Back in 2020, Ubisoft faced a number of misconduct allegations, with several high-profile employees leaving the company shortly after they surfaced. One survey at the time revealed that 25% of employees had apparently witnessed or experienced workplace misconduct (with women and non-binary people being the most affected), and that 20% of survey respondents didn’t feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment”.
Now, speaking to Axios, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that reforming the company in the wake of the allegations has been his “main focus for the past two years”. When asked if Ubisoft would support its Canadian studio employees to unionise, he simply said, “It’s really up to the people to decide.”
“I think we are a very good company and we had problems, we solved them and the goal is to be again the best place,” he said.
He then went on to say that he felt betrayed by those close to him in 2020: “You [realise] that things happened very close to you, that you wouldn't accept, had you known about them,” he said. “You're upset by the fact that it could happen and that you didn't see it.”
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The CEO also explained that measures have been taken to make sure issues aren’t overlooked, such as having a dedicated HR team to have meetings with employee resource groups, in order to “help ensure I hear from more diverse voices within the company, including those who are not part of HQ leadership”.
“The company was running and there were ways things were done. And then there was a new young generation, coming [into the company] with different needs,” he continued. “And we had to adapt. I think we didn't adapt fast enough to what people expected and needed.”
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