{"id":2020,"date":"2025-02-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noblesteedgames.com\/blog\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2025-02-11T15:15:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:15:43","slug":"dealing-with-whs-as-a-video-game-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noblesteedgames.com\/blog\/dealing-with-whs-as-a-video-game-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with WHS as a Video Game Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is WHS?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you hear the term Work Health and Safety or WHS, more often than not you think of people in hard hats, construction sites, manufacturing, or other high risk jobs. However, WHS applies to all businesses, big or small – because its main goal is prevention of risk. This means it is not only through protecting people from getting hurt physically by ensuring safety standards are in place, but also through putting the right policies and insurances in place for when the need arises.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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What kind of WHS risks come from making video games?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are proud of having passionate and compassionate employees so we try to make sure our team has all the support they need to reach their goals. This includes making sure the team\u2019s safety is prioritised by having the right policies in place. There is no way that anyone or any company is prepared for everything at once but as an independent studio, we\u2019ve set up our reasonably practicable<\/a> policies from our own surveys and knowledge of running the studio. Our team\u2019s WHS risks are a bit different because of our size and how we work so these would usually arise from nature, ergonomics, and stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you deal with WHS as a studio?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our Work Health and Safety Policy<\/a> is short and sweet to make sure it\u2019s easy to read and remember. It is reviewed periodically with our legal team, and we have a survey that acts as a checklist for our team\u2019s work from home setup. This checklist allows us to see the risks our team faces who work outside the office and if there are areas of improvement with how we work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we trust our employees to keep their work from home stations free from risks like walkway and ergonomic hazards outside of when these surveys take place. For emergency situations, we have a Take Action Checklist (check out Business.gov\u2019s template here<\/a>). Additionally, we have our Purpose Chats and an open communication line with our director Reuben in case we need to chat about a potential risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some of our policies and processes, like the ones below, aim to help with minimise psychosocial hazards<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n