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In recent years, the games industry has struggled to bring qualified leaders through its ranks, with the skills gaps widening at a time where leaders are needed to navigate large projects with high expectations, as well as a turbulent atmosphere amid layoffs and restructures.
We’ve sat down with Jenny Muhlwa, Learning and Development Partner Consultant for Sumo Group, to discuss Sumo Group Evolve – a new free career development programme for experienced game developers looking to take their next step into leadership positions.
Evolve will provide soft leadership and management skills through a series of virtual workshops run by the Sumo Group Learning & Development team, as well as experienced Sumo developers. The programme is open to people with technical experience in game development who are looking to take their first step into a lead or management position who don’t have access to such learning and development opportunities.
Why are we talking about a skills gap when there’s been so many layoffs?
Jenny Muhlwa: Leadership positions are the hardest to fill. Currently there are very few junior leadership roles available, but still a substantial number of vacancies at a more senior level. The skills gap isn’t a new problem in the gaming industry, and it’s not going away any time soon either. There are articles going back 10 years on the subject, and as recently as six months ago, TIGA released a report outlining the ways in which the skills gap impacts developers in the UK. 59% of developers said that it had hindered the growth of their organisation; and the same number said it had delayed the development of new products. Despite the instability of the industry at the moment, the skills gap will persist until action is taken to remedy it, which is why Sumo have launched Evolve – to empower emerging leaders with the skills they need to succeed.
University courses teach hard technical skills, but soft skills like leadership and learning how to work in a team aren’t always part of the curriculum. This causes a bit of a negative feedback loop. It’s holding the industry back. We’ve seen small studios try and fail to build a great company because there hasn’t been a focus on how to manage people. This is especially important post-pandemic. Investors are much more selective about the projects they’re funding, so there’s less margin for error when it comes to succeeding as a studio.
What skills do leaders need in 2024?
Jenny Muhlwa: The video game industry is pretty young compared to an industry like finance or tech, and it’s evolving so quickly. Every 10 years or so the industry radically shifts. It started with arcade machines, then consoles, then mobile gaming, and now we’re seeing VR and AR technology explored. Every decade the technical skills necessary to work in the industry change, but for the first time we’re seeing the essential soft skills change too.
Gen Z are graduating from universities now, but they have completely different expectations of what they want from a job. Gen Z would rather have an empathetic manager (40 per cent) than an experienced one (8 per cent), while honesty and integrity are six times more important than experience. Teaching someone how to be an empathetic leader is hard, but it’s what the industry needs now to accommodate graduate students.
“The Evolve course is offering a way for those affected by the layoffs to progress their personal growth in leadership skills whilst being part of a learning community”
The questions that Gen Z asks of an employer are along the lines of ‘What is the company purpose?’ and ‘How will I feel included?’ People are less likely than ever to be at a job for life, and they won’t tolerate being treated unfairly.
Gen Z workers will say ‘What will my career look like here?’, ‘How will I feel that I belong here?’ and ‘What’s the culture like?’. There are more of those questions being asked by people coming into the industry and into those roles, not just ‘What’s the project?’ and ‘Will it excite me?’.
The question ‘What difference will I make?’ is one that gets asked again and again. Whereas a job might previously have been seen by most as a means to an end, people in 2024 want more. They want to make a difference, have purpose – and that takes great leadership to be able to get the best from those people.
On the other side of that, it does put a lot of pressure on managers! A good leader needs to have vision, to bring the team together, to be trustworthy and show some vulnerability, but not too much… it can feel like a minefield.
What we’ve done with the Evolve programme is bring all the fundamentals of what I’ve discussed here into workshops that can prepare anyone to be a manager who is a great communicator, gives valued feedback, and understands their team.
How does Evolve address these issues?
Jenny Muhlwa: As I’ve mentioned, the leadership skills gap in the industry is really tricky to solve. It requires a collective effort from all kinds of people and in the short term we’ve recognised the state of the industry. Layoffs have been a huge challenge for businesses and for those affected on a personal level too. Part of the Evolve course is offering a way for those affected by the layoffs to progress their personal growth in leadership skills whilst being part of a learning community.
In the long term the core issue is that there’s an overall lack of leaders in the industry, but also a need to adapt how all leaders need to approach these roles as Gen Z becomes a greater part of the workforce. We’ve developed the Evolve course with the future in mind, to address the core issue of changing attitudes towards employment, and how to nurture talent so that juniors can take their amazing technical skills and apply them as part of a team.
If you’d like to get involved with Evolve and shape the future of the industry, please reach out and apply for the course!
More information can be found at evolve.sumogroupltd.com, where people can apply to be part of the next cohort.
