Executives guide
Maintained by The Center
EXECUTIVES (Unlocked at level 15)
In the real world, companies hire officers to fill specific roles. Below are the executives' roles that could be filled in Sim Companies and what their benefit would be:
Chief Operations Officer
A good COO decreases administrative costs by a percentage ( % ), decreasing the companies cost of production and retail. (Administration overhead)
Chief Financial Officer
A good CFO decreases accounting overhead. The threshold where accounting fees start to be applied is moved up. (Accounting fees starting at)
Chief Marketing Officer
A good CMO decreases the selling time in retail which increases profit. He also ensures your restaurants get better ratings. (Sales Speed)
Chief Technical Officer
A good CTO increases the probability of research points being accepted as patents. (Patent probability)
The table above has no executive benefits applied.
The table below has executive benefits applied.
Administration overhead: 60.59% minus 32.72% = 27.87% (actual overhead, note player profiles only show the first % )
Accounting fees starting at: $3M plus $5.5M = $8.5 million (increases accounting overhead see FAQ )
This table is located below the executives in your board room.
TALENTS AND SKILLS
There are 4 skills:
Management (COO)
Accounting (CFO)
Communication (CMO)
Science (CTO)
Each candidate starts with the skills being fairly low, but as you train them and as they gain experience working at a specific role, the skills will improve. Executives working as "staff", not assigned to a specific role, are getting experience towards all 4 skills.
The rate of improvement is determined by their 4 talents (one talent for each skill). The talents are hidden, but can be observed indirectly by how quickly the skill raises. The talents do not change over time.
The employees at COO, CFO, CMO, and CTO positions are contributing to your company's performance as described earlier. Your COO's management skills contribute towards lower administration cost the most, however, the management skills of other 3 executives contributes slightly as well. Same goes for other 3 positions.
HIRING
Hiring executives is unlocked at level 15.
Note: It is highly suggested you understand the costs involved with hiring executives. Just because you can hire executives does not mean you should hire executives. (Most players wait until 20% administration overhead before hiring).
Executives can be hired as fresh candidates from a University. Or they can be poached from other companies using hiring agencies.
You can have your HR department look for fresh graduates, or you can use one of the 3 hiring agencies to help you get the right executive. The agencies will charge you fee if the executive decided to work for you.
If you decide to use one of 3 hiring agencies you will be offered a candidate based on your requirements, either unemployed, or working for one of the other companies. Based on the information give you can decide to reject the candidate or proceed with the offer.
The information about a person who is not working for you yet is very limited. For students of University with no previous working experience - you will get a free text assessment from your HR department. For candidates with existing working experience (at other companies) you will see a brief info about their work experience and training. A single executive cannot receive more than 20 training.
Helpful information added via the Sim Companies Forum:
An Executive Guide
You cannot give offers to executives of other companies directly. The experienced executives can be hired only using agencies. Once an offer is placed, the executive gets back to you with an answer within 26 hours. You need to pay for all training the executive has received within the last 6 weeks ($20,000 per training). Training that was received before an executive was fired do not have to be paid for.
If your executive is given a 3rd party offer, there are few scenarios:
The offer is too low and your employee does not even consider taking it. You will not even find out an offer was placed.
The offer is high and interesting to your executive.
Executive is loyal and wants to stay. The offer is refused and you will never even know this has happened. (10% probability)
Executive is seriously considering the offer, you do not know details of the offer. You can react by adjusting your executive's salary.
You can either let the Executive go to the 3rd party or wait the 26 hour period. Executives that were seriously considering leaving decide based on the size of the offer and the salary, possibly adjusted, that he/she is getting at your company. Even if the executive decides to leave, it might not happen if the offering company doesn't have funds.
How to make sure your executives do not leave? Make sure you pay them what they are worth. You can increase executives salary at any time.
STAFF
Staff (other directors) are employees that do not add any benefit to the executive positions (COO, CFO, CMO, CTO).
You can use the staff positions to train an employee to replace a retiring or poached executive. Training takes twenty-seven (27) hours and $10,000.
Employees positions can change positions with each other. To do this, select Move.
The options to change the position will show under the Executive. Selecting any of the positions will move them to that location. This will switch the positions of both executives.
Note: changing a staff member to an executive position takes 3 hours for the employee to settle into their new position.
EXPENSES
You need to pay your executives daily. The salary is known when you are hiring. Other expenses you can have are: training ($10,000), severance package if you decide to dismiss your executive (3 days worth of salary). You may also need to make salary counter-offers if other company tries to poach your employees.
Your executives are being paid daily automatically. If there's no cash to cover the salaries, they will strike.
TRAINING
You do have the option to train executives. Whether they gain skills or not from training is dependent on their underlying talent. There is no guarantee that the training will result in the expected skill point gain.
Each training takes 27 hours and costs $10,000.
The categories to train are as follows:
Management training (management skills) (COO)
Accounting seminar (accounting skills) (CFO)
Communication workshop (communication skills) (CMO)
Science conference (science skills) (CTO)
Wide range skills lessons (management, accounting, communication, science)
The max amount of training per executive is 20 sessions.
tips:
If you have a candidate you are not sure what they are skilled in; use wide range of skills on new hires to find out their strengths.
If you are sure they are skilled; start training in that category (example: 2 skills in management; start training in management).
If, they do not gain skills in 2 to 4 training sessions; fire them and look for a new candidate.
EXPERIENCE
Executives can earn experience over time and can gain skills without training. Executives in the main positions (COO, CFO, CMO, CTO) have a higher chance of earning skills based on those positions. As an example: COO’s have a higher chance of earning Management skills.
Experience can be earned daily (not guaranteed).
14:00 UTC - Executives experience
”Executives gain their experience skills, based on their position and how long they been there.”
See the Time Table for your local time.
RETIREMENT
Executive employees would grow old and retire at some point. They grow older by 1 year every 2 days. The more they are earning, the higher chance they retire sooner. You will get a few days notice from your personal assistant (PA) before the executive actually retire.
You will also receive a notice the day the executive retires.
There will also be notification listed with the time left until retirement.
High Pay = $20,000+
Moderate Pay = $10,000 to $20,000
Low Pay = Below $10,000
EXTRA EXECUTIVES AND STAFF INFORMATION
Quick reference:
Candidates: 10 hours
Settle In: 3 hours
Training Cost: $10,000, 27 hours, 20 trainings
Extra Staff Slot: 50, 100, 200, 400, 500
Severance Package Days: 3
Strike: 24 hours
Salaries Paid: 04:00 UTC
Retiring Executives: 08:00 UTC
Experience: 14:00 UTC
Explanation:
Finding Candidates takes 10 hours
Settling in to a new Executive position takes 3 hours
Training Cost is $10,000 and 27 hours, with 20 max training sessions
Severance Packages are 3 days worth of salary
The extra Staff slots cost: 50, 100, 200, 400, 500 (Sim Boosts)
A Strike lasts for 24 hours:
If you don’t have money to pay for your executives/staff they will go on strike.
No benefits will be applied from executives while on strike.
Any training will continue during a strike.
Two (2) days in a row of a strike; the executive(s) will leave your company.
Salaries are paid out automatically at 04:00 UTC. See Time Table for your local time.
Executives retire at 08:00 UTC. See Time Table for your local time.
Executives can earn experience daily at 14:00 UTC. See Time Table for your local time.
HOW TO USE THE EXECUTIVES WISELY
Make sure each executive you have is making your company more money than the daily salary you pay them. Always be on a lookout for a good hire and HAVE FUN!
Helpful articles from our local newspaper The Sim Companies Times (listed by date):
Understanding the Boardroom - Part 1 - The Value of Executives (newspaper 13)
Understanding the Boardroom - Part 2 - Prospecting for Talent (newspaper 13)
How Much Do Executives Cost? What Do They Give Me?
Genie of the Lamp: The Power of Science (CTO and Patents)
Filling the Executive Gap- A Guide for Beginners
The Tax Man Cometh (Accounting Overhead)
Fantastic COO and how to evaluate them