Bobby Kotick Responds to Employee Frustration; Changes Announced in Activision Blizzard
Bobby Kotick has addressed the scandals that have recently engulfed Activision Blizzard. The head of the company announced changes to eliminate harassment and discrimination issues.
- Bobby Kotick responded to Activision Blizzard employee protests;
- Company's managers and team leaders are to undergo a mandatory evaluation;
- Changes will also affect the recruitment department.
Activision Blizzard doesn't seem to be handling the ongoing crisis very well. The company's official position, which was later confirmed by its vice president, was to deny all allegations made by the employees. This provoked an outrage among the latter, which resulted in the announcement of a strike. As you can see, this threat proved to be effective, because the CEO of the company, that is Bobby Kotick spoke on the matter.
In a statement he admitted that the initial reaction of the company was inappropriate. According to him, Activision Blizzard's management did not listen to the voices of its employees. Moreover, in the document we can read about how important for the company is the point of view of its employees and the value of their resistance to abuse. However, the really important content appears only at the end.
Kotick announced a number of actions that are to lead to the improvement of situation in the company. Firstly, a special phone line has been created, where employees will be able to anonymously report abuses. This will allow for an internal investigation to be conducted into all allegations. All managers and team leaders will also undergo mandatory evaluation. Those found to be abusers will be expelled from Activision Blizzard.
Secondly, changes will affect the recruitment department. Managers responsible for hiring new employees have been given special guidelines to ensure fairness in applying for positions in the company. This is to eliminate the influence of personal biases of specific individuals on Activision Blizzard's hiring practices. In the long run, these measures are expected to allow for a more diverse team.
The last of the announced steps, in turn, are changes in the publisher's games themselves. Most likely this applies to the previously announced removal of inappropriate references from World of Warcraft. It is possible that this practice will be extended to other productions.
It seems that the strong resistance of the company's employees finally caused the reaction of its executives. So this is the first victory for the victims, who for some time have been speaking out loudly about the abuses taking place in Activision Blizzard. We can only hope that the actions announced in Kotick's statement will actually be implemented.
