Finding Staff
You can search for staff from the Staff section of your manager’s Search screen.
The Add Condition drop-down menu will enable you to specify conditions to narrow your search. You will generally want to specify a required familiarity with the staff role you are looking to fill, while you may want to set a maximum reputation in order to reduce wage demands, search only for individuals who are not employed in order to avoid compensation fees, or search for staff who have not completed their coaching qualifications and who will therefore be more likely to improve in the future.
The Attributes button will allow you to specify minimum attributes ratings for the specific attributes that will be important for the new staff member, as explained in the Staff Roles guides.
Ticking ask assistant manager to exclude unrealistic transfers will remove staff who your assistant believes are unlikely to be interested in contract negotiations, allowing you to focus on more attainable targets.
Alternatively, if you do not need someone urgently then you may prefer to place an advert for new staff in a specified role in the Job Centre, which can be accessed from your manager’s Jobs screen. You will then be given a list of applicants in about a week’s time.
Before placing an advert for a role you will need to ensure that you are under the board’s staff limit for that role.
Freeing Up Space
If you offer a contract to a potential new staff member but are not below the maximum staff permitted then you will need to free up space before he agrees to sign or the deal will be cancelled.
You can do this by terminating or mutually terminating the contract of another member of staff from their Contract drop-down menu. This staff member should be in the same role category, as explained above, as the staff member being signed.
A compensation fee will normally be payable for early termination of a contract, although if a staff member agrees to a mutual termination then this will be cheaper, or even free. Therefore, it is advisable to attempt a mutual termination first. This will always be accepted by inherited staff at a new club.
When signing a new assistant manager it is not necessary to terminate the contract of your current assistant, as it will be terminated automatically when the new signing is confirmed. This helps you to avoid spending a short period without an assistant. However, this will not allow you to offer a mutual termination, and so it is advisable to offer this first if you expect the new assistant to sign.
Offering a Staff Contract
You can offer a potential staff member a contract using the Approach to Sign button while viewing them. This will take you to the Contract Offer screen where you will be shown his contract demands and be able to suggest terms.
It is advisable to start contract negotiations by offering a lower wage than initially demanded, before then negotiating upwards at a rate determined by the urgency of the individual’s response to the previous offer after you click Suggest Terms. On the right of the screen you will see a description of the staff member’s negotiating style, which may also affect the best way for you to negotiate.
Contract Terms
As well as the basic contract offer terms, such as job, contract length and wage, you can include the following clauses in negotiations:
- Yearly Wage Rise – This will increase the staff member’s wage by the selected percentage each season. It can prove to be an expensive clause overtime and so is generally best avoided where possible, particularly since the effect is cumulative and so the actual monetary rise will be higher each year. However, it can help you to encourage a staff member to agree to a lower initial wage.
- Promotion Wage Rise – This will increase the staff member’s wage by the selected percentage every time the club is promoted, which can also help you to encourage him to agree to a lower initial wage, especially if your club is a contender for promotion. However, it is less favourable to the staff member than the above clause as the rise is not guaranteed.
- Relegation Wage Drop – This will reduce the staff member’s wage by the selected percentage every time the club is relegated, which can help your club save money if relegated and avoid any need to terminate staff contracts and pay the associated compensation fees. However, the staff member will be less willing to sign with this clause active, and so may require a higher initial wage.
- Top Division Promotion Wage Rise/Relegation Wage Drop – These are variants of the above two clauses that only apply when being promoted to or relegated from the top league division.
- Waive Compensation For Managerial Role – If set to yes, then if the staff member leaves your club to sign as the manager at another club, your club will not receive the compensation fee for an early contract termination from the other club, which could otherwise potentially discourage or prevent the other club from signing him. This clause can therefore help encourage a staff member to sign for your club, possibly allowing you to offer a lower wage or other, less favourable, clauses. Selecting no will have the opposite effect.
If you want to mark a contract term, such as the staff role or wage offered, as non-negotiable then you can do this by clicking the padlock icon next to the term before proceeding with negotiations. This can be useful if, for example, you want to sign the staff member in a specific role or if the staff member’s demanded wage is above the maximum you can offer. However, this can lead to the staff member refusing to continue discussions. The offer as a whole can also be marked as non-negotiable using the button at the bottom of the screen.
Information Panel
The Information panel on the right also provides you with the following information:
- Job Interest – This depends on various factors such as the staff member’s familiarity with the staff role you are offering, the seniority of the role, your reputation, your club’s reputation and his personality. The more interested he is the easier negotiations will be.
- Maximum Wage – This is the highest wage that the board will allow you to offer the staff member in the currently selected role. Offering him favourable clauses and a shorter contract length can enable you to offer a lower wage and so may be necessary if he wants more than the maximum wage. Alternatively, clicking budget adjustment and then moving the slider on the Boardroom Overview screen to the left will allow you to increase your wage budget at the expense of your transfer budget, and so will increase the maximum wage. The slider can be moved all the way to the left if you do not need any immediate transfer budget for new signings before being moved back again after offering the contract. Clicking Confirm will register the budget adjustments, allowing you to offer a higher wage after returning to the Contract Offer screen. You can also ask the board to increase the maximum wage allowed to staff on the Board Meeting section of the Boardroom screen. Such a request is more likely to be accepted if you have developed a good reputation with the board by achieving success at the club. You can view the board’s confidence in you on the Confidence section of the Boardroom screen.
- Maximum Staff Permitted – This is the board’s limit for staff in the selected role, and corresponds to the limit shown on your club’s Boardroom Overview screen as discussed above. If the current staff numbers figure is equal to or higher than this then you will need to free up space as explained below.
Offering Staff Contracts to Players
You can also potentially offer a staff contract to one of your players if he is approaching the end of his playing career, allowing you to hire someone who is possibly already among the favoured personnel of other players in your squad and who may improve his staff attributes over time as he gains experience and qualifications in his new staff role.
A player will need to have staff attributes visible to be offered a staff contract, as explained in the Staff Introduction.