Mon 9 Jun 2008
I had the distinct/rare opportunity to speak to a room full of game industry HR folks. It was the mid-year gathering of the Entertainment Software Human Resources Association (ESHRA), and I was one of their invited speakers.
I had heard a few whisperings about ESHRA over the years, but really didn’t know much. And, a web search doesn’t turn up any info. Turns out that they are not so much trying to be a secret society, as they are just super busy folks without techy/webby skills… Putting a web page is on the top of their to-do list!
While my presentation was somewhat big-picture industry structure and economics oriented, the opening session by Brent Ross of the Great Place to Work Institute was very specific on, well, being a great place work. Brent discussed a framework that included components on credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. He noted that the question that correlates most highly with a great place to work is: “Does management have a sincere interest in me as a person outside of work?” Hmm…
He also gave plenty of examples, discussed quality of life, and covered reasons to justify being a great place to work (eg, better financial performance, lower turnover, etc).
Sadly, when it came time for the roundtable discussions, I was asked to leave the room - being the only non-HR (and non-member) in the room. It was the right thing to do, but I was hoping to get some inside juice on HR issues…
Not surprisingly, the majority of attendees were women (probably 55 out of the 60 or so there). And, in talking with several HR directors, you really did get the sense that they view themselves as den mothers to their crazy pack of game developers (one even had “Wendy to the Lost Boys” on her business card). From that, also comes this deep sense of caring and concern, and the pride that they are an integral part of the process - even if they are often not viewed with the same respect/recognition as production by most folks.
Oh, and some of them drink a lot…
Anyway, was an eye-opening and valuable experience that I feel very fortunate to have had - and survived. I joked with them, saying that I feared they were going to shoot me now that I had seen all their faces ;)
The event was hosted at the main EA campus in Redwood City, CA
Brent Ross outlines the Trust Index framework
Inside EA
Beach volleyball, basketball courts and kiddie park all active during lunch
HR folks heading back to class, across the lovely EA grounds
June 11th, 2008 at 7:10 am
did you ever locate a website for eshra?
June 19th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Very interesting, Jason. It’s good that this event happened, and it would be even better if that organization had a higher profile. My beef with HR managers is that for some reason — I think because of the theoretical way they approach their work — they can, ironically, be so incredibly impersonal, even inhuman. They understand HR on the basis of numbers — that you want to treat your employees well because of factor X, Y, Z on your bottom line — yet the rhetoric is so self-help. You can hear them talk about appreciating employees as individuals and it just reminds me of that scene from _Life of Brian_ where Brian is trying to explain individualism to a mob (”yes, we are all different!”). Anyway, that’s a personal beef, and it certainly doesn’t apply to all of them — but I think an element of that clinical attitude is endemic to the profession because of how they’re trained.
Your photo of EARS made me realize that I actually have a disturbingly PTSD reaction to EA architecture. It looks a lot like EALA, enough to evoke a visceral reaction.