Let's say it's a game where you hire people (restaurant manager, corporation simulator, whatever you find fancy it's not important).

Typically it looks like this:
- you start by recruiting people, you get a list of candidates, see their salary (or you decide from which salary range to recruit) and decide whom to recruit
- after some time you get "I want a raise" event, frequently in bulk, a list of people you don't remember who was who and why was hired and a demand "x,xxx salary". You scratch your head don't remembering why and who and either agree or not (without making a conscious decision here; it's more like a habit for example "always agree to 50% of their demands")

It's boring :D How to improve it?

My thoughts:

I wonder if it's not too individual, like every single employee having an individual salary, it's fine if you have like 5 people, but with 30 you lose tracy who eanred how muuch and why. Maybe a "salary policy" and you set how much they all earn?

Another thought, it's boring when they pop up and demand a rise. It's obvious that they will leave if you disagree, so you automatically agree (or disagree and hire new ones, usually I'm too lazy to rehire and agree :D). Maybe they just quit if their salary is too low (random chance, so not all of them quit immediatelly) and you have to be proactive and increase their salary before they decide to quit?

What is the scale? What is the abstraction?

Are we talking about characters who you are directly interacting with on a regular basis throughout the game, or are we talking hiring a dozen employees for each of your hundreds of locations and you have no real direct impact with it?

If these aren't characters that you're directly interacting with on a regular basis, then why not abstract that decision away from the user? If you aren't directly managing the employees, then maybe you should be directly managing their managers. - The managers can have stats/abilities for how well they control costs and such, and you could give them targets and goals to work within. Things like a "Turnover" stat could lower efficiency if it gets too high, but letting it ride out a bit could help keep costs down because you would be letting a larger portion of experienced base level employees walk away more often rather than raising your costs.

Include this with simulations on your competitors - You can get hints about what style they're using to run their business, and why customers may or may not prefer their services to yours. Are clients going after price? Quality of service? Design/quality of product?

I see moderators have changed the title, well, it's a bit misleading (OK, the previous one was bad too :D). I didn't mean a game that simulates employees and salaries but a game where you run some sort of business (or organization) and employees and salaries are PART of the game (not tme most important part).

Like Theme Hospital for example. It's about curing people, building a hospital and staying profitable, employees and salaries are kind of a side mechanic there. So, let's not oversimulate this and keep it as a smaller part of the game.

(Another thought: It seems like a common thought to suggest that the game be made more complex in response to a weak mechanic. In my experience if the mechanic is weak then perhaps it is the mechanic that needs to be removed rather than added to.)

Yes, it's a weak mechanic (at least in all games I have see it was a weak mechanic). But it should not be removed, it's required by the immersion and mood (you run a business, part of it is hiring people and paying them). It's just that part of those games is notoriously boring and annoying :D

What is the scale? What is the abstraction?

Are we talking about characters who you are directly interacting with on a regular basis throughout the game, or are we talking hiring a dozen employees for each of your hundreds of locations and you have no real direct impact with it?

I just wanted to talk about this topic/mechanic, I do not have a specific game in mind :)

Anyway, a nice observation is that the solution would differ depending on the scale (number of employees)... If you have 5-12 people you could remember them all and keep in mind who deserves how much, if there are 20-30 or more then some sort dealing in bulk would be a better solution I suppose...

I think repetitive decisions without nuance create what you're trying to avoid.

What about improving this with more personalization: Unique dialog expressing character, memorable responses to events and interesting interactions between the characters? There would be no generic "I want a raise" but (scripted) interactions that express negotiation style and savvy/timing or lack thereof with an aim toward trying to create a relationship with the player as boss. I can see this being intriguing when you have a likeable character that is subpar, or an unlikeable character that is a high performer; or when someone who is very meek but knowledgeable versus aggressive/persistent but not as skilled; or even deserving of a raise but expressing themselves as a real jerk etc.

Office/work dramas would probably be a good model for this idea, potentially fleshing out an otherwise dry dynamic. Why do they ask for a raise? Because they have a sick child? Lots of debt? Greed? High demand and they know it? It would take the genre in a direction I haven't seen (except somewhat for visual novels) but possibly inject emotion (and therefore attachment) to what is otherwise a dry, clinical decision.