Colin Doncaster

It’s very easy for companies to be complacent about their employees and all too many are falling into the trap of thinking that ‘it’s an honour to work for us’ and in an industry largely driven by contract employment it becomes a slippery slope.  Rather than harbouring talented individuals there’s a trend of burning them out and loosing them, but that’s okay because there’s many more where they came from.  But is there?

A TD that is new to a company is a very different beast than a TD that’s spent the last 6 months ingrained in a pipeline, working with the team and becoming one with the process.  Not only are you loosing talent that is more aware of the pipeline than you are, you’re also throwing away the investment you’ve made over the last 6 months training them.

Rather than letting them go – wouldn’t it be much more beneficial to observe the signs before hand and do your best to correct the issues? ( assuming they are indeed under you’re control, you’re not able relocate family and friends due to homesickness etc. )

It seems to me that a major part of an artists unhappiness can be treated with an honest interest in their Career Path.  Whether it’s the artists manager ( ideal ) or HR ( still better than nothing ) having a better understanding of what the person wants to be doing and what their goals are will better help you as a company place them in a position where they’re achieving their goals.  The benefits are two fold also, by understanding where a team asset wants to be in the future you have a much better chance of forecasting recruiting needs as well as filling roles with those who have proven that they’re ready for a new challenge.

For example, generally junior TD’s are hired into a Render Wrangler position or similar ( data management? ) and even though they’re considered ‘junior’ roles they’re also exposed to some of the more technical aspects of your companies pipeline.  Rather than making their job a reactive one, where a call would go out to a TD when a render breaks – it would be better to make it proactive, giving them the opportunity to debug the issue and try and resolve it themselves.  By doing this you’ve just offered them some of the best on the job training a TD can get – problem solving, and when they’ve advanced in their career and responsible for shots themselves they’ve learnt the skills necessary to debug issues prior to rendering.  ( the added bonus is you’re more experienced TD’s can stay focused on other tasks )

Properly schedule reviews to give team members feedback and offer them an honest critique of their performance with an understanding of their goals.  Be honest, and let them know if you don’t think they’re on the right track or even if their goals aren’t right for them.  Most importantly, make it a part of you’re role to help guide them, junior and senior, through their career.

It’s all in the name of building a sustainable future for your studio.