Ubisoft says it's "on the right path" to recover from "misconduct crisis"
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Ubisoft's chief people officer reports that employee surveys show the Assassin's Creed publisher is "on the right path" to recover from the wave of abuse and harassment allegations it faced in 2020.
Speaking at the inaugural GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit on September 27, 2013, Anika Grant reflected on the changes that have been made since she joined in the wake of those allegations, when Ubisoft was "navigating a misconduct crisis."
"HR was considered to be part of the problem," she acknowledged during her keynote entitled 'The building blocks of change.' "As a result, we had lost the confidence of our teams. Confidence in us as a function, confidence in us as individuals and as a profession. So my first priority was to figure out how we could win back that trust.
"Listening is a core ingredient of trust and respect. To feel respected, people need to feel heard."
Grant said the publisher set itself a three-point mantra going forwards, centred around listening, transparency and accountability. Meanwhile, she spent her initial months learning more about the situation Ubisoft was in, such as speaking to as many staff as possible – including those involved in the investigations.
"My main takeaway was that this was not just about improving the outcomes, but also improving people's experience of working at Ubisoft," she said.
Grant added that tackling this challenge was a "huge amount of work" and listed some of the initiatives Ubisoft implemented to address this.
The publisher set up an employee relations team, which included professionals from outside the company who had experience handling misconduct and reporting, as well as introducing new
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