How do you manage a staff of mostly 1,500 gamers? Razer's head of people pushes for inclusivity and innovation
Razer’s head of people April Wan talks about the power of cult culture and diversity at one of the world’s most popular lifestyle brand for gamers in this second instalment of our Women Leaders series.
Whether you’re a gamer or not, you would be familiar with Razer. The tech company run by its Singaporean CEO Tan Min-Liang has built such a cult following among gamers that some have even tattooed the brand logo – a three-headed snake – on their body.
Razer, which launched the world’s first mouse for gaming in 1999, is known for its gaming hardware – mice with high-precision sensors, and keyboards lit with a spiralling prism of colours and customisable buttons, experiential headsets, laptops, chairs and even apparel, plus gaming software.
The company’s 1,500-strong staff – mostly gamers – work across its 19 offices worldwide in black “gaming dens”, trimmed with acid green. And leading human resources is 48-year-old Singaporean April Wan, Vice President of Global Head of People and Organisation.
CULTIVATING A CULT CULTURE
What is it like to build and run a workforce of gamers? My first inkling came from Wan’s unexpected attire of a loose black tee-shirt and sneakers when we met at the Razer headquarters at one-north Crescent.
She told me that on her first day at the Razer office five years ago, she was greeted by an even more dressed-down HR person in a tee-shirt, shorts … and flip-flops.
“The no-dress-code was a shock to me. I was overdressed,” she laughed. “But this is us.”
Lunchtime is spent in breakout groups, playing Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), a popular multiplayer online battle arena game, Pokemon Unite, or any of the team’s latest gaming obsessions.
AFK, short for “Away From Keyboard”, happens every last Friday of the month. That is when Razer staff play games or watch others play them during working hours.
Wan also leads her team in organising the Razer Cup, an internal gaming tournament with regional competitions usually held yearly and live-streamed to staff.
A big part of her job includes advocating for sustainability, and shaping the work culture for greater diversity, equity, employee engagement and well-being.
Under her leadership, Razer USA and Razer Singapore obtained the Great Place To Work certification for two consecutive years from 2021-2023. This global certification is based on employee feedback and independent analysis.
DIVERSITY, THE CORE OF INNOVATION
Being a female leader sets her apart – Razer Singapore is 65 per cent male and 35 per cent female. The company's global gender ratio is 62 per cent male and 38 per cent female.
She is also a Gen-Xer, a group not traditionally seen to be driving the gaming culture. Wan admitted that she is not a hardcore gamer and is currently playing a more “childish” game, Disney Frozen, which is similar to Candy Crush.
But she points out that gaming today has moved beyond male or youth culture. And with that, diversity of the workforce is key to innovation.
“Diversity is about diversity of thoughts, and diversity of thoughts come from the individual background, culture, gender and people each person interacts with. That is key to creating products that are going to be relevant to our target audience,” she said.
In fact, the first order of business for Wan upon joining the company in 2019 was to push for the transition to a human resources information system, which allowed the company to digitalise and analyse the data of its 1,500 employees worldwide.
It took around a year for Wan and her 50-strong team to input the data. With information like employees’ race, gender, age, job, pay and so on, the software can indicate which pockets in Razer have more skill sets and which areas are lacking so that the company can optimise performance and productivity.
It also enables the company to implement inclusive hiring practices and anti-bias training programmes.
“Data is the foundation, especially when we talk about digital transformation. With this, we started to look at areas of opportunity, including from a diversity and inclusion standpoint,” she said.
When it comes to gender, some areas such as engineering and product development are male dominated. Others such as product marketing, human resources and finance are more female dominated, she noted.
Her goal: To prompt recruiters and managers to practise inclusive hiring in each department.
This does not just apply to gender. “Generally, if there are two candidates with similar skill sets, we ask managers to look for ways to introduce diversity to the team, whether from a gender, age or race [perspective],” she explained.
The data from this system also helped Wan work towards equity pay within the company by building salary ranges for different roles, while taking into account each individual’s contribution through performance assessment.
SHIFTING THE NEEDLE ON INCLUSIVITY
The human resources leader further speculated that non-inclusive hiring policies are not the main reason there are fewer women in tech.
She suggested that there may simply be fewer women who are interested in joining tech, especially in roles such as engineering and product development.
“Inclusivity work needs to start from young. And that’s why companies like us are targeting the youth,” said Wan. The company hosts school visits, which is a hit among students.
“We want to share with youth that while gaming is an interest, there is also a lot of art and science that goes on behind it. It is a career where you can do phenomenal things that influence the economy.
“Gaming is a catalyst for the technology sector – the games, the music, the production, the connectivity, services, in-game purchases, monetisation models… It is a very exciting space that spearheads a lot of innovation,” she added.
Speaking about her push for equal gender representation, Wan said: “One of my ex-bosses and mentor once told me that in HR, leadership and management, you need to decide if you want to be a realist or activist. An activist is someone who jumps up and down, shouting for change. But the realist quietly makes sure that we take little steps towards change.
“I am more of a realist. Rather than making complaints, to me, the question is, what we can do to start shifting the needle,” she said.
Wan believes that with education, inclusive practices and more female tech leaders, women will play an increasingly larger role in game development in time to come.
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