GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit 2025 took place on October 2 at the Royal Institution in London, where more than 60 industry and studio leaders shared their ideas and advice.
keynote address Sega Europe's Chief People Officer, Nicky Ormrod, spoke alongside Simon Court and Dan Bobby from the Value Partnership, who outlined how they have formed a plan to return Sega to a positive growth trajectory.
Other talks and fireside chats on the main stage include: Gina Jackson of Skillfull and Liz Prince of Amiqus discussed the “talent reset”, exploring why interdisciplinary expertise is key to industry transition, while Nicky Head and Chiara Santevecchi touched on the complex topic of artificial intelligence and how it is changing work culture.
In addition to the main stage, a series of master classes took place throughout the day, including workshop from Next Jump's Kevin McCoy and GameDataCore's Simon Sparks on how to “level up” your team with limited resources.
For those who were unable to attend, GamesIndustry.biz Videos and summaries of many of the day's presentations will be released in the coming weeks.
The GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit remains unique in the UK business calendar as the only event dedicated to HR professionals from the video games industry. But one moment that emerged that day was more about who wasn't there than who was.
The final session on the main stage was a wrap-up workshop where the audience could raise and discuss issues raised in previous presentations, as well as introduce new ideas. One of the questions was: “Who does PR for HR?”, which led to a lively discussion about how the work of people in HR is often overlooked and how positive HR success stories should be shared with the media.
But perhaps the most important point raised by the audience is the glaring shame that HR is often not represented at board level. Most of those present agreed with the call for members of senior management to attend future HR summits.
This is an understandable reaction. While everyone we spoke to was enthusiastic about the importance of HR Summit and its unique position for HR professionals in the video game industry, a common complaint was that the voices of HR people are often not heard by decision makers. As wonderful as it was to meet and interact with peers, there was a concern that the event constituted an echo chamber and that the important messages within it needed to be heard outside its walls.
In subsequent conversations with various participants, we heard about their dissatisfaction with management. The feeling that decisions are too often forced upon them—decisions in which they have little say. A sudden decree from above to hire dozens of employees, perhaps, or vice versa – a sudden layoff.
In both cases there may be alternatives. But if senior management never seeks advice from HR representatives on the best course of action, these alternatives will never be heard.
There was also a sense that people management is often an afterthought for management – something that companies must have when they reach a certain size, but are never considered the core of the business.
This is a clear call to action: more dialogue is needed between leaders and HR professionals. IN GamesIndustry.bizwe will consider how best to resolve this issue in the future. But for now, if you work in HR and have been nodding vigorously to the points raised above, perhaps the best thing to do right now is show this article to your boss and start talking.
