Focus GAMING CAREERS
percent each year, and our voluntary turnover over the last five years is under six percent—which is especially low, in any industry.
Our new positions are posted internally first, and we encourage the employee’s to move into different roles within the company. We do this in a number of ways. First, employees can fill out development plans and assessments in relation to specific job competency criteria. Second, they can review which competencies are required for each role and assess themselves against the criteria. From there, the employee determines what he/she needs to do to take on a particular role within the company. WMS University, our training and development center, offers on-site training (classroom and web-based) and job-shadowing opportunities, so the employee may build the required competencies for the next role.
WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR JOB- BASED TRAINING SCHEMES AND FOR POST- GRAD SCHEMES OFF-SITE?
WMS offers job-based and post-graduate schemes to employees. Each new staff member is required to participate in two full days of orientation and 24 hours of online training in the history and culture of the company. In addition, we stage a variety of seminars; for example, recently we offered a “Learn to Be Safe during the Holidays” program, led by local law enforcement officials, to a sell-out crowd. We also encourage participation in external seminars and conferences, as well as reimburse course study in pursuit of a relevant bachelor’s or advanced degree. As part of our sponsored annual paid graduate studies program, we support up to three employees per year with full tuition reimbursement. This program is fully supported by the executive committee, which reviews the value the employee’s continued education will bring to the company and individual career growth.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE THE WMS UNIVERSITY - ITS GOALS AND ITS CURRENT OFFER TO EMPLOYEES?
WMS University offers web-based and classroom training—this allows the employee to schedule training that best suits his or her learning style and work schedule. The overall training goal is to improve performance across the organisation through the delivery of information about our platforms, technologies and the regulatory environment. We also encourage employees to take at least 32 hours of training each year. Some of these are certificate courses are focused on
compliance and regulatory issues, others are for personal development. If our immensely talented organizational and development team does not currently have the skills required to deliver top- notch training, we’ll bring in local experts.
DO YOU WORK WITH EDUCATION FACILITIES IN REGARDS TO BURSARIES, TRAINING PROGRAMMES WITHIN LOCAL SCHOOLS/UNIVERSITIES TO ATTRACT/SUPPORT STUDENTS?
Yes, in fact, we have a programme with Carnegie Mellon University which offers student teams the opportunity to work on WMS’ advanced research and develop projects as part of their course study. We also have a very strong summer internship program, and many of the students stay with us after completing their program. In summer 2012, we
IN JULY WE CLOSED THE
OFFICES FOR A FULL WEEK IN
RECOGNITION OF EMPLOYEES’
EFFORTS OVER THE YEAR.
welcomed approximately 20 students to WMS. Recently, we hired a full time campus recruiter to enhance our college/university graduate and internship programmes. Already we have a high conversion rate for interns as part of a much focused new talent drive, and we are working with great universities with specialised game development and graphic artist programmes.
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF NOT JUST CANDIDATES, BUT OF YOUR EMPLOYEES? HOW DO YOU ASSESS YOUR STAFF?
We look at a couple of things - we value diversity as we believe it helps us make better games. The different backgrounds of our employees, the skill sets and experiences combine to make us stronger. We look for employees who share our core values and assess performance based on the value set. We also look at the unique skills of the individuals and look to learn from that experience to bring something new to the company. We run coaching programmes to leverage tools and skills for team building, including directors and above in the process, and integrating at all levels to achieve specific goals.
CATEGORY: Large company (250+ employees) COMPANY TITLE: WMS Industries Inc. COMPANY FOUNDED: WMS traces its roots as far back as 1943, to the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded by Harry E. Williams. However, the company known today as WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc. PRIVATE OR PLC: PLC EMPLOYEE NUMBERS: 1774 (non-union and union, all locations worldwide) HQ AND INTERNATIONAL OFFICES: Waukegan (Corporate Headquarters); Buenos Aires, Argentina; Pune, India; Huixquilucan, Mexico; London, UK; Macau, China; Randjiespark, South Africa; Ultimo, Australia Barcelona, Spain SUBSIDIARIES: WMS Gaming, Williams Interactive, among others. ANNUAL TURNOVER/PROFIT 2012: Annual Turnover was $690 million for FY ’12, up from $540 million in FY ’07, and Net Income was $64 million. AREAS OF BUSINESS: WMS serves the gaming industry worldwide by designing, manufacturing and marketing games, video and mechanical reel-spinning gaming machines, video lottery terminals and in gaming operations, which places leased participation gaming machines in legal gaming venues. The Company also develops and markets digital content, products, services and end-to-end solutions that address global online wagering and interactive social, casual and mobile gaming opportunities. ANNUAL MACHINE PRODUCTION BY VOLUME: WMS sold and shipped approximately 21,000 new gaming machines in FY ’12 and currently has more than 125,000 Bluebird, Bluebird2 and Bluebird xD gaming machines installed in casinos worldwide; with another 9,600 installed participation gaming machines in its footprint. REBUILDS/CONVERSIONS IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS: Game conversion kit sales rose in FY ’12 to nearly 20,000 games , reflecting the success and popularity of the latest games. CORPORATE WEBSITES:
www.wms.com;
www.williamsinteractive.com BEST-SELLING PRODUCT OF 2012: Based upon its Player Driven Innovation focused approach in its product development efforts, WMS achieved significant success with its new Colossal Reels and G+ 5X4 games in FY ’12 ; and at G2E demonstrated more new games based on more new math models than ever before across a total of five cabinets, including its new Blade™ upright cabinet and its participation-dedicated Gamefield xD cabinet, along with its new My Poker video poker product, all of which received highly favorable casino operator feedback. CEO AND MANAGEMENT TEAM: Brian R. Gamache, Chairman & CEO, WMS Industries, Orrin J. Edidin, President, WMS Industries, and President & CEO, Williams Interactive, Ken Lochiatto, EVP & COO, WMS Industries, President & COO, WMS Gaming, Scott Schweinfurth, EVP, CFO & Treasurer, WMS Industries, Larry J. Pacey, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer, WMS Industries REGIONAL MARKET SHARE: EMEA (%) - SE Asia (%) - USA (%) - Latin America (%) - NA
“We encourage employees to take
at least 32 hours of training each year.” JANICE RIKE, WMS Gaming.
HOW DO YOU ATTRACT AND RETAIN THE BEST STAFF?
At WMS, we offer competitive wages and extensive programmes that reward performance. We offer a spot-bonus programme, rewarding our employees for
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