Seattle-based game developer FlowPlay is taking employee retention to a new level.
FlowPlay co-founder and CEO Derrick Morton says the 65-person company hasn't had a single employee leave of their own volition since 2018. In addition to typical tech workplace perks like catered meals and foosball, FlowPlay has tried to create a culture of shared decision-making that's devoid of micro-managing.
"Everybody on the team has some autonomy into the product they're working on. They're not just being told, 'Hey, here's your job. Go do this and come back with great stuff,'" Morton said. "Everybody is on a team, and those teams decide product strategy, product direction and the day-to-day specifics about it. There's no managers at our company."
Morton and Douglas Pearson, FlowPlay's chief technology officer and other co-founder, each oversee about half of the company. Employees don't have other managers giving them day-to-day instructions. Morton says this structure doesn't create disorganization problems. Rather, Morton and Pearson want to ensure everyone at the company is making real contributions to projects and the company doesn't designate people whose sole job is personnel oversight.
Creating a flatter management structure can benefit companies, including large ones where it could enable managers to be closer to end customers or suppliers, says Beth Bovis, partner at the management consulting firm Kearney. At some companies, for example, people become managers simply because they needed a raise or a promotion. Still, Bovis added that good managers can help clarify goals and mentor talent, and these important functions can be forgotten at flat companies if the companies are careless.
"I think larger companies should look at flattening, but I think that at the large, global scale, having high-impact management can be a competitive advantage when done right," Bovis said in an email.
FlowPlay also does its best to vet potential employees during the hiring process to make sure they will be a good cultural fit. Morton interviews each candidate at least once. A good measure for potential employees, Morton says, is what they do in their free time.
"If you're an engineer, and you don't work on any engineering stuff outside of your 9 to 5 job, then you probably don't like what you do very much," Morton said. "Really good engineers are working on little side projects and doing cool stuff just for fun. Same thing with artists. Good artists don't put it down at the end of the day."
FlowPlay was founded in 2007. The company makes community-based virtual worlds, and its titles include Casino World, Vegas World, Live Game Night and ourWorld.
FlowPlay also hosts "brainathons" where employees can pitch ideas on new products to build. The brainathons are open to everyone at the company, from engineers to artists to customer service employees.
"We're building two products right now. One was come up with by an artist and one was come up with by one of the engineers," Morton said.
