Squadron 42 team back into the office, the progress that they started making was noticeably better.” CIG has moved to support more flexible hours and
Jones says that staff will still be able to work from home when appropriate, and, of course, where it is mandated. However, he insists that being in the office is an essential part of CIG’s work culture, especially when it comes to establishing and maintaining morale and loyalty between staff. Without the opportunity to bond, Jones believes that staff are more likely to move on. “We’ve been able to hire very successfully, but that shows you that people are leaving their other jobs. If you’re going into an office eight hours a day, working with the same people, you feel loyalty to those people. Regardless of whether the company has your loyalty, your friends have your loyalty. And I think as people are seeing each other less and less, team
“Well, I certainly hope so,” he says. “Before the
Activision Blizzard issues were even raised, we’d started our employee resource groups and, we’d started programmes for increasing diversity. Our staff can tell us if there are problems and how we can deal with them. We run frequent town halls, even while we’ve been in the pandemic. Anyone can ask any question of the senior management, and we listen. We’re dedicated to doing what we can to improve it - and that’s all the way up to board level, where we’ve agreed that this is a real focus for the company and we should do what we can to provide a good example.” “It’s not something you solve overnight,” he adds.
bonding is being degraded. That’s making it much easier for people to start thinking about changing jobs and moving on, which I think wouldn’t happen if they were enjoying their time with their friends. That’s what we want to encourage, that camaraderie and team spirit that I think has been seriously broken by remote work and having to rely on tools like Zoom or Teams.” As well as doing
everything he can to attract talent to CIG over the coming months and years, Jones is aware of the need for increased diversity, as well as being mindful of the fact that loyalty within closed ranks can, if left unchecked, be a breeding ground for toxicity. In the wake of the issues that continue to blight Blizzard, does he feel that CIG is an inclusive, open and healthy place to work?
January 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 23
“When I started out it was an accepted norm that boys love video games, boys make video games. That’s thankfully something that was cast off when games became popular amongst more diverse audiences. The rise of casual and mobile gaming meant, thankfully, that the traditionally white male-dominatied developer was becoming a thing of the past. Our audience got more diverse. I really hope CIG is an inclusive and welcoming company, because we’re doing everything we can to make sure it is.”
An artist’s impression of how the CIG office might look in the future. Maybe.
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