The GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit 2025 took place on October 2 at the Royal Institution in London, with more than 60 industry leaders and studios sharing their insights and advice.
The keynote talk was from Sega Europe’s chief people officer, Nicky Ormrod, alongside Simon Court and Dan Bobby of Value Partnership, who discussed how they formed a plan to put Sega back on a positive growth trajectory.
Among the other talks and fireside chats on the main stage, Gina Jackson from Skillfull and Liz Prince from Amiqus discussed the “talent reset,” exploring how interdisciplinary expertise is key in the midst of an industry transition, while Niki Head and Chiara Santevecchi tackled the thorny subject of AI and how it’s reshaping work culture.
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Away from the main stage, a series of workshops took place throughout the day, including a 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 will be releasing videos and summaries of many of the day’s presentations over 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 point that emerged on the day was more about who wasn’t there, rather than who was.
The final session on the main stage consisted of a wrap-up workshop, in which audience members could raise and discuss matters that had been touched on in earlier presentations, as well as introduce new ideas. One of the questions was, “Who is doing the PR for HR?”, which led to a spirited discussion about how the work of people in HR is often overlooked, and how positive stories of HR success should be shared with the media.
But probably the most important point that was raised by the audience is how it’s a crying shame that HR is often not represented at the board level. A majority of attendees agreed with a plea for members of the C-suite to be present at future HR Summits.
It’s an understandable reaction. Although everyone we spoke to enthused about the importance of the HR Summit and its unique position for HR professionals in the video games industry, a common complaint was that the voices of people in HR are often not heard by the people making the decisions. Wonderful as it is to meet and network with peers, there was the worry that the event is an echo chamber – and that the important messages within need to be heard beyond its walls.
In follow-up chats with various attendees, we have heard of their frustrations with management. The feeling that too often they have decisions thrust upon them – decisions that they have had little or no say in shaping. A sudden decree from on high to hire dozens of staff, perhaps, or the opposite – a sudden downsizing.
In both cases, there might be alternatives. But if the C-suite never seeks out the advice of HR representatives on the best course of action, those alternatives never get heard.
A sense emerged, too, of how HR is often an afterthought of management – something that companies have to have once they reach a certain size, but never regard as a core of the business.
It’s a clear call to action that more dialogue is needed between executives and HR professionals. At GamesIndustry.biz, we will ponder how best to address this in future years. But for the time being, if you work in HR and you’ve been nodding vigorously at the points raised above, perhaps the best thing to do right now is show this article to your boss and start talking.
