"Hunting is not working now": Marina Lopatina from Talents In Games about the personnel market during the quarantine period

What personnel challenges did the CIS gaming companies face during the self—isolation regime, – she told in an interview with App2Top.ru Marina Lopatina, project manager of Talents In Games, a specialist search platform and recruitment agency.

The Morning TIG Chat marathon of meetups was going on all through April. They were held online every week. At them, representatives of HR departments of companies discussed the problems they faced and shared cases.

We talked with Marina, who organized these meetups, about what concerns HR specialists and what the labor market looks like in the gaming industry during the pandemic.

Challenges

Alexander Semenov, App2Top.ru : How did online meetups appear?

Marina Lopatina

Marina Lopatina, Talents In Games: We usually hold HR meetups offline in different cities in cozy cafes with a cup of coffee and a fresh croissant.

Our next meetup in Minsk was supposed to be in April, but since movement was already being restricted, and there were more questions and uncertainties, we set ourselves a new challenge: to hold meetings for HR gaming companies every Friday in April.

Thus, we decided to support companies in a difficult time, to give them the opportunity to exchange information quickly, to be aware of the practices of other companies.

As a result, we held four online events, in which about 50 companies from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Estonia participated.

How do gaming HR-am in the current situation have to?

Marina: HR in such a difficult period has even more responsibility and more work, especially since the gaming industry during the pandemic is one of those industries that not only did not give up its positions, but, on the contrary, continued to develop actively. Recruitment is underway, and therefore, there must be competent onboarding in order not to lose an employee at the first stage. Then communication and all subsequent processes should be competently built.

What worried HR most at the start of the pandemic and how did the issues change in the future?

Marina: Honestly, at the start, I was worried about everything. And how to transfer people to remote, and how to build workflows / interaction, and how best to conduct onboarding in the current situation.

What exactly is the difficulty of onboarding? The programmer, instead of going to work in the morning, stayed in bed or sat in the kitchen, writes code. What is the problem?

Marina: This is not quite true. There are two aspects to keep in mind here.

The first. The gaming industry is very picky. They charge not only for hard skills, but also for soft skills. It is important that the person suits your company in spirit. Accordingly, a person who simply performs work tasks without communicating or communicating poorly with the team is not really needed.

The second aspect. Even if a new person is suitable for the team, they need to be integrated into the team. To do this, he must understand exactly how to make a request, to whom this request can be sent. Important: it should be easy.

During the pre-quarantine period, companies tried to bring employees who work remotely. They introduced them to the team, showed them the office and the processes that take place in it. Thanks to this new employee, it was much easier to start communicating with people, to represent them, to know who interacts with whom in the office.

He found out whether everyone was sitting in their offices or it was an open space, how it was customary in the office to communicate with management or with employees, what kind of culture prevails in the company. Plus, each beginner has his own background and some experience. Accordingly, he tries to fit into the team and understand what the communication style should be.

Now you can’t bring a person to the office, you need to bring him up to speed otherwise.

But the problems with onboarding are not limited to this. Many employees are basically not ready to work from home. Not everyone has appliances, a comfortable table, chairs. Therefore, now, when you hire a new person, you should be ready to arrange his workplace at home. And so does a number of gaming companies.

Some had to develop online solutions for onboarding from scratch. When an employee goes online, he knows almost nothing about the company: he knows it only from stories, from the media, from products, and has not been “inside” yet. To introduce him to the course of business, you need to create a special “book of a new employee”: who to contact, on what issues, what structure the company has, what are the main managers.

Shouldn’t all this have been spelled out initially in the “Corporate Bible” even before the pandemic?

Marina: Such documents do not provide for remote onboarding in all companies. After all, many things are usually explained in a personal way, and it’s easier to navigate when you’re in the office, and not reading a thick talmud, trying to imagine how things are. With remote onboarding, everything should be spelled out in a more detailed, structured way.

Many companies had difficulties in communication at the start. But there were also reverse situations. On the contrary, one of the companies managed to increase the effectiveness of communication. She achieved this by launching active rooms in Zoom: they are constantly online, you can go in and chat, there is always someone there.

Also, this company is trying to work in real time so that you don’t have to wait for someone. It is also customary for them to call immediately for any questions. Do not book a slot for a certain time and plan a meeting, but get in touch right away.

So, the main problems were the onboarding of new employees and the decrease in the efficiency of communications. What did you come to in the end?

Marina: New procedures have been introduced, meetings are held more often, regulations have become more detailed.

From the obvious: now the line between office and remote employees is blurring. This has led to the fact that the “remoters” are now more integrated into the processes.

Example: previously, employees in the office were talking about something, but people on the remote site did not know about it. Now it is customary to throw everything into the general chat, everyone is constantly up to date.

There is an opinion that after quarantine this situation will disappear. They are afraid that when some of the employees return back to the office, all the basic information will, as before, be spinning in the office.

What about the old employees? They have all the processes to be adjusted, they understand everything. What is the problem with their transfer to the remote?

Marina: They have domestic problems. It is really possible to solve difficulties with equipment or with the same conditional comfortable chairs. But they may not have a place to put it all. Or they have small children. Or one desktop for two adults. How can they be accommodated? And if they also have a schoolboy child?

The problems that you are trying to solve with the help of a computer and a chair are not solvable for everyone. Many employees realize now that it was convenient for them in the office: there was a fast and stable Internet, there was a workplace, relatives did not distract.

Another obvious problem is the inability to switch. Self-isolation means that after work there will be no rest, pleasant walks, a change of scenery. It’s the same with weekends.

The balance as a whole has been disrupted. Plus, many began to work more.

How did it happen?

Marina: They believe that if they save one hour in the morning and in the evening, then the working day can be slightly increased in order to polish some tasks.

But in the end they started working at night and on weekends. Without stopping. The situation is aggravated by the increased flow of work messages from colleagues who are in other time zones and are also now working more.

You are under information bombardment around the clock. Because of this, many people are stressed.

What solutions are usually offered?

Marina: They offer to do everything according to the schedule in order to plan both their work, and the work of their soulmate, and the homework of the children, and not to work more than they should. Even among the life hacks — to dress for working hours, to keep an eye on the hairstyle, for yourself.

HR-s also began to conduct, for example, online quizzes, charging. Some even have yoga trainers doing exercises five times a week. If a whole group is waiting for you at 19:00, then it is very motivating to finish your work quickly.

Or if at seven in the evening the employer orders pizza for everyone, and they call you at Zoom and say, “The Quiz has begun,” then, of course, you get distracted, switch, rest. It is necessary.

It is clear that everyone is passionate about their work, they do not want to give up the project, they want to come up with something, finish it, a little more, because there is no need to go anywhere. But you need a break, otherwise you’ll burn.

Now it’s a substitute for communication, so that you get distracted, relax, talk, eat… To bring back at least a part of your past life, and you felt more calm and comfortable.

And does it work?

Marina: It works. Some HR’s organize online parties, but, as a rule, no more than an hour. People don’t sit in front of the computer anymore. Companies also make online karaoke, launch training courses (their range is huge: from time management to drawing and cooking courses) and, of course, play online games together.

But surely there is another position: “You just don’t have to work! We need to plow! If you plow, there will be no stupid thoughts.”

Marina: These are not stupid thoughts — this is the human psyche. We need to switch. Switch activities from mental to physical, from work issues to frivolous ones. Otherwise, people will not survive for long.

If it were not self-isolation, but an ordinary remote, then at seven or eight in the evening a person would turn off the computer and go for a walk in the park. He wouldn’t work until midnight. When he works until midnight, he burns out; accordingly, he needs a change of activity. And these seemingly frivolous entertainments, eating pizza with colleagues online, courses — help a lot.

Almost psychology.

Marina: Yes. Moreover, psychologists are now really in demand within HR departments. We had several companies at the meetups that resorted to them. However, the result is contradictory.

In one company, a psychologist is now in demand, he greatly helped with the transition of employees to quarantine. In another, the situation is reversed. The reason is that the employees do not trust him too much: after all, he is on the staff and knows the whole team. They would like a third-party specialist.

But the question itself is really overdue. A person needs not only activities, but also the opportunity to speak out about the difficulties of working at home, about noise, about children and neighbors with a drill.

The situation in the personnel market

Are HR’s now noticing an outflow or, conversely, an influx of labor?

Marina: Almost all companies say that the influx has increased. There are more resumes.

We, including as a recruiting agency, have already felt it, and so have I myself. I regularly receive requests to close a vacancy or advise a good company for employment in my personal Facebook account. Now there are many times more such requests.

In our country, the rate of vacancy closure has increased precisely because of the activity of candidates and the fact that everything is happening faster now: candidates think less and make decisions more quickly.

Nevertheless, the companies note that hunting is not working now.

Why?

Marina: Because employees prefer stability.

All or just the old and experienced?

Marina: Everyone who has a workplace now. This applies even to those who were looking for a job a couple of months ago, posted a resume.

Everyone prefers to wait. The gaming industry is at its peak right now, and everything seems to be great for most companies, but people still have concerns. Therefore, they do not change their place of work, because they can easily be on probation. This is a risk, especially if you are the only breadwinner in the family.

Then where does the influx of candidates come from?

Marina: When I said that the inflow has increased, I meant two growth channels.

The first is specialists who have been on the remote for a long time. They have become much more active in responding, since now all vacancies have actually become deleted. This is especially noticeable for artists. They are always the most active at Talents In Games. If there are a lot of responses to artist vacancies in normal times compared to other vacancies, now there are a lot of them. Even small companies have 100 responses in a short period of time. The big ones have 200-400 responses, taking into account the remoteness.

The second is that the candidates are not from the industry.

Is there a demand for such a number of frames?

Marina: I have not noticed that the number of vacancies has increased or decreased significantly. There is no such thing. Everything is exactly the same as it was before the quarantine.

The only nuance. Since there have been more responses, and the number of seats has not increased radically, now companies have begun to treat candidates more selectively.

But at the same time, the number of resumes from other industries is growing. Is it really possible for them to find a place in the gaming industry now?

Marina: In principle, there is a possibility, but the probability of this is not very high. Still, there are a lot of experienced guys in the industry.

There is an opinion that programmers in the gaming field are less qualified, because they face less complex tasks than, for example, in enterprise development. If the enterprise is closing now and a programmer is looking for a job outside of it, is the gaming industry ready to provide them with a salary comparable to the previous one in IT? How ready is the industry for highly qualified specialists, who, however, understand the niche less?

Marina: To be honest, I haven’t seen the phrase in any vacancy yet: “We want a programmer not from the game dev, we are ready to pay him more.” It all depends on the situation and on the specific vacancy.

Or from needs. As I said, the salaries of programmers in the gaming industry are usually lower.

Marina: Surely there are such cases, but I have not encountered them. Perhaps some companies will want a high-skill programmer with no experience in game development. There are intelligent people who retrain quite quickly. But it is not a fact that they will be hired for a higher salary than a specialist with the necessary experience. Although now third-party specialists agree to this, as long as there is a stable job.

I have heard that some companies that are engaged in non-gaming marketing, but, for example, tourism, may be out of work by the end of spring …

Marina: Already.

Are they out of work already?

Marina: Their budgets have been cut very much. There are a lot of people who offer services to promote websites on Instagram and social networks.

How much are these skilled traffic buyers in demand in the gaming industry?

Marina: To be honest, not very much. And this is logical. If, for example, I am looking for a PR manager, then I will take, of course, a person with experience in the industry. It’s the same here. What’s the point of spending half a year for a new employee to get acquainted with the specifics of the game? I’d rather take an industrial specialist, and he will start working actively in a day.

In my opinion, everyone from the gaming sphere is now a priority, as well as very active people who want to get into it. It is unlikely that anyone will now chase specialists from other fields.

***

Last question: what advice can you give to companies?

Marina: The tips are as follows:

• constantly monitor analytics (remote work pulse): how the state of employees is changing, what phase the company is in now. These data must be constantly monitored;
• it is mandatory to prescribe guides (hours of presence, response time to messages from the manager, colleagues, clients, mandatory work messengers, rules for online meetings);
• do not forget about corporate events: this is not a luxury and not an excessive waste of effort, it is an opportunity to communicate and remove negative emotions through friendly communication.

It is important to understand that all this is active not only now. This can be adopted after self-isolation.

I will also add that I admire how the gaming industry behaves in a difficult situation today: companies allocate funds to fight the coronavirus, rapidly rebuild processes (much faster than non-gaming IT) and, which is also very important, actively exchange experience, as our meetups have shown.

The latter, I hope, helped the HR specialists of these companies to find answers to current work issues, pushed them to their own original solutions, and simply supported someone, made them feel that they are not alone in solving such complex tasks.

Are you planning to continue the meetups?

Marina: Yes, of course. But, perhaps, we will spend a little less often. Now the main thing is to keep the bar, to be really useful.