This week, we’re celebrating the reopening of Zynga Canada, located in the Entertainment District of Toronto. This isn’t just any office remodel, it’s an entirely new studio that has been purposefully designed and built for Zynga’s newly conceptualized Connected Workplace hybrid working model.

Over the past two years, we have contemplated what we want the future of work to be at Zynga. Guided by employee feedback and our mission — to connect the world through games — we believe that making great games requires strong, diverse teams in-studio and at home, enabling our people to find balance in their work and personal lives.  

Through feedback from our employees globally, we learned that 78% of Zyngites want to come into the studio to collaborate with others and 68% want to use it as a place to build and strengthen interpersonal relationships. At the same time, 93% have shared they are able to easily complete individual work while working remotely. The Connected Workplace model gives our teams choice in how they do their best work and helps them, and the company, thrive.

Connected Workplace classifies Zyngites into three different workstyles: 

• Onsite: Individuals whose physical presence in the office is required to do their job (e.g., physical security, facilities)
• Offsite: Team members who work exclusively from home given their role and ability to accomplish their work remotely
• Connected: Team members who divide their time between working at home and working in the studio

The majority of Zyngites will be Connected because we believe being together is a critical part of building and sustaining our culture.

Our studios remain an essential part of Zynga, but our relationship with the studio is transforming. We are equipping our studios with technology and a mix of spaces to support various types of collaboration — both in-person and virtual. We recognize each of our studios are different, with different needs, therefore each will adopt its own unique approach to facilitate the best Connected Workplace environment for its employees. These principles are reflected in how we have designed the Toronto studio for a Connected Workplace.

Highlights of our new Toronto studio include:

• Open collaboration spaces
• State of the art, ergonomic private sit/stand workstations each equipped with two monitors
• Over 20 meeting rooms with video conferencing and collaboration technology like digital whiteboards
• Phone booths for privacy
• Day-use lockers for storing personal belongings
• A mindfulness room for meditation, reflection and rest
• A wellness room for nursing mothers and physical care
• Catered lunches and a cafe with grab and go items
• And a game room — of course!

As we begin to return to our studios, the safety and well-being of our employees is paramount. Our global health and safety teams have been working tirelessly to comply with local safety requirements and to create safe workplaces for Zyngites to return to. 

At the end of the day, our Connected Workplace model gives our team members more flexibility over where they do their best work, expands our access to incredible and diverse talent; and our studios will only get better as we evolve them with the purpose and intention to better accommodate flexible team interaction, learning, creativity and problem-solving. 

Zynga Canada is hiring! Check out open roles here.