31 May 2018

Profit-sharing and other crazy business ideas

From Afternoons, 1:28 pm on 31 May 2018
Rocketwerkz chief executive Dean Hall in the company's Dunedin headquarters.

Rocketwerkz chief executive Dean Hall in the company's Dunedin headquarters. Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer

Air New Zealand and Mainfreight both recently announced they're sharing millions of dollars of profit among their staff through employee profit share schemes.

'Unlikely chief executive' Dean Hall of Rocketwerkz in Dunedin told Jesse Mulligan it's just good business.

Hall was the creator of hit zombie survival game DayZ who funnelled that success into setting up Rocketwerkz, now New Zealand's fastest-growing game studio.

His staff enjoy unlimited leave, flexible working hours and no middle managers, as well as a share in the profits.

"If you're in an industry [with] high-quality technical staff, a great way of retaining them is to say 'when we are successful, we share in the success.'"

Werkz wanted to attract talented staff overseas to help grow the Rocketwerkz business as well as enrich the gaming industry in New Zealand. He was inspired by "some of the collaborative decision-making stuff happening in European countries, especially Germany."

Inclusive policies can provide something different from bigger, more impersonal game development studios elsewhere, he says.

"You really need to stand out from everyone else so you can attract the good employees. This is a great way to stand out."

It helps address social problems like inequality, poverty and housing shortage, he says.

"Profit sharing allows you the chance to give people really life-changing incidents, really big bonuses from successful projects," on top of a comfortable living wage.

Staff are invested in, and understand commercial realities and company drivers more quickly, too.

"It's not all sunshine and rainbows. There's good and bad to it." Rather than manage everyone "by exception", however, he prefers to set up rules that work for the majority of good, honest people.

He reckons it's working.