Bossa Studios sets out roadmap for flexible work post-pandemic

As the pandemic continues to ease in the UK, and with children set to return to schools in just a couple of weeks, minds are turning to what the future of work might look like for games industry businesses across the spectrum of the industry. 

To that end Bossa Studios has been among the first to publicly state its approach to work after coronavirus with what it’s calling a “a radical shift in studio working structure” based on employee feedback. 

In short, it’s letting individuals take the lead going forward. With employees able to work from home or it London office, or a mix of the two, as it suits “their working preferences and personal needs.”

The decision comes off the back of a staff survey, which Bossa has revealed the results of:

• 78% of staff either preferred working from home or were neutral on the matter.
• When asked how they feel their productivity has been affected, 43% of staff reported an increase in productivity and only 11% a decline.
• When asked what they have enjoyed most about working remotely staff reported having no commute, more flexible hours and more time with family as benefits.
• 82% of management reported that remote meetings are easier to run, or no different than in-person meetings. Additionally, 82% of management also declared that interdepartmental working had improved, or remained the same in lockdown.

Those show a pretty impressive resolve for what could have been a very tough time for the organisation. Of course reopening the office has come with precautions, with “readily available PPE, temperature checks and a phased approach to allowing staff to return to prevent any risk of overcrowding,”: Bossa noted in a statement.

“Once we had everyone in the business setup to work from home we began to consider what the future was for working at Bossa,” explains Vince Farquharson, COO at Bossa Studios. “We had heard a lot of positive comments from staff and our first step was to gather feedback and quantify it. Was everyone happier and able to do their jobs? Was it feasible for them to continue to work from home. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so we knew we had a will, but we had to work out the way.

“Bossa is built of specialist teams who all have different working needs. However, not a single area of our business, from the development teams of Surgeon Simulator 2 and I Am Fish through to Marketing and People, has found working from home to be negative. Additionally, management team members are the most supportive of continuing this way of working.”

And the new flexibility should allow the company to hire more diversely, by including those for whom an office wouldn’t have been suitable: “Flexible, and entirely optional, remote working is a change that allows Bossa to find talent that may not have been able to work in a traditional, 100% office-based studio.”