An owner of a surgical instrument workshop needs two jaw grinders and a box-lock fitter before an export order. He posts on a job portal and gets a heap of applications from machine operators who have never held a forceps blank. The people he needs are working in someone else's workshop three streets away, and not one of them scrolls a job portal.
That is typical across medical device making. The skilled layer is thin, and the device makers' people hub shows how much acceptance at the buyer's end rides on it. Finding those people takes different channels, and judging them takes a bench, not a conference room. This routine is the backbone of how we approach recruitment process design for factories.
Know exactly which skill you are buying
Before looking anywhere, write down the skill in plain workshop terms. Not ‘experienced fitter’ but ‘can fit and adjust a box-lock joint so the jaws meet evenly and the action is smooth’. Not ‘technician’ but ‘can calibrate an analyser against reference samples and record the result’. A precise skill statement points to the right hunting ground and the right trial.
Where skilled device people come from
- Neighbouring trades. Cutlery and scissor workshops breed grinders and polishers. Watch and jewellery benches train fine fitters. Two-wheeler component plants produce CNC setters, and phone repair counters teach fine soldering.
- ITI and polytechnic batches. Fitter, turner, machinist, electronics and instrument mechanic trades, ideally through a standing tie with the training officer rather than one campus visit.
- Tool rooms and mould shops. Setters and mould repair hands for medical plastics usually pick up their trade in general injection moulding or tool rooms.
- Dealer and distributor service teams. Field engineers who already install and repair hospital or lab equipment understand customers and fault-finding.
- Referrals from your own senior hands. Your best polisher probably knows the other good polishers in the area, and who is unhappy where they are.
- Returning staff. Skilled people who parted amicably deserve a phone call when demand rises.
Diagnostic equipment makers face a narrower pool still, with calibration and firmware skills in very short supply. Analyser and glucometer builders can read more in sourcing calibration and firmware staff.
Testing at the bench, role by role
- 1
Grinders and polishers
Give a part-finished jaw or blade and a reference piece. Ask the candidate to bring it to the reference finish in a set time. Look at the result under light and magnification, and watch how they handle the wheel.
- 2
Box-lock and joint fitters
A pair of instruments with a deliberately poor joint. Ask for adjustment until the action and jaw alignment match a good sample.
- 3
CNC and Swiss-type setters
A drawing of a simple implant screw or pin, a machine and tools. Ask for the set-up, the first-off check with a micrometer and height gauge, and a short explanation of what they would check through the batch.
- 4
Mould setters
A mould change on an idle press, then a first-shot inspection for short shots, flash and sink. Ask what they would adjust and why.
- 5
Assembly and calibration technicians
A sub-assembly to build from a drawing on an ESD bench, or a unit to calibrate against a reference. Include one planted fault to see whether they find it and how they record it.
- 6
Service engineers
Fault-tracing on a live unit, then a role-play with a hospital or lab user describing the problem badly. Judge the fault-finding and the patience equally.
Test the record habit as well as the craft
In device work a good hand who skips entries is a risk. Add a records element to every trial: fill a batch record line, note a lot number, record a measurement with the date and initials. Watch whether the candidate does it without being reminded. Buyers trace lots to people, and the habit is far easier to hire than to build later.
Score it on paper
Agree the scoring sheet with the senior hand who will supervise the recruit before the trial, not after. Spell out a pass for each task, the judging method and the point that marks a fail. Adapt our scorecard for interviews to bench work. Ask two people to score separately where possible, then compare.
After the offer
Even a strong recruit may walk within weeks. Script the opening days ahead of arrival: safety and clean-area rules, the product and its risks, the records they will keep, and a bench partner beside them. Sign off their first real jobs. Moulding floors handle it well in the joining routine medical plastics units use. For grinders and polishers, the skill route that forceps and scissor workshops follow turns a capable hire into a trusted one.
Four jobs for this week
- Write the precise skill statement for your next critical hire.
- Ask each senior hand for three names in the local trade.
- Prepare one bench trial with real parts and a scoring sheet.
- Script the recruit's opening days ahead of any offer.
GullyHR builds hiring routes, bench trials and scoring sheets for device makers, and runs talent acquisition for the hard-to-find roles. List the roles you need filled; writing skill statements comes first.
