Thought Leadership with Donna Kelly, Chief People and Culture Officer at Push Gaming

European Gaming spoke to Push Gaming’s Chief People and Culture Officer, Donna Kelly about how they have developed to become one of the best employers in iGaming and what structures they have in place to encourage internal progression.

Push Gaming has seen rapid growth over recent years. Can you tell us more about how the culture at Push has grown with it?

We’ve come a long way over the past few years but we have stayed true to what makes us unique. Our team is at the forefront of everything we do here at Push Gaming and we have built a culture that is centred around trust, collaboration, transparency and accountability.

We have a talented team who are highly driven to create premium quality and exciting game and we work hard to nurture a healthy and positive atmosphere to compliment this..

The same passion we pour into our games is mirrored in the way we build our teams. We give everyone the freedom, flexibility and trust to execute their roles. We are always looking for ways to improve, regularly asking for feedback from the team; what is working, what isn’t and as a result, we can ensure that we’re moving in the right direction.

Internal promotion seems to be a regular occurrence in Push. What about Push as a working environment inspires such high retention rates, and what benefits come from retaining talented people rather than externally hiring?

Individual progression is a key focus for us. We have many success stories where people have joined at the early stages in their careers and are now heading up teams and departments. With the company rapidly growing, there are plenty of opportunities for progression. This is something that we actively focus on internally.

We give our team the support, freedom and tools to work to the best of their ability and to allow them the opportunities to grow as individuals. It has served us well so far!

It is also important to us that we are providing people with learning and development opportunities. We have many different functions and skill sets at Push and we encourage teams and individuals to approach us with courses, tools and technology that can boost their personal development.

How has Push grown in recent months and years, and what does this mean for the future? 

Push has seen significant growth over the last few years – our portfolio is constantly expanding, we have entered new markets and there are more on the horizon. To support that growth, of course, we must grow our teams. We’re growing in line with our long-term strategy of consistently bringing the best in entertainment to new players in new territories and creating content with a variety of themes, features and player demographics.

Our ethos has always been quality over quantity, but a well-thought-out long-term vision has put us in a place where we can grow our output, quality and variety of games all at once.

We are in a strong place, with an incredibly talented team and we will continue to build Push with like-minded individuals who share our vision for excellence and quality.

How does Push handle recruitment?

We understand the recruitment process can be lengthy for candidates and as such, we try to make it as smooth and quick as possible by identifying key candidates early to ensure we can progress quickly.

It is important that we are able to identify ambitious people with the potential to grow beyond their current capabilities and fit well into our culture – these are the key things we look for when recruiting.

How do you encourage the collaborative environment that is so important to commercial growth?

We regularly hold company-wide brainstorm sessions where anyone can throw out an idea, from a theme to a mechanic or art style they think players would like. Your role may not be involved in the game development process, but if you have a good idea, you definitely have a platform. That’s the culture we’ve managed to nurture here.

It’s also important for us to find smarter ways of collaboration, especially given that a big chunk of it occurs remotely. We source the latest in collaborative technology, encourage only important meetings that don’t run on, and motivate people to focus on outcomes rather than second-by-second monitoring.

Transparency and accountability really is key to ensuring this way of working takes us forward. Each team is encouraged to translate the company vision into the goals they want to achieve, meaning they set targets that are achievable but ambitious and generated from the bottom up.

All of this culminates in a really trusting and sharing environment where we all feel free to work collaboratively, regardless of location. We have a fantastic team and our games are born of a genuinely diverse group of minds who all feel comfortable expressing when they feel something can be done better, that way we are all accountable to continue innovating.

How do you promote teamwork and team building within Push Gaming?

We make sure we take the time to celebrate our wins as a team. We try to organise as many social opportunities as possible, both virtually so that we can get the whole team together and in person for those based in similar locations.

We regularly hold virtual launch parties for game releases and enjoy a company-wide games afternoon. It’s never mandatory to participate, so to see so many people show up makes it even more clear that our trust and confidence in our team is paying off – we’re lucky we have such a great team.

We try to link our themes to the games – for our recent release Mad Cars, we had our teams in various locations experience some different types of driving – our UK team tried out Quad Biking and blindfolded driving, our other offices tried buggies and go-karting.

We have a lot of fun, whilst also maintaining a high-performance culture which has been key to us continuing to evolve and reaching the heights we’ve enjoyed together.