Christopher Hymes
CISO & Head of Enterprise IT
Riot Games
June 2020
For Christopher Hymes, what attracts a CISO to security is the desire to make an outsized, company-wide impact. So, for Hymes, leading Riot Games’ business continuity working group during the COVID-19 crisis has been one of the most fulfilling things he has done in his career. By supporting his team and keeping the Riot culture cohesive, Hymes demonstrates how it is possible for organizations to successfully pivot during periods of uncertainty.
How has your organization responded to the new environment forced upon all of us by COVID-19?
Riot has responded well. We are very fortunate that we got ahead of the COVID-19 crisis. We ended up having 92% of our employees in a work-from-home situation before the Los Angeles and California stay-at-home orders came down. It was a smooth transition in that aspect and because we were able to plan in advance, our approach made it comfortable for everyone and less chaotic.
Regarding technology, our IT team had been working for the last several years to enable all Rioters to be able to work from anywhere easily. So, what appeared to be many switches flipping quickly was actually two years of structured work. We pulled the trigger on a it a bit early, but a lot of effort had already gone into it, and because of that work, work-from-home has been very smooth. The majority of what we're working on now is maintaining Riot culture and making sure we're supporting Rioters, especially Rioters with children, during this time at home.
How are you maintaining Riot’s culture?
Riot has a very strong culture that is important to us. To preserve it, we hold competitions – things like who has the best work-from-home setup. We give out awards for the most Zen set up, the dirtiest, and the most unique use of a household item in their set up. People throughout the company are participating. Even our CEO posted a photo of his desk.
We have also created what we call duo queue where Rioters can join a Slack channel. Once a week, they are assigned another random Rioter for a one-on-one, just to form new relationships. We are doing things like recipe shares, classes, and virtual Zoom happy hours. And we will be sending all Rioters a work-from-home gift box that has a bunch of things that will make their work-from-home experience more enjoyable and to feel more like they’re at the office.
Out of all that you’re doing, what are you most proud of when it comes to how your organization has stepped up during the crisis?
I am most proud of how the company has come together to support each other and to support the support staff that run our campus, especially since they are unable to be physically present and therefore unable to do their jobs. However, because we had some foresight, we were able to come up with plan to ensure that the individuals who cannot work from home are taken care of. They are still getting paid, and they have health benefits.
When all is said and done, during times of crisis, a company's true spirit comes out. We have seen a lot of companies that have made certain decisions that have led to significant layoffs. How they handled those layoffs left employees feeling unsupported. At Riot, every single leadership conversation focuses on, “How do we support Rioters? How do we make them comfortable?”
I think the actions of the company during this time shows everyone where the true heart of Riot resides. Humans are what make a company. Realistically, if we want to make great games, we need people who are happy and passionate. There are always going to be external stressors that you cannot change, especially in times like these. All that we can do from a company leadership perspective is say, “How can I relieve as many of those pressures as possible for the people who work at our company?” If you can manage to remove just a few, that is a massive weight off everyone’s shoulders.
How are you growing as a leader through this?
I have always felt that caring for each other and caring for the health of the team is our top leadership priority. If you have good morale and everyone feels cared for, you are going to get better work.
This situation is so different from normal life. Parents who are at home right now must watch their kids while working. Maybe they feel guilty that they may not be doing the same amount of work that someone else on the team is doing. Then you have the individuals who live by themselves and are working twice as much as they normally would and are having difficulty disconnecting. During this time, we have literally gone back to every single person on our team and said, “It is part of your responsibility to take time off. We are going to be following up with you to make sure you have taken PTO. We are going to follow up and make sure that you are signing out of Slack.” We have become significantly more forceful with it because this stuff builds up over time and it causes people to burn out. We tell them that it is okay to take time off and that you are not going to get penalized for it.
One thing that has been important for Riot’s success during this time is over communicating. There is so much uncertainty, and we have been incredibly open and transparent in terms of our communication. Every Monday I send out a company-wide message. This includes not only what the status of work-from-home is and a couple of other updates to keep people in the loop with our planning, but we also have a section on cool things that Rioters have done. We have employees making masks and giving them away, we have had virtual birthday parties, and we’ve had someone who made a bunch of care packages and delivered them to people's houses. We are calling out the good that people are doing so not everything is negative and scary. In a time when it is easy to feel disconnected and overwhelmed by negative media, we found that communication is an important way to help people feel secure and valued.
Special thanks to Christopher Hymes and Riot Games.
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