How the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards are judged

gamesindustry.biz:

For the past eight years, GamesIndustry.biz has been running a series of Best Places To Work Awards in the UK, US and Canada.

The project was born out of the editorial team. The objective has always been to try and help improve the games industry as a place to work. Part of that is by identifying great places, but the project also encompasses events, podcasts, videos and articles on workplace issues. And every business that takes part -- win or lose -- will receive a free basic report from us to help them identify areas of improvement.

We also offer a standard and advanced report for a small fee, which features additional information and analysis. This is how we fund the project, there are no other costs and even these reports are entirely optional.

This is what the awards are all about. But how do we judge them? We know that there are problem places in the games industry. We know there are issues around discrimination and excessive overtime. We write plenty of those headlines on this very website. We therefore take this process seriously. No awards are fool proof. We wish they were. But as you're about to see, how we judge the Best Places to Work Awards is comprehensive.

NO JUDGING PANEL

Any company working in the US, UK or Canada games markets can take place in the awards (with more territories to follow). To take part, they simply fill in the entry form. This form asks simple questions such as 'who are you' and 'how many employees do you have' (we'll come on to that in a moment).

The main awards are not judged by anything subjective like a panel. It is entirely judged by a system of points. Score high enough, and you stand a chance of winning an award. We do have a panel for our Special Awards, which we'll come back to.

THE EMPLOYER FORM

Here, we ask employers what they offer their staff. What is the pay like? What benefits do you offer? What are your hiring practices? How do you deal with bad behaviour? How do you ensure your team knows what is going on? What's