Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has published the results of an employee survey undertaken by the company over the summer following allegations of endemic harassment and toxicity, and the results are eye-opening.
In the anonymous survey of nearly 14,000 employees, one in four respondents said that they had either witnessed or experienced workplace misconduct themselves in the past two years, and one in five said that they didn’t feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment.” The results also noted that women and non-binary employees witnessed or were more likely to experience or witness harassment than men.
Ubisoft says that the survey — which was conducted by a third-party research firm, and the results of which were provided to The Verge — started “shortly after the initial allegations” of sexual harassment, misconduct, sexism, racism, and a toxic workplace environment came to light earlier this summer.
As a result of those accusations, a host of Ubisoft executives and creative leaders have either been fired or stepped down from their current roles, including Tommy François, Maxime Béland, Ashraf Ismail, Serge Hascoët, and Yannis Mallat. Ubisoft veteran Michel Ancel also recently departed the company; a later report from French newspaper Libération (which Ancel denies) claimed that this was due to an ongoing investigation into Ancel’s toxic management of Beyond Good and Evil 2.
Guillemot’s letter goes on to explain how the company hopes to begin to deal with these issues and help create a safer and better work environment at Ubisoft. He notes that the company has new mechanisms in place to anonymously report harassment accusations so that they can be investigated further. Ubisoft is also revising its mandatory company code of conduct and conducting compulsory anti-sexism and anti-harassment training across the company.
Ubisoft is also working to hire a new head of diversity and inclusion and new vice presidents, and it aims to have women comprise at least 24 percent of Ubisoft’s staff by 2023 (compared to the current 22 percent).
These changes are in addition to previously announced efforts for increased diversity and representation at the company, which include new mentorship programs for women and underrepresented minorities.
“Everyone at Ubisoft should be able to feel confident and have the same opportunities, regardless of their gender, skin color, religion, age, or other individual traits,” reads Guillemot’s closing remarks. Based on the way that the company has handled business for the last few decades, though, Ubisoft still seems to have a long way to go before it reaches that point.
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Author: Chaim Gartenberg
Source: Theverge
