When it came to poaching employees, Wu Bin had some experience.

The most crucial point was to raise the other person’s psychological expectations and then satisfy them through certain methods.

Sometimes it was painting a rosy picture, sometimes it was financial enticement, sometimes it was a combination of soft and hard tactics.

Wu Bin had already done his research: Hao Qiong worked as an executive planner at Shangyang Games, responsible for miscellaneous tasks.

According to the general salary standards for executive planners in Jingzhou, it was usually around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan per month.

Of course, Wu Bin had done his homework and knew that the benefits at Tenda were ridiculously good.

Exactly how good, he wasn’t sure.

Because up until now, he had only heard of people going to Tenda, never anyone leaving.

If he wanted to ask Tenda employees, they wouldn’t tell him.

The only rough standard was mentioned in an official interview, where Huang Sibo went to Tenda for an interview, and his salary doubled immediately.

But after much effort, Wu Bin learned that Huang Sibo’s original salary was only 2,000 yuan, so this doubling wasn’t particularly exaggerated.

Moreover, who was Huang Sibo? He was hired as the lead planner, so of course, his salary would be high.

For ordinary employees like Hao Qiong, at most, he would earn about the same as Huang Sibo did back then, right?

Estimating on the high side, at most it would be 5,000 yuan. Even one yuan more would be insulting Wu Bin’s intelligence.

Of course, Hao Qiong’s income sources definitely weren’t just his basic salary; bonuses had to be considered too.

Wu Bin calculated that the monthly net income of the mobile version of “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was about 4 million yuan. This could be roughly estimated based on its rankings on various charts, payment points, player numbers, popularity, and other information.

It wasn’t a lot, since this game was a conscientious one that didn’t push players to spend money.

Wu Bin figured that, according to the general practice of game companies allocating 10% of net income as project bonuses, the bonus distributed to each employee would be about 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.

Being generous, let’s say 500,000 yuan.

But a project team had at least 30 to 40 people, with core members taking the lion’s share. For small fry like Hao Qiong, who just assisted, getting a bonus of 5,000 yuan would be pretty good.

Calculating this way, the monthly salary, including bonuses, would be around 10,000 yuan at most.

Wu Bin wasn’t clear about other benefits.

But surely adding a premium of 2,000 to 4,000 yuan would surpass those benefits, right?

Wu Bin’s psychological price point was a monthly salary between 12,000 and 14,000 yuan.

This monthly salary seemed quite outrageous to him; in Jingzhou, a typical lead planner earned only 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per month. Now he was going to offer a monthly salary of 13,000 yuan to poach an executive planner?

This was already ridiculous enough.

So, Wu Bin’s method of poaching was to first raise the other person’s psychological expectations.

Here was his expected script:

Wu Bin: “Your salary must be very high, right? Your regular salary must be at least 6,000 yuan, right?”

Hao Qiong: “Not at all, it’s not that much, not even 5,000.”

Wu Bin: “Oh, then your bonuses must be plentiful, right? Must be at least 7,000 to 8,000 yuan or more, right?”

Hao Qiong: “Not that either, just over 5,000.”

Wu Bin: “Then, your monthly income is just a little over 10,000 yuan? That’s lower than I imagined.”

Hao Qiong: “It’s okay, the company benefits are good.”

Wu Bin: “Good benefits can’t be eaten as food! With your experience and ability, if you come to us, your base salary plus bonus would start at 12,000 yuan!”

Hao Qiong: “Really?”

Wu Bin: “Of course it’s real, you’re worth this money!”

If Hao Qiong still hesitated, Wu Bin would continue to increase the price, all the way to 15,000 yuan.

Making an extra 5,000 yuan per month, most people couldn’t resist such temptation.

At that point, poaching would be considered successful.

It was expensive, but to complete the task assigned by his boss, Wu Bin had no choice.

Anyway, poach first, worry later.

Wu Bin began to perform according to his imagined script.

“I’ve heard that Tenda’s benefits are very good? Your salary must be very high, right? Your regular salary must be at least 6,000 yuan, right?”

Hao Qiong nodded: “Hmm, about that.”

Wu Bin: “?”

He felt a bit dizzy.

Wu Bin had already added an extra 1,000 yuan based on his imagined highest salary, and Hao Qiong just calmly admitted it!

Fortunately, Wu Bin reacted quickly and promptly put on an “as expected” expression: “Then your bonuses must be at least 7,000 to 8,000 yuan or more, right?”

Hao Qiong chuckled: “Indeed.”

Wu Bin: “?”

He felt this was getting difficult to handle.

What did “indeed” mean?

More than 7,000 to 8,000 yuan???

It should be noted that the convention in game companies was to distribute 10% of income as bonuses, and even this was considered generous. There were also many game companies that earned money but didn’t distribute bonuses at all.

As a result, Shangyang Games gave an executive planner a bonus that was even more than 7,000 to 8,000 yuan?

That looked like it had to be at least 8,000 and something!

Wu Bin felt that his budget had some issues.

Adding this up, Hao Qiong’s salary had already reached nearly 15,000 yuan.

Now it would take at least 18,000 to 19,000 yuan to poach him.

This was too hard to bear!

But the arrow was on the string and had to be released.

Wu Bin couldn’t back down now that he knew it would be difficult, so he had to press on and said: “Then your monthly income must be heading towards 15,000 yuan, which is a little lower than I imagined, but not by much.”

Hao Qiong smiled innocently: “It’s okay, the company benefits are good.”

Wu Bin finally had a line he could smoothly respond to, and quickly said, “Good benefits can’t be eaten as food!”

Before he could finish, Hao Qiong asked puzzledly: “They can be eaten as food.”

“We have three meals provided, Slackin’ Takeout, menus that change every day, absolutely healthy and hygienic.”

Wu Bin: “…”

Calculating this, just the most basic food expenses would be close to 1,000 yuan per month.

The budget had to increase again!

Hao Qiong continued: “And we also regularly have team dinners at Nameless Restaurant.”

Wu Bin: “…”

This was getting ridiculous.

Wasn’t this just messing with his mind?

Wu Bin certainly knew about Nameless Restaurant; the dishes there were extremely expensive. Having team dinners there, even being frugal, would cost at least 200 to 300 yuan per person.

Not exaggerating, but eating there once a month—ordinary companies couldn’t afford this!

Wu Bin felt this conversation couldn’t continue like this; he had to change his approach.

He needed to talk about ideals with this naive young man in front of him.

Wu Bin cleared his throat: “Hey, I think people can’t just satisfy their appetites. Don’t you think there should be some spiritual pursuit as well?”

Hao Qiong nodded vigorously: “Yes, I was just about to say!”

“At our company, we can play games freely, all computers are top-of-the-line, and they’re dual-screen.”

“Every month, we have mandatory reimbursement quotas, which can also be used to top up game accounts.”

“And also…”

Wu Bin quickly raised his hand, stopping Hao Qiong.

“Okay, okay, I know your company’s benefits are good.”

“But you should think about your career development plan.”

“Tenda is full of talented people, with many waiting to be promoted to lead planner. If you want to climb up, it’s too difficult!”

Hao Qiong looked puzzled: “It’s not so bad.”

“The company regularly arranges for outstanding employees to explore other business areas.”

“The current lead planner at Tenda, from doing odd jobs to becoming a lead planner, took just over seven months.”

“I think if I perform a bit better, it should be my turn soon.”

Wu Bin: “…”

There was no way to continue this conversation; this conversation couldn’t go on!

It would have been better not to talk about benefits. After this discussion about benefits, the budget would have to approach more than 20,000 yuan per month.

With the kind of treatment Hao Qiong enjoyed at Tenda, even giving him 20,000 yuan a month, he might not be willing to come!

After much consideration, Wu Bin could only grit his teeth and quote a bleeding price.

“Let me be direct! If you come to our company, we’ll give you a salary of 22,000 yuan per month, how about that!”

Wu Bin looked at Hao Qiong.

Hao Qiong looked at Wu Bin.

They were speechless, looking at each other.

After a long while, Hao Qiong scratched his head: “Wait, when you poach people, do you always offer lower salaries?”

Wu Bin: “?”

He froze completely.

Lower salaries???

Wu Bin felt very confused: “No, this amount is already higher than your salary plus bonus, and it’s almost enough even if we add the money for benefits.”

Hao Qiong was speechless: “It’s not higher than my bonus.”

Wu Bin felt dizzy: “Didn’t you say your bonus was over 8,000 yuan?”

Hao Qiong: “I only said the bonus was higher than 8,000, I didn’t say how much higher. I was just being considerate of your feelings.”

Wu Bin: “…”

What the hell does “being considerate of your feelings” mean?

Wu Bin silently sighed and looked at Hao Qiong: “Brother, if you want to be considerate of my feelings, just tell me the truth. How much is your bonus exactly?”

Hao Qiong: “Over 10,000, I guess.”

Wu Bin: “…Brother, can you be more precise, so I can give up hope? How much over 10,000?”

Hao Qiong: “Over 10,000… by about 100%?”

Wu Bin’s face darkened, feeling his intelligence was being insulted: “…Brother, do you think I’m stupid?”

“Your game’s monthly net income is just 4 to 5 million yuan, right? If you’re getting a bonus of 20,000 yuan, then this project would have to distribute at least 1 million yuan in bonuses every month, right?”

Hao Qiong nodded: “That’s right.”

Wu Bin felt this was getting more absurd: “One-fifth of the monthly income is distributed as bonuses???”

Hao Qiong shook his head: “That’s not how it’s calculated.”

“Our bonuses aren’t based on profit, but on reputation.”

“Our game’s reputation is currently A, and each month we distribute bonuses based on one-tenth of the game’s total investment, continuously for six months.”

“Our game spent a total of 10 million yuan on development and marketing, so each month, bonuses are distributed based on one-tenth of this amount.”

Wu Bin suspected he had misheard: “What if the game doesn’t make money?”

Hao Qiong asked puzzledly: “Why are you even more naive than I? I already said it’s based on reputation; whether it makes money or not, bonuses are distributed this way.”

After a long silence, Wu Bin sighed: “Ah, you game department people earn so much, I envy you.”

Hao Qiong shook his head: “Not really, our company’s HR, administrative, finance… they all earn quite a lot too. My salary in our company… is just at a normal level.”

Wu Bin: “…”

“Brother, is your company still hiring?”

“If I want to submit a resume, where should I send it?”

Hao Qiong shrugged: “I’m not too sure about that. I heard that in the future, employee recruitment will start with an exam first. I’m not sure what the exam covers, and internal referrals don’t work well anymore.”

“Hey, wait a minute, weren’t you trying to poach me?”

Hao Qiong suddenly realized that their roles seemed to have reversed.

Wu Bin clasped his fist: “Farewell!”

And walked away.

Hao Qiong watched Wu Bin’s retreating figure, silently sipped his coffee, and wondered.

Are HR people this unprofessional these days?