The company expands its Queue Dodge system and promises 25% salary for three months to the ones who leave Riot.
In a recent blog post by Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent, the company announced a new approach to compensating employees. It will focus on long-term goals, awarding a bonus annually when long-term achievements are made. Riot Games is also expanding its Queue Dodge program, which was originally made for employees who’ve been at the company for less than six months.
"Late last year we changed our approach to compensation in an effort to make sure no Rioter is left behind if Riot continues to flourish," says Laurent. "We altered our long term incentive model so that long-term vesting compensation pays out partially each year with a lump sum at the end of the last year."
Laurent also noted that Tencent, Riot Games shareholder, agreed with this long-term strategy and offered "partial ownership of the company to Riot employees" so that Riot staff can take part in owning a portion of the company "and thus directly participate in the risks and rewards of ownership".
Riot Games is also expanding the Queue Dodge program that previously let the employees who worked in the company less than six months leave Riot and still get paid for a while as they transition to another job. Now, the program gets open to all employees regardless of however long they have worked with Riot. The new program will provide the opportunity to leave comfortably, according to Laurent: "Rioters who choose to Queue Dodge will receive 25% of their base salary with 3 months of COBRA benefits where applicable. Rioters who take Queue Dodge will also receive their full bonuses, even if they leave before they’re paid out (late March in most offices)."
Commenting on the company's sexual harassment case which reached a $100 million settlement of a gender discrimination lawsuit, Laurent said: "While we're proud of how far we've come since 2018, it's important that we also take responsibility for our past. Given the ambitious goals we have for the future and the tens of millions of dollars we'd spend each year on lawyers to help resolve these cases – money we'd rather pay to the women in the class and to invest in Riot's future – it became clear during these past several months that the best outcome for everyone would be to come to a final resolution."
He also pointed out that the company isn't asking anyone to forget about the issue. "On the contrary, the lessons we’ve learned together over the last few years will be a crucial part of the Riot Games origin story," Laurent said, "Something we’ll continue to teach as part of our ‘denewb’ orientation and lessons that we’ll use to always orient ourselves toward what is right for Rioters to make Riot the best possible place to work.
Besides, Riot Games reported that they're going to transition to being a product-focused organization organized by department. The company will also offer flexible working with three "core" days in the office and two "flex" days when staff can choose to either work from the office or from home.
You can learn more about Riot Games' plans for the next five years in the company's blog post. Also, don’t forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.