National Post (National Edition)
Corporate culture thrives on employee care, love of the games
WE’RE COMPASSIONATE TO OUR STAFF AND OUR COMMUNITY. WE BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE MORE ENGAGED AND PRODUCTIVE IN A CULTURE OF CARING. WE ARE ALL INTERTWINED TO THE POINT WHERE WE’RE NOT BASED ON A HIERARCHY. EVERYTHING IS DONE DEMOCRATICALLY. — DIGITAL EXTREMES PRESIDENT MIKE SCHMALZ
For 28 years, Digital Extremes has been a growing presence in the gaming world. Founded in 1993 by James Schmalz, the company really hit its stride when it launched Warframe in 2013, a free-to-play, games-as-a-service title that has kept the company at the forefront of the highly competitive video game industry ever since.
Not only has Digital Extremes garnered awards for its innovative games, it has been recognized for its progressive studio culture, including a 2021 Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture award in the Growth category.
Throughout its years of expansion, the London, Ont.based company has managed to maintain a familybased and diverse culture. Today it has more than 360 staff in London, a satellite office in Irvine, Calif., many of whom have been with the company for years, and individual staff working from locations worldwide.
Since Schmalz started the business, the company’s values have been based on a commitment to valuing its staff above everything else. DE’s key pillars center on community activity, transparency and communication on all fronts, from its in-house operations to its outreach to the international gaming community to local charities.
His brother Mike Schmalz joined as president in 2003 when they had 40 staff in London and Toronto. They quickly amalgamated the operations in London, and seven years later opened the U.S. satellite office.
“We grew relatively quickly around 2005 and have been on a steady growth path ever since,” he says. When Warframe was released in 2013, the company didn’t have an in-house customer support or marketing team. “The launch was so successful we spent the next two years expanding to 100 people.”
He believes the strength of Digital Extremes’ culture lies in its compassion. “We’re compassionate to our staff and our community. We believe people are more engaged and productive in a culture of caring. We are all intertwined to the point where we’re not based on a hierarchy. Everything is done democratically.”
When a new staff member is hired, for example, a variety of team members take part in the interview process to determine if they are suited to the culture. “It’s really important in our industry that everyone gets along. We want to know if the person is someone they would want to collaborate creatively with on games or have lunch with.”
At the same time people have a lot of autonomy, says HR director Heidi Flynn. “Anyone who comes here sees very quickly they can connect directly with a technical director, manager, or anyone on the senior leadership team, and make recommendations and will be listened to.”
Turnover is especially high in the gaming industry, yet Digital Extremes has managed to beat the trend, Schmalz reports. “Most of the team who was here when I joined are still on staff. Turnover has been really low.”
Schmalz admits it’s not always easy in an industry where developers have their sights on larger communities like Montreal, Toronto, New York or San Francisco. But once people get a peek into Digital Extremes’ studio culture, they end up loving it. “We really worked to build a company where everyone knows each other’s names and enjoys coming to work.”
Success in the gaming community is also driven by creativity and collaboration. Of the 360 employees at Digital Extremes, almost half are developers, says Sheldon Carter, chief operating officer who heads up the development team.
“Even when we were small, we always knew our greatest advantage was our people. They are the crucible to building up the abilities we needed to create something like Warframe. We really had to make this a great place to work, so we instituted tons of programs, like education and travel allowances, conferences, anything to develop the skills they needed including hiring an executive chef to make phenomenal free lunches.”
When the office shut down, the operations team stepped up to keep the engagement factor going, Schmalz says. “We’re a young company and we like to socialize together. Celebrations are great moments for us. That connectedness has not suffered from COVID-19. We’ve invested in our employees and carried on the same engagement and caring but just through virtual platforms.”
They went out of their way to equip staff with everything they needed to cope — from equipment to health and wellness support. “We assisted employees by equipping them with everything they needed to work from home.”
Employee health and wellness, including mental health, has always been a No. 1 priority, says Flynn, who spends a good deal of time each day talking to individual employees, providing support and checking in on employees’ well being.
Flynn and her team spearheaded the implementation of a mental health platform to further support them during lockdown. “The amount of usage and feedback we’ve had with our new app Dialogue has been phenomenal. Our staff can access medical professionals directly without having to leave their homes or visit a doctor’s office.”
They recently increased their fitness subsidy to allow employees to start a home gym that would benefit them during quarantine to purchase equipment, online health programs and hire virtual fitness coaches. Another addition is the Applauz reward and recognition platform that allows managers and peers to provide on-thespot rewards.
A popular perk is the RSP matching program. “We also have an incredible profit sharing bonus program,” Flynn notes. “And everyone receives a holiday bonus in December.”
During the pandemic, the executive chef and his team have been helping employees learn to cook at home, providing YouTube videos and amazing recipes. Digital Extremes also partners with Chef ’s Hat in London to send out gift meals each week to employees. The gaming community at large is also inextricably linked to their success. Digital Extremes’ annual Warframe TennoCon event brings together thousands of gamers from all over the world for live streaming events, updates, and to meet the development team. “It powers up our whole team for the next year,” Carter says. “Warframe is a shared game that we make with our players, not for them. Their feedback is a massive part of what we do.”
Last year’s event was all-digital, replicating the live event as closely as possible, setting up different virtual rooms for players to interact, announcing big reveals and showing their costumes. This year’s TennoCon also will be all-digital.
“The culture exists here because we made it what we wanted,” Schmalz says. “We didn’t have a model, other than be nice, treat others with respect, and be there for them and they will give back to you. It works itself out, as long as you’re there for them. Then we just have to manage the workflow to try to contain the creativity. What comes out of that crazy process is a game like Warframe that’s one of the top in the world.”
WE REALLY WORKED HARD TO BUILD A COMPANY WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS EACH OTHER’S NAMES AND ENJOYS
COMING TO WORK