Whether you’re an organization’s compensation leader or a consultant advising clients, one truth remains consistent: Market practices are a useful reference, but rarely the final answer. The most powerful pay programs aren’t simply copied from others; they’re thoughtfully tailored through a best-fit approach that reflects your company’s unique strategy, culture and lifecycle stage.
Eamonn Stanley, a Total Rewards Leader in the gaming and technology sector, shares his insights on a best-fit approach. With experience spanning high-growth startups to established creative powerhouses, Eamonn offers a practice perspective on designing compensation programs that are deeply integrated with business strategy and culture.
These programs do more than follow market trends, they drive results. Eamonn provides two real-life case studies that demonstrate how a tailored best-fit approach can foster alignment and deliver tangible outcomes.
01
Eamonn led the global total rewards strategy during the set up and integration of a recently acquired, small but high-performing gaming studio based in Northern Europe. While the parent company had a global pay philosophy, the compensation strategy and approach for this studio differed from those of existing live game teams — accounting for not only competitive practice but also culture. The ongoing involvement of the studio’s founders was a key post-acquisition factor. Their strong commitment to maintaining the studio’s unique culture had a direct impact on compensation-related decisions.
To ensure cultural cohesion, target bonus opportunities were uniformly maintained across all employees. Bonuses were expressed as a set number of months of base salary. This deliberate approach helped prevent perceived inequities and reinforced a flat, team-centric culture.
Equity was accessible to staff at all levels, not just those in senior roles. It played a central role in the compensation mix, reinforcing long-term commitment and aligning incentives with overall company performance. Holding-power guidelines — benchmarked as a multiple of salary — were introduced to assess long-term incentive impact and ensure equity remained meaningful over time.
The guidelines were re-evaluated annually to determine equity award eligibility and award (grant) amounts. For critical employees, additional discretion was applied to strengthen holding power even if minimum thresholds were already met.
In a highly competitive mobile gaming talent market, this pay strategy boosted the studio’s focus on culture and it retained key talent. It also fueled the exploration of new monetization opportunities and ensured the team remained competitive while aligning with the broader organizational strategy.
02
A studio in China was acquired to expand the global footprint into the Chinese market as well as attract talented developers with proven experience in mobile hit-making. Given the Chinese studio was a young, high-growth team, the aim was to design a pay program that retained key talent and keep those employees focused on vital milestones.
Unlike the prior case study, this situation involved added complexity due to local regulatory requirements. In China, equity cannot be granted to employees until the company’s equity plan is officially registered with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
While cash-based awards were easier to implement, offering actual equity was important to foster a sense of ownership among the newly acquired team. To address this, the total rewards team collaborated with legal to design an incentive program that combined milestone-based cash bonuses with time-vesting restricted stock units (RSUs).
Because the SAFE registration process involved significant delays, the legal team, local HR and studio leader worked closely to develop clear employee communications. These communications helped maintain excitement from the recent acquisition while keeping the team focused on key performance goals — all while remaining fully compliant with SAFE regulations.
At the time of acquisition, the studio lacked a formal, company-wide compensation framework and was composed largely of early-career talent. The team had already achieved product-market fit and operated within a strongly product-led culture.
Given the studio’s stage and maturity, performance goals were intentionally anchored to product milestones and user-engagement metrics (e.g., daily active users, retention curves, feature delivery timelines) rather than financial measures (e.g., revenue, EBITDA).
Although financial and broader performance targets were viable alternatives, a deliberate choice was made to not emphasize them. Post-acquisition, employees already had a competitive compensation package — incremental financial incentives were unlikely to meaningfully influence day-to-day behavior. Product and engagement metrics, by contrast, were directly within the team’s control and closely aligned with how value was being created at that business stage.
This approach delivered a compliant, performance-driven pay program that reinforced accountability and ownership across the studio. By aligning incentives with product outcomes and player impact, we strengthened a culture of execution while supporting the continued growth of a high-potential, emerging team.
Designing effective compensation programs balances art and science. The science is rooted in data, benchmarks and models. The art comes from understanding your company — its people, mission and direction — and creating a tailored solution that truly fits.
