| As one of six German companies, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs rewarded Hamburg-based online games developer InnoGames with the “Success in Diversity” award today. The prize is given to companies with an exemplary strategy for recruiting international employees and have a good welcome culture. Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Iris Gleicke personally handed over the reward to InnoGames’ co-founder and COO Michael Zillmer in Berlin.
Gleicke said in her speech: “In order to motivate qualified international employees for a career in Germany, we need a welcome culture that invites and integrates them. Today’s award winners are creating such a welcome culture in an exemplary way. With this investment in diversity they not only strengthen their companies, but also Germany. In the future, our economy will depend on qualified immigration even more. Germany is an attractive location for international employees and their families and we should promote this globally.”
“At InnoGames we really appreciate this award since it confirms our approach of bringing the best possible employees to Hamburg”, Michael Zillmer said. “Basically, we have two major reasons for our efforts. The first is that we cannot fill all of our openings within a reasonable time if we only use the German labor market. The second reason might be more relevant. Since our community is very international, with 90 percent of our players coming from outside of Germany, we believe it is important to have an international staff as well”, Zillmer explains further. With 80 out of 350 of their employees coming from abroad, the international share amongst InnoGames’ employees already reaches more than 20 percent – with an increasing trend.
In order to make it as easy as possible to join InnoGames, the games developer set up a full package. Amongst many things, it includes the support from a relocation agency who takes care of most of the required paperwork. InnoGames also offers flats close to their office for international employees so they have a place to stay while they search for a flat of their own. In addition, InnoGames changed the office’s language from German to English three years ago, so international colleagues could easily get integrated. Next to this, all InnoGames’ employees benefit from incentives like a free in-office gymas well as free fruit and drinks.
Additionally, the company offers professional language courses in both English and German. InnoGames wants to expand this offer for the families of international employees with the prize money of 10,000 Euro. “We believe it is important that not only our employees, but also their families feel good in Germany so they want to stay here longer. German language skills will help them in long-term, especially outside of work.”
With about 150 million registered players, InnoGames is one of the world’s leading developers and providers of online games. InnoGames has scored major success with games such as Tribal Wars, Grepolis and Forge of Empires.
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