The Workplace Policies and Practices of DreamWorks Animation - Essay Example

Describe the workplace policies and practices of one company on the Fortune Best Companies to Work for list, and describe why these policies andpractices are effective in achieving employee engagement. [DreamWorks Animation] The Fortune 100 list of best companies to work for contains a wide range of different types of company and at number six on this list is DreamWorks Animation. The company is best known for its award winning films, including Shrek, and also for the fact that it was founded by Stephen Spielberg. This paper considers six policies and practices which contribute to the high level of employee engagement that exists in the company: commitment to the highest quality, diversity in recruitment, coaching and mentorship, a relaxed and “fun environment to stimulate creativity, and flexible teamwork. DreamWorks Animation is company that many creative people aspire to work for, and perhaps the most attractive feature about this organization is that it is simply the best in the industry. This high quality image brings a sense of pride to all of its employees but it also brings with it extremely high expectations in times of quality of work and adherence to tight deadlines. The company attracts the brightest and best employees because of its profile as a leading and innovative animated movie producer and so long as it maintains this position it will make them want to stay and achieve even more success. The company webpages show also a real commitment to diversity in the workforce, since the faces of leading employees are male and female, and different in terms of age and ethnic origins also. It is a young company with an international flavour. This diversity is useful to the company because it matches the global audiences for the company products, but there is also evidence this mix encourages innovative thinking and exchange of ideas. The different social and cultural backgrounds of the staff make for a stimulating and rich working environment. The company’s philosophy makes a big statement about this point, and it is clearly one of the company’s overarching and strategic aims to have unity in diversity: “In this friendly, open and collaborative environment, people of globally diverse talent and backgrounds push creative boundaries and enjoy an easy camaraderie. We attract a globally diverse group of artists, technologists, production and support staff who come together…” (DreamWorks Website). This commitment to be inclusive means that the prevailing atmosphere is open and all staff are able to participate freely in company activities without fear of prejudice or inequality. Mutual respect marks the ethical tone of the company and this in turn leads to a more committed and contented workforce. Employee engagement begins at the point where people are recruited into the company. Vacancies are advertised on the company webpage, and of course the company requires very specific and certified skills in most of its employee roles. Experience is also needed in this industry, along with new ideas that are current in the youth cultures of the present time. Locating the right mix of talent and experience is difficult in animation, and DreamWorks takes a long term view of this task. It is commendable to note that there are outreach efforts in colleges and universities to draw in talent from all parts of society, including state as well as private educational institutions. In 2005, for example, the company started off an Outreach program to attract graduates who had no experience in the industry, but could demonstrate talent in their university work: “the goal of this program was to seed the next generation of creative and technical leadership at the Studio, and also to offset the rapidly rising salary rates for experienced talent.” (Newspeak.com case study, 2011) Some such ventures are little more than public relations stunts, but the company reports that 165 entry level graduates were hired, and 93% were retained, and 8 individuals were considered “superstars of tomorrow.” The company’s care for these employees started even before they were hired, since workers from the company went out into colleges and universities, advising students on their portfolios, and this shows a deep commitment to selecting and nurturing the people and skills that the company needs in the long term rather than just filling gaps with qualified people when they arise. There is very clear potential for career progression, and the company celebrates its own internal staff successes. These are features which underpin staff loyalty and commitment to the company. It is clear from the company website that many employees have been there from the beginning, or for many years and this lends an extra dimension of loyalty for those fortunate enough to have experienced this. These more experienced workers mentor and lead newer ones, and the relationships that are built up in creative teamwork can be very important in defining the employees’ motivation. A very important engagement principles established by Whittington and Galpin (2010) is that of employee trust in their leader. It is not sufficient that the leadership team in a creative organization should be competent and successful. There has to be also a linkage between these highly visible individuals and the members of their team who look to them for inspiration and guidance as well as day to day task allocation and all the usual management related roles. Employee Kathy Altieri describes the work of two directors she has worked with: “they both push us, like a personal trainer would, to make something better, more unique. and more honest than we could possibly dream.” (DreamWorks Animation website). This individual, personalized ethos engages people at an emotional level, as well as in a professional way, and this encourages loyalty and high performance levels. A mentoring and coaching ethos allows staff to develop along with the project over time, and plenty of learning from each other occurs. Employees who are continually challenged to improve with the support of their coaches and mentors invest a lot of their own creative energy into the project, and this binds them to the company. The work is both challenging and satisfying, and the input of more experienced colleagues prevents any stagnation. Care for employees at DreamWorks Animation extends to the creation of an environment where creativity is encouraged and allowed to flourish. The company uses cutting edge technology, and requires extremely high standards from its employees. The provision of a staff games room, with a pool table and wii games facility, and an annual carnival day are ways of letting people spend time together in a relaxed space, which rests the brain and allows people to get into the frame of mind for creative activity. There are also regular invited speakers who give “Dream Talks” which are special guest contributions from outside the company related to the animation industry in some way. This refreshes everyone’s perspective and makes sure that the company does not stand still with its own internal processes, but is open to other influences and ideas. The DreamWorks website also features sound bites from employees which stress the freedom that exists within the company for employees to participate in different roles while they are there, for example someone who usually is involved in writing can pitch to do a voice part for a film. The nature of the business is in teamwork on extended projects, and this encouragement to be flexible and creative increases the motivation for people to improve all of the time. The outcomes in the animation industry tend be produced in a long term project scenario, with on-going contributions from whole teams of creative people. The company also engages in company-wide volunteering session in May of each year, where teams of staff go out into the community and engage in charity work. This kind of effort ensures that the employees demonstrate a collective and corporate spirit, which raises the company image in the community and allows people to bond together with people inside and outside the company. Such activities help with team building on a larger scale, and break down the artificial boundaries that are sometimes caused by departmental or role divisions. There is a lot of informal bonding in this company and this too goes a long way to creating its friendly ethos. The combination of these six policies and practices ensures that DreamWorks Animation attracts, recruits, motivates and retains the diverse and leading edge workforce that it requires in order to maintain its global position in the animation world. Although many of the benefits of these strategies are intangible and hard to measure, like motivation and creativity, they are demonstrably there in abundance. Innovation is the company’s hallmark and it manages to harness both new and experienced talent by mixing up all of its employees in the way described here. References CNN Money. (2010) Fortune: 100 Best companies to work for. Available at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/full_list/ DreamWorks Animation company website. Available at: http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/ Newspeak.com . (2011) Case study on DreamWorks Animation. Available at: http://newspeak.com/?page_id=147 Taylor, V. and Greve, H.R. (2006) Superman or the Fantastic Four? Knowledge Combination and Experience in Innovative Teams. Academy of Management Journal 49 (4) 723-740. Available at: http://www.business.illinois.edu/ghoetker/teaching/ba547papers_files/Taylor_Greve_2006.pdf Whittington, J. Lee and Galpin, T.J. (2010) The engagement factor: building a high-commitment organization in a low-commitment world. Journal of Business Strategy 31 (5). 14-24. Read More