Guest Post: When to get an HR consultant

09
Dec

IGEA member Sam Marsh is a Games Talent Consultant at recruitment agency Supaglu.  He help’s games studios find the right people, and help people find the right studios. Sam work’s with all sorts from developers, artists, designers, and producers across the Australia and New Zealand games industry to connect talent with opportunities that actually fit, not just fill a seat.

In this piece, he explores the best time to get a HR consultant, and how best to utilise them.

A lot of small and mid-sized game development studios in our region consider HR like something you will deal with once you are “big enough”. Until then, you just hope common sense and goodwill will cover the gaps. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it works right up until it doesn’t.

Bringing in an HR consultant is not about becoming corporate. It is about giving your studio the basics you need to grow. Most teams hit that point earlier than they expect.

You might be a ten or twenty person studio, still scrappy. You have a producer juggling onboarding, performance chats, leave requests, and conflict resolution on top of actual production. Founders trying to interpret employment law in three tabs while also running a milestone review. Policies that live in someone’s brain instead of a place people can find. Sound familiar? Well, at this stage, an HR consultant is not a luxury.

A consultant gives you structure without forcing a big company feel.

  • They can help you set up hiring processes that do not rely on luck.
  • They can review contracts so you are not caught out by the fine print.
  • They can build clear guidelines so your team actually knows what “good” looks like.
  • They can handle the sensitive stuff that no one wants to get wrong, from performance issues to wellbeing support.
  • They do the practical, unglamorous things that keep your culture healthy and your overheads in order.

It’s also about reputation. Our industry is small. Word travels fast. A studio that looks after its people, sets fair expectations, and deals with issues properly tends to attract better talent and keep it. Investors and publishers notice it too. Stability is a selling point when you are pitching a project or a partnership.

The common mistake is waiting until something has already gone sideways. A dispute, a burnout, a tough call that becomes way harder than it needed to be. By the time you are dealing with that, you are already behind. The better move is bringing in someone early, even for a few hours a month, to put the basics in place before you need them.

You likely do not need a full-time HR team! You do need someone with experience who can give you a foundation, and set you up so your leadership team can focus on the creative and technical work that you are actually there to do.

Good HR is about giving your people clarity and giving your studio room to grow without losing what makes it special. That is why an HR consultant becomes useful long before you feel “ready”. If you ever need someone to talk to about HR consulting, or have general questions, please send me a message on LinkedIn or through email.