Negotiation

Negotiation is an important gameplay mechanic. A CEO who is good at it can make a lot of money: one who's not may find their workforce saturated with high-cost, low-skill workers. Fortunately, every player can learn how to make good hiring choices

Interface
After headhunting, a list of prospective employees is produced. Clicking on any one of them will open up the Negotiation screen.

This screen is divided into three windows. The upper-left window bears the potential hire's name, as well as their current place of employment, age, speed, salary expectation, and demands.

Below that window is the Send Offer screen. Here, you can customize what offer you would like to send, formed of components Monthly Salary and Signing Bonus. Clicking the Send Offer button will send a new offer to the potential hire, which they will either counteroffer or accept.

Hiring Beginner Employees
Unlike with Intermediate or Expert employees, you can't research Beginner employees' salary expectations or demands. On the flipside, you have a lot of potential employees in case negotiations with one go awry. This ultimately simplifies the strategy for eliciting a good deal from potential hires.

The primary consideration for Beginner employees is speed. A faster employee produces more products. However, fast employees are also usually significantly more expensive than slow ones. Nonetheless, when factors like seating constraints and production chains are considered, a small workforce of efficient employees is usually preferable to a large workforce of slow employees.

However, there's a catch. Employees typically price themselves based off of their current speed, the percentage given in black. However, their maximum speed (given in gray) can very often be significantly higher. If an employer has the means to hire such an employee then train them for an extended period, they can very often turn out to be a cost-effective investment.

Strategy
When producing a starting offer, a range of $4,000-5,000 is a good starting point. Beginning too low risks offending the potential hire and lowering the chance of a good deal, while beginning too high risks overpaying an employee when you could have acquired a much better deal. Where you begin on this range generally should depend on how fast the employee's current speed is: a lower current speed usually means that they will accept a lower price.

A typical negotiation will consist of several offers and counteroffers. When the potential hire counteroffers, consider their counteroffer -- is it wildly out of your price range, or just a touch too high? Keep in mind that your final offer will probably end up being somewhere between the two. If you are still willing to continue negotiating, send an increased offer: decreasing your offer will only offend the potential hire. They will hopefully lower their counteroffer in response. Keep an eye on the face next to their offer -- the lower it gets, the less willing they are to negotiate, and they will walk away if it gets too low.

A safe counteroffer is one about halfway between your offer and their counteroffer. If you continually offer in this manner, expect to wind up about halfway between the two.

Signing Bonuses
Signing Bonuses can be used to entice a potential hire to take a salary below what they would normally accept. These are an excellent strategy for hiring long-term hires, such as developers, as they tend to pay for themselves if the employee stays on for long enough. They are also a good choice for using investments.

Hiring Intermediate and Expert Employees
Higher-level employees are similar to Beginners when hiring, with a few differences. They will request more money, and a Beginner-level offer will likely offend them. If you are unsure, the amount which is about halfway through the slider is a good bet.

Additionally, you can research their salary expectations and demands. Salary expectations are even better for gauging an initial offer: as always, start a couple hundred to a thousand below what they request, and you will likely end up paying less. Demands are useful if you have only partially researched the luxuries for that tier.

Despite their initial higher costs, hiring at a higher level is often a good idea, for example when a higher-level employee is required for a certain project and there is not enough time to train up a lower-level employee. Since employees get automatic salary hikes when they get promoted anyway, and you'll likely have to entice them away from a rival offer, any financial differences usually even out.