In DEVTEC STUDIOS' Roblox tycoon Build a Phone Empire, hiring staff requires placing an office desk and chair in your workspace, opening the hiring menu, and paying the candidate's first month of wages upfront. Employees fill specific operational roles, such as researching new hardware technologies or eliminating bugs before a product launch.
Recruiting staff adds ongoing monthly payroll expenses to your company balance sheet. Balancing employee wages against product launch profits is essential to keep your business operating in the black as you expand from a 2007 garage into a corporate headquarters.
How to Hire Staff in Build a Phone Empire
You cannot recruit an employee until an empty workstation is set up on your office floor. The onboarding process follows these steps:
- Open the building menu and select the furniture or office category.
- Place a desk and an office chair inside your garage or office space.
- Open the staff recruitment interface from your management menu or click an empty workspace.
- Review the candidate list. Each profile displays the worker's role, star rating, and monthly salary.
- Select Hire. Your company immediately pays the first month's wage upfront, and the worker occupies the assigned desk.
According to the official Roblox game description, your Roblox friends appear as job candidates in the hiring pool and work inside your office displaying their actual platform avatars.
Confirmed Employee Roles
Gameplay testing and official interface options confirm two primary staff specializations for your tech development pipeline:
| Staff Role | Core Responsibility | Direct Impact on Products |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | Generates daily Research Points (RP) | Unlocks new components (displays, cameras, processors) and new product types (smartwatches, tablets, laptops). |
| Bug Fixer | Squashes software and hardware defects during development | Reduces project errors to improve launch review scores and critical reception. |
Researcher
Researchers generate passive Research Points (RP) per day. At the start of the game, baseline solo research produces a minimal amount of RP (around 6 RP per day in early tests). Hiring dedicated researchers accelerates tech unlocking so your company can access year-by-year hardware milestones like GPS, 3G data, OLED screens, and multi-core chips before your competitors.
Bug Fixer
When your team develops a new device, technical bugs accumulate during the engineering phase. Assigning a Bug Fixer actively eliminates these defects before release. High-ranking bug fixers allow you to achieve zero-defect launches, earning favorable reviews from critics (such as "barely a bug in sight" or "couldn't find a single bug") and maximizing day-one sales numbers.
Staff Training and Skill Levels
Candidates feature star ratings and skill classifications indicating their base efficiency. Higher-tier candidates—such as Master-tier workers—provide substantially faster bug removal or higher RP production rates.
Existing staff members can also be leveled up through the Train function:
- Training requires a direct cash investment (early progression tests show training costs reaching up to $8,000 as staff levels rise).
- Training an employee up to maximum level significantly boosts their daily output, maximizing the utility of a single desk slot without requiring you to expand floor space immediately.
Staff-Related Game Passes
For players seeking to automate or upgrade their workforce, the game store offers two recruitment-specific Game Passes:
- Star Recruiter (49 Robux): Ensures every batch of job applicants includes at least one expert rated 3★ or higher, and grants one candidate reroll per in-game month.
- Auto-Hire (25 Robux): Automatically fills any empty desks placed in your office every month without requiring manual hiring through the recruitment menu.
Payroll Strategy for New Companies
Employee salaries are recurring monthly expenses deducted from your cash balance. Over-hiring during the initial garage phase is one of the quickest ways to trigger company bankruptcy warnings.
- Secure product profits first: Do not recruit extra workers until your first phone release generates steady profit margins above unit production costs.
- Prioritize research early: A single trained researcher ensures steady progress toward high-margin hardware upgrades without ballooning overhead.
- Add bug fixers before complex designs: Basic early-2000s phones carry fewer technical components and fewer bugs. Bring in dedicated bug fixers once you begin developing advanced flagships, tablets, or laptops that require higher quality standards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I hire a new staff member?
You must place a physical desk and chair inside your garage or office building before hiring. If all desks are occupied, the game will not allow you to accept additional candidates until you expand your furniture layout.
Do I have to pay employees immediately when hiring?
Yes. The tutorial confirms that an employee's first month of wages is paid upfront at the moment of recruitment. After that, recurring wages are deducted monthly.
How do I get higher-star employees?
Higher-tier candidates appear naturally in monthly applicant pools as your company progresses. Players can also purchase the Star Recruiter Game Pass (49 Robux) to guarantee a 3★+ candidate in every batch alongside a free monthly reroll.
Can staff work on laptops and tablets?
Yes. Once your research team unlocks device categories such as laptops, tablets, and smartwatches, your assigned office staff handles the design, development, and bug-fixing phases for those product lines.
