News

Jade Raymond on why company culture isn't just words on the wall

The EA Motive Studios GM on the importance of consistent values

Jade Raymond on why company culture isn't just words on the wall

Nurturing a studio culture is an important part of building a studio, says EA Motive Studios SVP and group general manager Jade Raymond.

Speaking during the keynote at Develop: Brighton 2018, Raymond admitted that earlier on in her career and before she built her own studio her reaction to the term culture was “meh”.

“That’s just words on the wall,” she said, adding that she wondered if anyone really cared what these were.

But as her career developed, Raymond said she realised the point of clarifying a company’s values.

Creating a ruleset

She said that in a studio, the team needs a ruleset and to understand what’s valued and expected.

As an example of how to go about building a culture and specific values, Raymond used the example of building a studio that wants to be 'the best place in the industry to build your career’.

For that value to be consistent and true across the studio, you have to change the way you do everything, she said.

This goes right down to how you list a job vacancy. If your value is career building, you might instead look internally for people who could do it.

Raymond explained that may mean, while a role may need to be filled in two weeks, a position could be filled over five to six months by training up an existing team member in the job.

“Values are extremely important to everyone,” said Raymond, and added that for them to be meaningful, culture needs to be thought about holistically in everything you do.


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.