League of Legends developer Riot Games is trying something completely new, completely different and…honestly a little strange, now that I stop to think about it. The organization this week rolled out a new program known as Queue Dodge. The premise is simple: Riot is paying new hires cash to quit.
Wait, what?
The company is apparently using Queue Dodge to give recently-hired employees an "attractive way out" in order to help the developer maintain it’s "unique" culture. See, while Riot has a rigorous interview process in place, it’s not always enough to ensure that an employee is a great fit every time. Rather than let mismatches and poor fits fester, the company would rather cut off any problems that surface at the root – which is to say, they’d rather get rid of troublesome employees before they turn the environment at the studio toxic.
That’s where Queue Dodge comes in. At any time during their first sixty days, an employee at Riot Games may choose to leave, at which point they’ll be compensated for 10% of their total annual salary. The program pays up to $25,000, and is currently only available in North America. In other words, it’s sort of a fancy way of framing a severance package – one which, according to Riot, won’t be used to push people out of the company.
"We don’t want to actively push people out or dare them to leave, but we do want to provide a well-lit, safe exit path," reads an announcement from Riot.
"We operate on a foundation of shared mission, values, passion, trust, and mutual respect. If someone gags on the unique flavor of our culture, they’d be doing themselves and the company a disservice to hang on just for the paycheck," it continues. "Culturally-aligned people and teams are more effective, and alignment around mission and values allows us to better serve players. We’ve designed Queue Dodge to help self-identified mismatches move on in an open, positive, and constructive way."
The program is itself inspired by an initiative offered by online shoe and clothing shop Zappos, in which employees were paid $2,000 to leave the company. Ultimately, Riot says, this is a means of ensuring that it doesn’t hire employees who are there exclusively for the money. They want to hire people who’ll willingly be a part of the Riot culture.
At the end of the day, I’d say that’s a pretty honorable desire, no?
