Wargaming Asia has a huge remote team. Here’s how it keeps it all together.

Jasper Nicholas, general manager of Wargaming Asia, is based in the brand’s Singapore office. And he has a rather demanding job. He describes it quite simply as managing Wargaming Asia’s relationships with other entities, as well as ensuring his staff are all well-trained and capable of taking on any challenges that might come with running a regional server for a MMOG. But Nicholas is also responsible for one more thing: he manages a huge team of close to 100 staff remotely.

Nicholas at TGS 2014.

As some regional startups (Games in Asia included) may be able to tell you, remote working is no joke. In his interview with us at Tokyo Game Show 2014, Nicholas reiterated a problem echoed by many who work remotely. The distance between you and your colleagues will always present problems.

Handling human emotions and managing work-related problems is tough enough when it’s face-to-face. When done remotely, over the internet and via Skype calls, you lose out on body language and even tones of voices. It’s not an easy job. Yet Nicholas has been in his role for close to three years, and the Wargaming Asia team has done nothing but grow, in his words, aggressively.

The secret sauce

According to Nicholas, there are two factors that have helped ensure the team’s success so far. One of those is having a base in Singapore. The Wargaming Asia headquarters in Singapore was the first to be set up. Though this was followed by offices and hubs in countries across the region, Singapore has always been the beating heart of Asia’s Wargaming network.

The challenge for him, Nicholas shared, was in connecting everyone. As an operations hub, Singapore was that perfect connecting point for everyone else in Asia. Wargaming Asia’s team has close to a hundred staff in its employ, and it is set to grow even larger, with its recently opened Japan and Taiwan offices. Nicholas is also looking at growing the brand’s presence in Australia and new Zealand.

(See: First World of Tanks community meetup in Vietnam sees overwhelming response)

That led to the other factor, the one that helped Nicholas to successfully grow the team from a single office in Singapore to countless others across the region.

Wargaming’s offices have spread far and wide across the globe.

According to Nicholas, it has so far been finding “the right talent, with the right mindset, and the right set of values.” He shared that the attrition rate of his employees has been very low, with many of them in it for the long haul. Nicholas usually scouts for people in the market who already have the appropriate expertise, but also keeps an eye out for how well they will fit into the company’s culture.