I’m a big fan of good things. Good design, good information, and good business. We’re at a point now where our animation industry is generally run pretty well at the studio level. It doesn’t seem that long ago, however, that you could fill a studio with 150 people, full time, for months on end, and pay them all as freelancers, including the manager, with no real job security, no benefits, no nothing. Thankfully, this is no longer the norm. Studios have to be more competitive today and our industry has mostly grown up.
Here in Ottawa, one of the first studios (along with PiP Animation) to actually treat its employees like employees was Mercury Filmworks. Mercury came to town many years ago, and took a leadership position as far as how it treated its staff.
Looks like they’re still at it too. They’ve just announced an RRSP plan for all employees (not just management or administration) with a matching component by the company. For long term employees it can be as much as an additional
35% or almost $7000/yr. Head Honcho, Clint Eland offered: We would liked to have matched at 100% but that would only have been possible if we offered it to a smaller group like senior level staff – and the whole idea was to incentivize everyone… from the administrative assistants, to animators, 3D artists, and compositors.We wanted the plan to be available to every employee. And it is! Effective this Jan 1, 2011.
This kind of deal was unheard of back in the day. Can anyone out there tell me if they’ve heard of anyone else doing anything like it? I’d love to know who else is at it.
Props to Merc.
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Digital Extremes in London, offers up to 100% RRSP matching for all long-term employees. While DE is technically a game developer, not an animation studio, it obviously includes an animation department. The “good business” practices of DE are remarkable for an industry that is even younger than animation, and yet so closely tied to it.
Yes, I am biased because they just hired me last year, but these are the reasons I sought out and accepted a position at the company. This link describes why they were chosen as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and Financial Post’s Ten Best Companies to Work For for 2011 (and have been for the last few years) http://www.eluta.ca/top-employer-digital-extremes
Very cool to hear. Says a LOT of HOW Clint and his team are running the company and says even more that he is giving all his clients the best possible product!