How to successfully run a remote studio, and make it last

gamesindustry.biz:

Roll7 has been a remote working studio for seven years now, and as such the OlliOlli and Rollerdome developer might have a little more experience than most in how to make the set-up work.

In a presentation at last month's GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit, Roll7 head of people and operations Nisha Minhas shared some of the studio's learnings on how to embrace remote work for the long haul. While Minhas has 15 years of experience in HR, she got her first taste of remote work during the pandemic, and it made sense for her personal situation.

"For more and more people, remote working is very much becoming a secondary event of the day," Minhas said. "So as HR professionals, I think it's important that we have an awareness of that shift to one in every fourth person, and push ways to create a successful working model that works for us."

Here's how Roll7's model works for her.

Minhas stressed the importance of the onboarding process to a good remote work situation, and said Roll7 made her own introduction to remote working considerably smoother than it could have been.

She was introduced to a handful of the studio's various processes for virtual work.

For one, Roll7 has a hard starting time of 9am when everyone has to be on hand to ensure at least some overlap for the entire staff. Employees are free to arrange their working day however they like within the studio's working hours of 7am to 7pm. Some might get an early start and finish mid-afternoon, roll in late and stay until the evening, or work early and late but take breaks in the afternoon for handling kids' after-school activities or other tasks.

That flexibility in hours means you can't necessarily assume co-workers are there when you are, so Roll7 has a virtual door