Employees

PartyGaming is a relatively young listed company but its organisational structure is comparable to one found in more mature businesses. We have raised our level of professionalism and broadened our range of skills. The demands on our employees are much greater now than thefy were when we were still operating in an environment that sported many of the characteristics associated with a start-up business, operating in a very young industry.

Building a robust and scalable working environment was just part of the reorganisation. How we managed, communicated, rewarded and retained our employees also had to change. Improving internal communications was essential to ensure that everyone was clear about our business strategy and our long-term objectives. Providing employees with a clear understanding of the corporate goals is essential for individual development and also ensures that we remain competitive and drive the business forward.

Communication
The execution of the business strategy is founded upon the working relationship between managers and employees. These working relationships are founded upon ethics, behaviour and skills. All three of these continue to be improved through programmes such as our eight ‘Ace Behaviours’, which have been identified as being the attributes needed to succeed at PartyGaming. They range from being creative and passionate about what we do to working as part of a team and delivering results.

Our intranet has become an integral communications channel and, during the second half of 2007, was enhanced by a new online Enterprise Resource Planning tool that united all of our offices. Managers and employees can now source information about any aspect of our business through this new tool, which we have called ‘Pi’. It enables us to manage consistently and transparently core parts of the business, including finance, procurement, product planning and human resources.

One of the biggest benefits of Pi has been decentralised decision-making, providing managers with better tools to manage direct reports. The implementation of Pi has been supported by a programme of learning and development that will continue in 2008.

In addition, we improved face-to-face communications across and down through every level of the business. In 2007 we opened offices in different locations that brought new challenges in terms of culture and language.

We now host two strategy events each year to keep senior managers informed of the ‘big picture’. Information about the business performance and strategy is then cascaded to all employees.

Our managers also listen to and act upon ideas and concerns put forward by staff, customers and other stakeholders. Employees’ best ideas go direct to the CEO, via an initiative that he created and implemented in 2007. Every quarter, in 2007 the best idea that was selected by senior management was rewarded with a share-based award donated by the CEO.

Rewards and incentives
Our expectations for all disciplines across the business are high and are matched by competitive salaries, an annual bonus scheme and an all-employee share option plan. Overall, our stated goal is to create as close a correlation as possible between individual output and company performance through a short, medium and long-term reward structure.

As with any other competitive industry, retaining key staff is always a challenge. That is why we have looked beyond individual financial rewards and focused our efforts on developing employees’ skills. We want our people to improve their performance, their skill set and also raise their job satisfaction levels.

Our employee base is diverse from a cultural perspective and also spans all age groups. An analysis of the gender of our employee base differs from office-to-office but is generally biased towards males who accounted for 68 per cent of the total number of 1,200 staff in 2007. We are an equal opportunities employer and strive to recruit the best and most appropriate employees first, regardless of their ethnicity, gender or age.

Succession planning ensures that we continue to move forward with a motivated, flexible and evolving organisation. However, not everyone makes the grade at PartyGaming and we know we have to further sharpen our recruitment processes and our approach to career development. PartyGaming’s executive team reviews the senior managers and employees on a regular basis. Our succession plans are actively managed and referred to whenever vacancies occur.