TIGA and Hewitt Associates Release Games Industry Salary Survey

[Tami]

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, today released key findings from the Games Software Developers' Salary Survey, carried out in association with Hewitt Associates (Hewitt), the HR specialists.

The survey, in its first year, is one of the most comprehensive salary surveys ever carried out for the UK game development industry, with input from 10 key UK developers (both independent and publisher owned) covering 16% of the total UK workforce. The survey provides detailed information on UK software development salaries, bonuses and allowances by survey level, function and discipline. The survey also looks at annual pay movements, organisational structure, employee turnover, gender, age demographics and length of service.

Salary information is provided for the key disciplines of art, audio, design, production, quality assurance and technical development / programming. There are 11 survey levels from 'entry level' to 'graduates' all the way up to 'function heads'. These levels are underpinned by Hewitt's proprietary job evaluation methodology CareerLink.

Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO stated: "TIGA's vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. To help achieve this vision, TIGA is committed to working with leading specialists such as Hewitt to provide best practice information to its members. This annual survey will provide games businesses with accurate detailed information on pay, benefits and other HR areas, allowing them to evaluate their HR systems and ensure they are operating with optimal effectiveness."

A selection of the survey findings is outlined below (the full survey is available for purchase from TIGA/Hewitt):

* The technical development / programming function saw the highest salaries at all survey levels, whilst quality assurance saw the lowest.
* Base salary increases of between 2% and 3% over the last 12 months are in line with UK general industry increases in the same period.
* On average participating organisations reported that 85% of employees are full time, 5% part time and 10% contractors.
* 6.6% of the survey workforce is female while the average age of employees in the survey is relatively young with a narrow range, typically between 25 and 39.
* The average length of service is between 7 and 10 years.
* Reported turnover is significantly higher than the UK average of 8%, at 13% and is consistent across participants.


Steve Munday from Hewitt Associates commented on the results:
"The survey results provide a comprehensive picture of current pay levels across the games software development sector, from graduates up to senior managers, and reflect the demand and supply conditions of the specialist skills required in this sector. The survey levels that Hewitt has developed with TIGA provide organisations with an invaluable benchmarking tool when assessing their employees' roles.

"The survey also provides interesting insights into the workforce structure, that is predominantly male with a relatively narrow age range. Interestingly a number of Hewitt's engagement and best employer surveys suggest that organisations with increased employee and skill diversity, can see better overall business results, employee performance and can promote an improved work-life balance.?

On HR capabilities Steve Munday said:
"Anecdotal evidence from survey participants suggests that HR capabilities vary widely amongst developers from a fairly simple or 'transactionary' system to a more sophisticated strategic partner' based system [1]. Good HR skills go hand in hand with good management skills to drive an effective reward strategy, performance management system and recruitment and retention programmes which could in the long term help developers increase profitability, employee well being and reduce turnover and recruitment costs."

On the use of contractors in the sector Steve Munday said:
"The survey highlighted that games developers use comparatively few contractors when compared to other sectors, however some HR professionals in the industry feel that this will change as stricter project cost management targets are implemented. In future this may mean contractors are valued and awarded similar pay premiums as those paid to IT contractors in the finance sector today, for example."

To purchase a copy of the Hewitt Games Software Developers' Salary Survey and/or participate in the next survey please contact either steve.munday@hewitt.com or eva@tiga.org.