Disney Online Studios Canada has created a thriving workplace culture through nurturing both work and play. They value employees having work-life balance by leaving on time each day and organizing fun activities like ski trips. This helps prevent burnout for employees working in the 24/7 online world of Club Penguin. The company also builds engagement through recognizing accomplishments, volunteering opportunities, and ensuring discussions stay focused on benefiting eight-year-olds using their virtual world.

1. DisneyOnlineStudiosCanada
WorkHard,PlayHard:Nurturingathrivingworkplaceculture
ByKarenRichardson
YW PROFILE
ORGANIZATIONS WORTHY OF MENTION
2
Phenomenal success, international growth,
passionateemployees,anincredibleworkplace
culture and an award-winning workplace — how
do they do it? Disney Online Studios Canada has
become part of one of the largest entertainment
companies in the world.
stant, Disney online values the fact that
people need to have time to play, in order to
make sure they don’t burn out. “They need
to get out of the office on time to have a sane
family life,” says D’Albertanson. “If you walk
the halls at 6 pm you won’t find a single body.
People leave at a normal time, regardless of
what’s going on, and we have a formal sys-
tem to make sure this stays in place.”
From ski slopes to shout-outs
D’Albertanson often goes on her “gut feel-
ing” to think of interesting ideas to keep
staff engaged and passionate about their
work. Fun staff meetings at Disney Online
Studios include “shout-outs” where positive
accomplishments are acknowledged — even
something as small as acknowledging the
person who empties the dishwasher every
day. They also have inventor awards, talent
shows, expense-paid trips for a “volunteer of
the year” working on a project for the world’s
most impoverished children. D’Albertanson
also recently organized a ski day on the
slopes, where a videographer was hired to
video staff members “getting some air” and
the video was played back at a staff meeting.
“If a staff meeting is a dry business update
only, staff might leave the meeting thinking
it was a waste of time — that they could have
read the minutes and gotten up to speed on
the directions of business and on financials,”
says D’Albertanson. “But if we get together as
a group and do things that make it fun, peo-
ple feel they are lucky to work with a group
like this, and I know they will come back to
the next one. It really helps build the team.”
Based in Kelowna, B.C., the company has
worked hard to draw and retain employees
to this more remote, yet beautiful area of
B.C. Initially finding it a bit of a challenge
to recruit employees, the company now
has such a successful workplace model that
employees take pride in their
workplace culture. And in
an era when more and more
boomers will soon be retiring,
more businesses are turning
to creative solutions to keep
their employees and Gen-Y
employees, happy.
In an online working world
where the 24-hour clock
never really stops, it is even
more crucial for their em-
ployees to “play hard” and
“turn off” to avoid long-term
burnout. In 2007 Disney acquired Club
Penguin, one of the fastest-growing online
virtual world for kids ages six to 14. “Work-
hard, play hard is a definite motto of ours,”
says Lynn D’Albertanson, Director of Studio
Engagement, and one of Club Penguin’s
early employees. “This in an
extraordinary world, dealing
with an online space. There
are millions of kids around the
world, a 24-hour clock that
can never turn off seven days
a week, 50 weeks a year. It’s
a very different feeling than
other studios in the entertain-
ment industry, where many
studios have a chance to play
and relax after a game or mov-
ie is produced.”
Because their work is con-
YOUR WORKPLACE | MAY/JUNE 2011 25
CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
LynnD’Albertanson
MoniquePerna,BradSorochka,AmandaAdams,ErinGallantposingwithCaptainRockhopperandBlue,twobeloved
charactersfromthepopularchildren’svirtualworldClubPenguin
Penguinsin
Safe-Chat
fromDisney
OnlineStudios
Canada.

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YW PROFILE
ORGANIZATIONS WORTHY OF MENTION
What does it have to do with an eight year-old?
The team is made up of great people who are passionate about chil-
dren and keeping them as safe as possible. D’Albertanson is extremely
passionate about studio engagement, but also about maintaining fo-
cus. “I believe the reason Club Penguin is so successful is because we
have a big group of people who love working together, who all agree
that everything we do is all about the eight-year old. At a meeting, if
someone is going down a rabbit hole and getting off track, we simply
say, ‘What does this have to do with an eight-year-old?’ and then it
immediately stops the conversation. Everybody is very dedicated to
working together in whatever way we can to make it a great experi-
ence for the kids.”
Communication is also an important part of the team, and also
helps the company uphold its promise of work-life balance. Every
Monday managers from every department get together in a theatre,
often virtually on a screen, and talk about their team’s capacity for
the week. Executives approve what gets pushed forward and discuss
overall priorities. They will often knock 50 hours of work off of the list.
“We need to make sure, for example, that every designer is working no
more than 7 ½ hours a day, because he or she won’t put up with [more
than] that for very long,” says D’Albertanson. “It is not encouraged for
people to work long hours.”
Employees and kids buy into global citizenship
D’Albertanson cites global citizenship or charity work as another fun-
damental reason the company is successful. “I really believe it creates
engagement. Even if people don’t feel they have the time to volunteer,
or feel like they have extra money to donate, they buy into the fact
that they work hard to make a company successful, and as a company
we give in big ways.”
The team is also made up of people who feel strongly about the
planet and the world. The company’s mission statement of “Giving to
the world’s most impoverished children” is extended to the children
who play on the site, as these children can donate their “virtual coins”
through Coins for Change to a cause of their choice, such as the en-
vironment, animals of children who need it. “Our playing kids really
buy into the fact that they’re really lucky — they have a computer and
get to play Club Penguin, but other kids may not even have a school
or a mother.”
While their revenue is generated
from subscription mem-
bers of Club Penguin,
kids do not have to be
a paying member to
play Coins for Change.
“We give according to
how the children tell us it is
important to them. It empow-
ers them and kick-starts their
idea at a young age that while
they are only one person, they
can make a difference on the
planet, and that small things can
make change.”
And what does this idea have
to do with an eight-year-old?
Absolutely everything. YW
26 MAY/JUNE 2011 | YOUR WORKPLACE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25
“Toque”from
DisneyOnline
StudiosCanada.