The gaming industry is one of the most dynamic and competitive sectors in the world, with constant changes in technology, consumer preferences, and market trends. As a leader in this industry, you have a responsibility to support your employees' career development and help them grow their skills, knowledge, and creativity. Here are some ways you can do that:
One of the best ways to support your employees' career development is to provide them with regular and constructive feedback on their performance, goals, and challenges. Feedback helps them identify their strengths and areas for improvement, as well as align their expectations with yours. Recognition, on the other hand, motivates them to keep up the good work and shows them that you appreciate their contributions. You can use various methods to offer feedback and recognition, such as one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, peer reviews, awards, bonuses, or public praise.
Recognize and reward outstanding performance with incentives such as promotion or bonuses. Align employee feedback with company’s objectives.
Recognize the hard work, and always help your employees develop! Give rational feedback, and set clear objectives and ways to meet these.
Another way to support your employees' career development is to encourage them to learn new skills and explore new ideas. The gaming industry is constantly evolving, so your employees need to keep up with the latest developments and trends. You can foster a culture of learning and innovation by providing them with opportunities to attend training courses, workshops, webinars, conferences, or online platforms related to their fields of interest. You can also support their creativity by giving them time and resources to work on passion projects, prototypes, or experiments that can benefit the company or the industry.
Create and maintain a culture of innovation where employees feel empowered to explore new ideas and contribute to creative process. This will lead to the development of more innovative ideas and technology.
"Employees career development". This means growing. Learning. Support employees, team, or friends by giving them a space to test new concepts without the fear of failure. The goal is to be the next innovator and to create something that invokes fun and excitement in players. If their growth can be accelerated through events, workshops, and courses, then send your team to that. Never limit their room for growth or it will stunt innovation and creativity.
Give your employees the benefit of a subscription to a learning platform! Allow them to check new technologies and how those technologies can be implemented in your company's projects (even the side projects that a company has). If professionals feel encouraged and appreciated, you will be surprised how good your products will be.
I truly believe that continuous learning is key to career development success, together with upskilling and tracking industry trends. There is always something new to learn and this could help to boost your skills and overall performance, improve your knowledge, keep your motivation and stay creative. Make the most of your time and try to learn and absorbe information from company trainings, online training, colleagues, mentors and experience.
A third way to support your employees' career development is to create clear and realistic career paths and opportunities for them. Career paths show them the possible directions they can take within the company, as well as the requirements and expectations for each role. Opportunities, on the other hand, give them the chance to apply their skills and knowledge to new or challenging tasks, projects, or roles. You can create career paths and opportunities by mapping out the different positions and levels in your company, as well as the skills and competencies needed for each one. You can also offer them mentorship, coaching, shadowing, or cross-functional collaboration programs that can help them grow and advance.
Create career paths feels like leveling up characters in RPGs. I tried different approaches, but the 'Skills Matrix' helped me a lot. Here's my version of it: 1. The map (key roles): list positions within the team, from junior to senior 2. Quest requirements (skill sets): list the necessary skills & knowledge for each role & level 3. Level-up (progression criterias): write clear steps for moving from one level to another 4. Power-ups (skill development): provide trainings and mentorship to help team members acquire new skills 5. Boss battles (reviews): make periodic assessments to track progress This method turns career development into an quite engaging quest with clear conditions, keeping the team involved. Recommend!
The ladder of growth needs to be as transparent as possible. People need to see that they have a path to advance if they wish. Goals, and realistic expectations have to be clear and understood by any person. As a leader with employees underneath, give the team opportunities to host workshops, attend events where they can showcase their skills, or speak at panels to demonstrate their knowledge. This not only makes them feel more important, but it gives them a chance to show their independence.
Your company's career ladder should be clearly stated from the beginning. Employees should know what they have to do for their job, for advancements, for shifts to another role, etc...
A fourth way to support your employees' career development is to support their work-life balance and well-being. The gaming industry can be stressful and demanding, especially during crunch times, deadlines, or launches. As a leader, you need to ensure that your employees have enough time and space to rest, recharge, and enjoy their personal lives. You can support their work-life balance and well-being by setting reasonable expectations and boundaries, offering flexible work arrangements, promoting healthy habits, providing wellness benefits, or organizing fun and social activities.
There is a rule for the workload for each employee. Maximum of 80% at any time! Do not go at them with 120% or that 10x BS... You will lose them.
Be very careful to prevent the burn out of extremely engaged team members. Without enforcing the work-rest cadence and even prohibiting work in after hours the overall productivity will fail eventually.
A fifth way to support your employees' career development is to solicit and act on feedback from them. Feedback is a two-way street, and you need to listen to your employees' opinions, suggestions, concerns, and needs. Feedback helps you understand what your employees want and need from you, as well as how you can improve your leadership style and practices. You can solicit and act on feedback by conducting surveys, polls, focus groups, or exit interviews. You can also create an open and safe environment where your employees can share their thoughts and feelings with you or their peers without fear of judgment or retaliation.
A sixth and final way to support your employees' career development is to lead by example. As a leader, you set the tone and the standards for your team and your company. You need to demonstrate the skills, values, and behaviors that you expect from your employees, as well as show them your passion and commitment to the gaming industry. You can lead by example by being transparent, honest, respectful, supportive, and accountable. You can also show them your own career development journey, including your successes, failures, lessons, and goals.
The ability to provide context is important in allowing team members to feel empowered and involved in the decision making process. Context also helps people to think about how their decisions impacts the overall outcome and team efforts.
As a leader you pave the paths for the people who follow you. They will follow you based on your credibility, your standards, and your honesty. Live in the way that you'd love others to follow. This means displaying all your successes and failures entirely so others can learn from them and set their own goals. Demonstrate the skills and qualities that you want others to harness and show them that results come from dedication and transparency.