HR Issues in the Computer Games Industry: Survival at a Price

Abstract

Human resource management (HRM) in the computer games sector needs to be seen within its industry context. The structure of this part of the creative media industry, the way it is geographically clustered and networked, the extent to which it is largely project based, and its use of a core and periphery workforce are important influences on its human resource (HR) policies and practices. The sector is dominated by a small number of transnational corporations, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, but primarily populated by small to medium-sized companies with a staff strength of 35–60 (Kerr and Flynn, 2003). In the United Kingdom, these constitute 75 per cent of the sector. This is a global industry and predicted to be worth some $68.4 billion in 2012 and $86.7 billion in 2014, an annual growth rate of over 10 per cent. In 2009 it employed 7,000 people in the United Kingdom down from 9400 in 2004. Eighty-nine per cent worked in development, the remainder working in functional support; 77 per cent of organizations used freelancers while 29 per cent expected to increase their usage in the near future (Skillset, 2011). Traditionally companies of this size do not employ HR professionals. The workforce is heavily gendered: women constitute 6 per cent (12 per cent in 2006) of the workforce compared with 47 per cent nationally. Similarly, 3 per cent come from minority ethnic backgrounds (4 per cent in 2006) compared with 9 per cent nationally (Skillset, 2011).