Hamburg-based German game developer and publisher known for games like Forge of Empires, Elvenar, and Tribal Wars, voluntarily started publishing its salary ranges and including them in job postings.
The new application started on July 2022. There were four senior, 14 regular, and one junior-level vacancies. Totaling up to 19, 18 of these positions were full-time employment. Co-Founder, and COO of InnoGames, Michael Zillmer, commented:
“We’re thrilled at the impact of our salary transparency initiative. Critics will say that it was because of the extensive media coverage and the attention it brought that we were able to fill our vacancies so quickly. That was certainly a factor, but it’s not an exhaustive explanation.
“Too much has changed in our recruiting for that. We not only receive a lot of unsolicited positive feedback from applicants but have also noticed that the tone in our hiring conversations has changed for the better. Overall, we have gained considerably in trustworthiness. This will also have a positive effect in the long term.“
Andreas Lieb, Director of Human Resources at InnoGames, stated that although it’s impossible to identify all the factors contributing to the positive results, employment processing times have reduced significantly. Mentioning that the search for a Data Analyst could extend up to 15 months previously but lasted for 2 months after the application. “The bottom line is that our initiative has already led to almost all the positive effects we had hoped for, while the feared risks – above all, a wave of headhunting attempts – have not materialized so far,” he said.
There are 9 salary ranges at InnoGames, covering up to 80% of the workforce. The company considers a salary range has been established if at least 6 employees share the same career model. These ranges are included in the job postings if they fulfill this prerequisite.
