Relative to the importance of labor relations and human resources management to modern corporations, I think the game does not yet incorporate as many strategic options in this area as it could. The key here is to introduce new strategic options without requiring significant micromanagement.
Some ideas:
- Line Employee Incentive Pay: Through the HR Department, set bonus pay for firms where capacity is temporarily increased as long as bonus options remains turned on; labor cost is increased by some %. In the short run this would be a cheaper option than building new firms if existing firms have high experience. In the long run this would leave you with a higher cost structure. Thus using the incentive pay option would be a strategic decision where the right answer would vary according to the circumstances.
- Trade-off Between Labor and Capital: In real life, companies must choose whether to invest in labor saving devices. You could build a factory with high labor intensity (high labor cost per unit produced) or low labor intensity. The latter likely requires more upfront investment, but both entail fixed cost. (Incremental depreciation for more capital investment and higher labor cost for more workers). In the short-run, it may be cheaper to build high labor intensity factories in low labor cost countries. Over time, as labor costs increase, that advantage may be frittered away. Introducing this concept into the game could be interesting as you would need to find the optimal time to invest in labor saving upgrades or new plants to remain competitive.
I will add more thoughts as they come up.
