Chapter 320: Are HRs Really This Unprofessional Nowadays?
Chapter 320: Are HRs Really This Unprofessional Nowadays?
When it came to poaching talent, Wu Bin considered himself fairly experienced.
The most crucial point was to raise the other party’s psychological expectations—and then satisfy them through certain means.
Sometimes it was selling a dream, sometimes tempting them with money, and sometimes using both soft and hard tactics.
Wu Bin had already done his homework. Hao Qiong was an executive planner at Shangyang Games, mainly responsible for miscellaneous tasks.
According to the general salary standards for executive planners in Jingzhou, the monthly pay was usually around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.
Of course, Wu Bin had also done his research and knew that Tengda’s benefits were outrageously good.
Just how good, he wasn’t sure.
Because up until now, he had only heard of people leaving other companies to join Tengda—he’d never seen anyone leave Tengda.
As for asking Tengda employees directly, they wouldn’t say anything anyway.
The only rough benchmark came from an official interview, which mentioned that when Huang Sibo went to interview at Tengda, his salary was doubled on the spot.
But after a great deal of probing, Wu Bin learned that Huang Sibo’s original salary had only been 2,000 yuan. So even doubling it wasn’t particularly outrageous.
Besides, who was Huang Sibo? He had been hired as a lead executive designer—of course his pay would be high.
For an ordinary employee like Hao Qiong, at most he’d be making about the same as Huang Sibo back then, right?
Even if he grit his teeth and estimated high, it would top out at around 5,000 yuan. Any more than that would be an insult to Wu Bin’s intelligence.
Naturally, Hao Qiong’s income wouldn’t consist solely of base salary—bonuses had to be taken into account too.
Wu Bin did some calculations. The mobile version of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition generated a net monthly income of roughly over four million yuan. This could be roughly estimated from its rankings on various charts, monetization points, player count, popularity, and other data.
It wasn’t that much, after all. The game was a “conscience game” and didn’t rely heavily on monetization.
Wu Bin figured that, following the common practice of game companies allocating 10% of net income as project bonuses, the total bonuses distributed among employees would be around 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.
At most, 500,000 yuan if you were being generous.
But a project team would have at least thirty to forty people. The core members would take the lion’s share, while a helper like Hao Qiong would be lucky to get 5,000 yuan in bonuses.
Calculated this way, his monthly income including bonuses would cap out at around 10,000 yuan.
As for other benefits, Wu Bin wasn’t too sure.
But even so—adding another 2,000 to 4,000 yuan in pay should be enough to beat those benefits, right?
Wu Bin’s target range was a monthly salary of 12,000 to 14,000 yuan.
In his eyes, this was already pretty outrageous. In Jingzhou, an average lead executive designer only made about 7,000 to 8,000 yuan a month. Now he was planning to spend 13,000 yuan a month to poach an executive planner?
That was already absurd enough.
So Wu Bin’s method for poaching talent was simple: first, raise the other party’s psychological expectations.
This was the script he had in mind:
Wu Bin: “Your salaries must be pretty high, right? Your base pay has to be at least 6,000, yeah?”
Hao Qiong: “Not at all, it’s not that much—still under 5,000.”
Wu Bin: “Oh? Then your bonuses must be big, right? At least seven or eight thousand? Probably more?”
Hao Qiong: “Not really. Just a bit over 5,000.”
Wu Bin: “So your total monthly income is just a little over 10,000? That’s lower than I imagined.”
Hao Qiong: “It’s okay. The company has good benefits.”
Wu Bin: “Benefits can’t fill your stomach. With your experience and your abilities, come work for us—base salary plus bonuses, and you’re easily starting at 12,000 a month!”
Hao Qiong: “Really?”
Wu Bin: “Of course it’s real. You’re worth that much!”
If Hao Qiong still hesitated, Wu Bin planned to keep raising the offer—up to 15,000 yuan.
Earning an extra 5,000 yuan a month—how could the average person resist that kind of temptation?
Once it reached that point, the poaching would basically be a success.
Sure, it was expensive, but Wu Bin had no choice if he wanted to complete the task his boss had assigned him.
Anyway—poach first, worry later.
Following the script he had imagined, Wu Bin began his performance.
“I heard Tengda’s benefits are really good? Your salary must be pretty high, right? Your base pay has to be at least 6,000, yeah?”
Hao Qiong nodded. “Yeah, about that.”
Wu Bin: “?”
He felt a little dizzy.
Wu Bin had already added an extra thousand on top of what he thought was the highest possible salary—yet Hao Qiong admitted it so calmly!
Fortunately, Wu Bin reacted quickly and put on an expression of just as I thought.
“Then your bonuses must be big, right? At least seven or eight thousand? Probably more?”
Hao Qiong chuckled. “That’s right.”
Wu Bin: “?”
He felt like he was barely holding it together.
What did “that’s right” even mean?
More than seven or eight thousand???
You had to know—game companies usually allocated 10% of revenue for bonuses, and even that was considered generous. Plenty of companies made money and didn’t hand out bonuses at all.
And yet Shangyang Games was giving an executive planner bonuses higher than seven or eight thousand?
That meant at least nine or ten thousand!
Wu Bin felt that his budget had developed a serious problem.
Added together, Hao Qiong’s income was already approaching 15,000 yuan.
At this rate, it would take at least 18,000 or 19,000 yuan a month to lure him away.
This was way too hard to handle!
But the arrow was already on the bowstring—there was no choice but to shoot.
Wu Bin couldn’t back out now. Gritting his teeth, he said,
“So your monthly income is heading toward 15,000 then. That’s a bit lower than I imagined—but not by much.”
Hao Qiong gave a simple, honest smile. “It’s okay. The company has good benefits.”
At last, Wu Bin found a line he could smoothly follow up on.
“Benefits can’t fill your stomach!”
Before he could finish, Hao Qiong said in confusion, “They can, though.”
“Our company provides all three meals. Moyu Delivery—menu changes every day, guaranteed healthy and hygienic.”
Wu Bin: “……”
Just calculating the most basic food costs alone, that was nearly 1,000 yuan a month.
The budget had to go up again!
Hao Qiong continued, “And we also regularly have group dinners at the Nameless Restaurant.”
Wu Bin: “……”
It was over.
Was this guy deliberately trying to destroy his mental state?
Wu Bin of course knew the Nameless Restaurant. The food there was insanely expensive—even if you tried to be frugal, it’d still be two or three hundred yuan per person.
Not to exaggerate—just once a month would already be too much for an average company to bear.
Wu Bin felt like this conversation simply couldn’t continue. He had to change tactics.
He needed to talk ideals with this simple, honest little brother in front of him.
Wu Bin cleared his throat twice. “Ahem. I think, you know, a person can’t just be satisfied with food and drink, right? Don’t you also need some spiritual pursuit?”
Hao Qiong nodded vigorously. “Yeah! I was just about to say that!”
“At our company, you can play games freely. All the computers are top-tier, dual-monitor setups.”
“There’s also a mandatory monthly reimbursement quota, and you can even use it to recharge games.”
“And also—”
Wu Bin hurriedly raised a hand to stop him.
“Alright, alright, I know your company’s benefits are good.”
“But you have to think about it—what about your own career development plan?”
“Tengda is packed with talent. There are tons of people lining up to become lead executive designers. If you want to climb upward, it’s extremely difficult—really, really difficult!”
Hao Qiong looked puzzled. “It’s not that bad.”
“The company regularly arranges for outstanding employees to branch out into other business areas.”
“And the current lead executive designers at Tengda only took a little over seven months to go from doing miscellaneous work to becoming lead executive designers.”
“I think if I perform a bit better, I should be up next soon.”
Wu Bin: “……”
There was no way to continue this conversation. No way at all.
If they hadn’t talked about benefits, it would’ve been fine. But after this whole benefits discussion, the budget was heading toward over 20,000 yuan a month.
With the kind of treatment Hao Qiong was getting at Tengda, even offering him 20,000 yuan a month wouldn’t necessarily make him willing to leave!
After thinking it over again and again, Wu Bin finally grit his teeth and quoted a price that would make him bleed heavily.
“I’ll be straight with you! Come to our company—we’ll give you a monthly salary of 22,000 yuan. How about that?”
Wu Bin looked at Hao Qiong.
Hao Qiong looked at Wu Bin.
They stared at each other in silence.
After a long while, Hao Qiong scratched his head. “Uh… when you guys poach people, do you usually do it with a pay cut?”
Wu Bin: “?”
He froze on the spot.
A pay cut???
Wu Bin was utterly confused. “That’s not right. This is already higher than your salary plus bonuses. Even if you add in the value of the benefits, it should be about enough, right?”
Hao Qiong looked exasperated. “It’s still lower than my bonus.”
Wu Bin felt dizzy. “Didn’t you say your bonus was nine or ten thousand?”
Hao Qiong replied, “I only said it was more than eight thousand. I never said how much more. I was just trying to spare your feelings.”
Wu Bin: “……”
Spare my feelings, my ass!
Wu Bin let out a silent sigh and looked at Hao Qiong. “Brother, if you really want to spare my feelings, just tell me the truth. How much is your bonus, exactly?”
Hao Qiong said, “A bit over ten thousand.”
Wu Bin: “…Brother, can you be precise and just crush my hopes properly? A bit over ten thousand—how much is that?”
Hao Qiong: “A bit over ten thousand… times two?”
Wu Bin’s face darkened. He felt his intelligence had been insulted.
“…Brother, do you take me for an idiot?”
“Your game’s monthly net income is only four or five million yuan, right? If you’re getting 20,000 yuan in bonuses, wouldn’t that mean the project is paying out at least a million yuan in bonuses every month?”
Hao Qiong nodded. “Yeah.”
Wu Bin felt even more absurdity piling on. “They’re handing out one-fifth of the monthly income as bonuses???”
Hao Qiong shook his head. “That’s not how it’s calculated.”
“We don’t issue bonuses based on profits. We do it based on reputation.”
“Our game’s current reputation rating is A. Every month, bonuses are issued based on one-tenth of the game’s total investment, for six consecutive months.”
“This game cost a total of ten million yuan including development and promotion, so every month the bonuses are calculated as one-tenth of that amount.”
Wu Bin wondered if he had misheard. “Then what if the game doesn’t make money?”
Hao Qiong looked confused. “Why are you even denser than me? I already said it’s based on reputation. Whether it makes money or not, it’s still paid out the same way.”
Wu Bin fell silent for a long time, then sighed with emotion.
“Man… you people in game departments really make a lot of money. I’m honestly envious.”
Hao Qiong shook his head. “Not really. The people in HR, administration, finance… they all make pretty good money too. My salary in our company is… just about average, really.”
Wu Bin: “……”
“Brother… is your company still hiring?”
“If I wanted to submit a résumé, where would I send it?”
Hao Qiong spread his hands. “I’m not really sure. I’ve heard that in the future, all hiring will start with an exam. As for what’s tested, I don’t know either. Even internal referrals don’t really work anymore.”
“Hey, wait a second—weren’t you the one trying to poach me?”
Only then did Hao Qiong suddenly realize that their roles seemed to have been reversed.
Wu Bin clasped his fists together. “Farewell!”
Then he turned around and left.
Hao Qiong watched Wu Bin’s departing figure, silently took a sip of his coffee, and felt puzzled.
Are HRs these days really this unprofessional?
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