Qualification and Control/en

Play business simulation game Virtonomics

Subdivision Efficiency

Performance of every subdivision is characterized by its overall efficiency. Efficiency particularly depends on the following: efficiency of equipment, staff, main office for the region the subdivision is located in and Top Manager's relevant skill level. Low efficiency can be compensated by raising Top Manager's skill. Efficiency can't go past 100%.

Equipment

Suitable equipment is necessary to ensure the work of your subdivision. If your subdivision has high technology level, you'll need to buy equipment of high quality accordingly. Equipment and animals are the both an economical good, therefore can be produced. You can produce them by yourself or buy them from other players.

Equipment requirements (considering technology level):

Level of technology	Required quality of equipment	Level of technology	Required quality of equipment
1	1,00	11	17,77
2	2,30	12	19,73
3	3,74	13	21,71
4	5,28	14	23,73
5	6,90	15	25,78
6	8,59	16	27,86
7	10,33	17	29,96
8	12,13	18	32,09
9	13,97	19	34,24
10	15,85	20	36,41

Requirements for equipment for factories manufacturing equipment (machines, instruments, sawmills and mining equipment) are reduced by one level. In addition, the requirements for the quality of equipment lowers the high level of Top Manager's skill in a specialized field (“Production” for factories, “Mining” for mines, etc.).

The equipment wears out over time and needs to be repaired. Wear and tear of equipment is charged evenly on all equipment installed at the business unit. For example, 15% wear means that each machine is 15% worn out. Therefore, when writing off part of the equipment, the percentage of wear and tear of the remaining equipment will not change.

Equipment with a high degree of wear and tear is less productive. In addition, a high level of equipment wear and tear can reduce the efficiency of the subdivision. It can be reduced by equipment repair. In this case, the percentage of wear is reduced for all machines at the same time. Depreciation of equipment is calculated on the basis of the standard service life of the equipment:

• 10 virtual years for machinery, sawmills, mining equipment, medical equipment and simulators,
• 12 virtual years for tractors,
• 5 virtual years for computers,
• 7 virtual years for devices.

High quality equipment wears out more slowly, but only if the skill level of the personnel corresponds to its quality.

On livestock farms, the effectiveness of equipment (animals) depends only on their health.

Removing machinery allows you to get rid of unnecessary equipment. For example, it will allow you to make space for higher level of equipment if you are increasing the level of technology of the subdivision.

Employees

The number of employees, required for 100% production load depends on several factors: size of subdivision and sufficient quantity of equipment.

Manpower is not the same in all countries and regions, since education levels are different. Therefor, qualification level is not the same in all cities. On the other hand, staff qualification depends on the actual salary level. Higher salary will allow you to hire employees with higher qualification in any city. An alternative to raising salary is training of employees, described below.

Average qualification level depends on education. Employees with qualification equal to the city average, can receive average salary (for the current type of subdivision).

The cost of hiring employees depends on the salary at respective subdivision. If the salary is less than the average city level, then for each employee an amount equal to 1/2 of the average city salary is taken. Also, this accrual scheme is used when hiring workers for an empty enterprise. If the salary at the enterprise is higher than the average city level, then when hiring new employees, 1/2 of the current salary is taken. Upon dismissal of employees, the full weekly amount of the current salary is charged once.

Salary level depends on the type of subdivision:

Type of subdivision	Average salary
Farms and plantations	50%
Production facilities	70%
Animal farms	100%
Retail stores	100%
Service industry, restaurants	100%
Offices	150%
Powerplants	250%
Laboratories	400%
Medical facilities	400%

Employee qualification influences the production efficiency and depends on the technology level of the subdivision — higher technology level requires higher quality of equipment and thus higher qualification of employees.

In stores, the minimum qualification requirements for sellers depend on the city (the richer the city, the higher the requirements), location and product range (the most expensive product on the shelves is determined - it determines the kind of prestige of the store; the more expensive the “prestige” product is, the higher the minimum requirements to sellers). It should be noted that the fulfillment of the minimum requirements for sellers provides 100% of staff efficiency, but does not always provide the maximum elite level of service in the store.

The qualifications of staff can be enhanced by hiring more expensive and more skilled employees, as well as through training. Training allows you to achieve a higher level of qualification of workers while maintaining an average level of wages.

Before opening any kind of enterprise in a certain city you must study the city population. For example, it is better to place high-tech subdivisions or an office in a city with highly educated population. However, it won't make sense to place a low-tech subdivision in a city with expensive and well educated population.

Training allows you to raise the level of qualification of employees in the enterprise while maintaining the current level of wages. Training is conducted for all workers at the same time and does not lead to a shutdown of production. During training, the operation of the enterprise is carried out as usual.

The duration of the training can last from 1 to 4 weeks. The longer the training period, the higher the increase in the level of qualification. The cost of a weekly training course for one worker is 10 city average salaries for employees of this type of enterprise. The qualifications of workers are increasing every week.

In turn, the alternative to training - salary growth - does not carry a positive external effect. This is one of the reasons why training is more profitable than raising salaries. However, the training requires significant costs, so it can be an overwhelming burden for young companies.

Top Manager's skills

Any company can have an unlimited amount of subdivisions of different kind, size and specialization. However, each subdivision requires its own top-manger, who has skills in a particular field. The top-manager is actually the player of a company itself, i.e. - you. Every player is characterized by certain skills in different qualification areas.

The following qualification areas are available in-game:

   "Management" — influences office efficiency.
   "Marketing (advertising)" — influences the efficiency of advertising campaigns (for brand advertising and store advertising).
   "Commerce" — influences store efficiency.
   "Educational institutions" -  influences efficiency of kindergartens.
   "Gas stations and auto repair" - influences efficiency of gas stations and auto repair shops. 
   "IT" - influences efficiency of IT centers. 
   "Medicine" - influences efficiency of medical centers.
   "Restaurant management" - influences efficiency of restaurants.
   "Service sector" - influences efficiency of subdivisions of service industry.
   "Mining" — influences efficiency of mines.
   "Power plants" -influences efficiency of power plants.
   "Production" — influences efficiency of factories(and other industrial subdivisions).
   "Agriculture" — influences the efficiency of plantations and agricultural farms.
   "Fishing industry" - influences efficiency of fishing bases.
   "Livestock" — influences efficiency of animal farms.
   "Science research" — influences the efficiency of laboratory and eventually speeds up the process of new technology research.

Qualification in general influences the efficiency of player's subdivisions. Players with high qualification can manage large and high-tech subdivisions. In case of an insufficient qualification level, efficiency of subdivisions will go down and expenses will go up.

There are three ways to raise top-manager's qualification level:

   Qualification grows if your subdivision is working stable and profitable. You can check your qualification level and growth in «My office — Qualification». As soon as the green status line reaches the end of its field, your qualification level will increase by 1 point.
   You can buy game points and spend them on level raising: Choose any convenient payment method in «My office — Buy game points» to acquire the necessary game points.
   Awards and purchased office items can bring you a bonus in qualification level. You can check your bonuses in «My office - Qualification». Bonuses are displayed separately from the main qualification with «+» sign, for example «+4».

The price for one skill point is not always the same for various qualification levels. Prices to raise a skill level with game points are always calculated based on the base skill, without taking bonuses into account. This means, that if your base skill level is 8, but you have a MBA-diploma (+2 bonus = 10 in total), you will be considered to have level 8 at the moment of payment (not level 10), and you will pay for the shift from level 8 to level 9 (not from 10 to 11). So, as a result you'll have level 9 + 2 bonus = level 11.

Cost of increasing skill levels by using game points

Next level	The cost of increasing skill level (for game points)
2 - 9	1
10 - 19	2
20 - 29	3
30 - 39	4
40 - 49	5
50 - 59	6
60 - 69	7
70 - 79	8
80 - 89	9
90 и выше	10

To find out the skill requirement for the total amount of employees working at a certain subdivision type, check skill requirements.