewards and remuneration

• Base pay – calculated according to studio policy, awards, contracts, general strategies...

• Bonuses – based on extra performance of team, company or individual…

• Benefits – health insurance, social clubs, travel allowances, shares…

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

Overall

• Work at quality of life for members – intrinsic factors such as contribution to society, creativity, sense of teamwork via creating a social and supportive culture with appropriate rewards for productivity

• This is required in a mature games industry – old “death march” practices have to be let go

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

HRM in Game Industry

• HRM is exceedingly important in the games industry

• Crunch time is often quoted as an onerous factor in the games industry

• Typical developer burn-out rates are quoted at 3-5 years

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Electronic Arts Law Suit

• Spouses filed a class action against EA regarding overtime spent developing games

• They won…http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9051

• To the tune of 30million dollars total – engineers and graphic artists

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Roles

• A lot of these issues revolve around the management of the project by the producer

• Thus the loss of people in a company, though is due to many factors

• The part the studio contributes is a synergy between the work of the producer, and the lack of an appropriate HRM approach

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

HRM Roles

• Thus we have game companies employing HR managers to aid the process of retaining employees and maximizing productivity

• The other reason for having HRM in the companies is to keep the staff even if they have reasonable working hours

• You may have a great company, but you still have to engender employee loyalty

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Poached Employees

• Employees may leave due to many reasons – challenge, pay, travel…

• Is often due to poaching by other companies• BTW, the local IGDA chapter has a strict no-

poaching policy at meetings…

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Roles

• You report to the general manager of the studio in order to implement the HRM policy

• You will deal with the leadership team, producer, lead developer, lead animator, Q/A, amongst others in order to operationalise this process

• You effectively communicate this policy and also implement these policies with employees

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Skills

• Masterful people skills – hello!!!! • You will have to be a people person• Interviewing – able to evaluate and extract

relevant skill information from prospective employees

• Listening skills – dealing with employee issues• Planning – set up a systematic management

approach to employees in your game studio

CRICOS No. 000213Ja university for the worldrealR

References

1. Pinnington, A. and Lafferty, G. Human Resource Management in Australia, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Australia, 2003

2. Maund, L. An Introduction to Human Resource Management: theory and practice, PALGRAVE, New York, USA, 2001