Happier and healthier staff – could you ask for anything better as CEO? No, not if you ask Rickard Frisegård at successful game development company Stunlock Studios. “Just this morning I spoke to an employee who said he has taken control of his health thanks to OneLab. It really felt incredibly good.”
At Stunlock Studios’ office in Skövde, creators and coders work on developing games such as Bloodline Champion and Battlerite, as well as the most popular one at the moment – the vampire game V Rising – which involves you waking up as a bloodthirsty vampire and having to fight for your survival. The game has so far generated a whopping 3 million copies sold and created major growth for the company, which has increased its workforce by 25% in recent years.
But if life in the game is merciless, CEO Rickard Frisegård’s care for the company’s staff is the opposite. “In 2022, we had an intense period with a lot of hard work and great successes, but even though it was of course fun, I realized that it would be tough going into the fall. Many were tired and I realized that I needed help to make sure that everyone on the staff was feeling good, quite simply,” says Rickard.
At first, he considered hiring someone who would work dedicatedly on these issues, but after a conversation with his sister, he changed his mind. “She has worked a lot with HR so I asked her for advice and she recommended OneLab, who specializes in this, which felt good. I booked an appointment and we started sketching out a strategy that began with OneLab’s digital health surveys to find out how everyone was feeling.”
To get the staff motivated to participate in the new initiative, a kickoff was held where Rickard explained why they had invested in health and where OneLab prepared everyone for the survey that would be sent out to map their well-being. “In our industry, you don’t always have a lot of experience with this type of activity, so it felt important that everyone knew what was coming and why.”
The results of OneLab’s health surveys showed that most people were feeling good, but that there were exceptions when it came to both physical and mental well-being. Here and there, targeted interventions were therefore needed, which were coordinated by OneLab. “It’s okay to feel bad, but it’s not okay for someone who feels bad not to get help or be seen for how they are feeling. One of the best things about OneLab is exactly that – that they help me with that part of my ongoing work. Psychosocial health is a perishable commodity and OneLab is a good, continuous partner that helps me maintain it with my employees. Our managers have received excellent reviews and are trusted by the employees, but you still can’t count on your employees to come to you as a manager and tell you exactly how they are feeling, so it’s nice that OneLab covers up and compensates where I and our leaders fall short,” explains Rickard.
"Psychosocial health is a perishable commodity and OneLab is a good, continuous partner that helps me maintain it among my employees"
Rickard Frisegård
CEO, Stunlock Studios
In addition to measures for specific individuals, the collaboration with OneLab has also resulted in a number of measures for the workplace as a whole, which have even been highlighted in the media. An HR person has been recruited to work actively to ensure that the company’s policies are followed. The office manager has increased his focus on togetherness and team building, and one hour of organized group training per week is offered to all employees. “A full 90% of the staff are involved”, Rickard says proudly, and it should be noted that only 10-15% trained regularly before. “The collaboration with OneLab has clearly raised the mood in our workplace. And the best thing is that we are doing this together. That is what I am most proud of.”
