HR for a 20-person workshop vs a 200-person plant: what changes

In a 20-person fabrication workshop, the owner knows whose mother is unwell and which welder wants to marry next spring. He hires through the villages of the men already working for him. He decides each wage over tea. That is an HR system, and at that size it often works well.

At 200 people on three shifts, the same owner cannot name the night crew. Wages decided one by one have become a web of private deals. Complaints that used to reach him at the bench now reach him as resignations. The plant has outgrown the system without anyone deciding it should.

• Wages correct and on time. Nothing else matters if the wage slip is wrong.
• A floor where people do not get hurt. Guards on machines, sound slings, a clear path past the press brake.
• Someone who listens. At 20 it is the owner. At 200 it has to be a route people trust.
• A way to get better at the work. Learning a second machine, moving from helper to fitter, earning more for it.

Who does HR. Workshop: owner, accountant and a timekeeper. Plant: HR manager, time office, supervisors with written duties.
Attendance. Workshop: a register and the owner's eye. Plant: biometric or card punching, gate passes, a monthly cut-off and missed-punch forms.
Pay. Workshop: decided per person. Plant: grades with published ranges, overtime rules, increment calendar.
Hiring. Workshop: referrals from existing workers. Plant: requisition, trade test, job description, joining checklist.
Skills. Workshop: everyone knows who can weld stainless. Plant: a skill matrix by station and shift.
Supervision. Workshop: owner on the floor. Plant: shift in-charges who must apply the same rules on every shift.
Complaints. Workshop: the owner's door. Plant: a written grievance route with a contact on nights.
Safety. Workshop: the owner's habits. Plant: induction records, near-miss register, permits for hot work.
Contract labour. Workshop: a few helpers through one contact. Plant: several contractors, registers per contractor, monthly reconciliation.

Somewhere between fifty and a hundred people, most plants add a second shift, a second building or a second contractor. The owner still decides every wage and every hire. But he no longer sees the night shift, and his informal deals start to conflict. Two welders on different shifts find they earn different amounts for the same work. A helper promised a machine by one supervisor sees another man get it.

This is when to start writing things down, before the plant reaches two hundred and the problems arrive all at once. Our HR foundation package covers the first written pieces. Some owners bring in fractional HR support before hiring a full-time manager.

Small workshops often hand out wage advances from the owner's cash box, noted in a khata or on the back of the muster roll. At twenty people that is kindness. At two hundred it becomes a hidden ledger nobody else can check, and recovery quarrels erupt on pay day. A growing plant needs a written advance rule: who approves, the upper limit as a share of monthly wage, how recovery is spread, and where it is recorded. The munshi who kept the old book is usually the best person to help move it into the new one.

A 20-person CNC job shop runs on two setters and the owner's feel for drawings. Our precision machining notes describe that dependence. Fabrication crews often run on a foreman who also welds, as described for fabrication shops. Furniture makers that add a modular line face site installers working beyond direct supervision, covered for furniture and wood products. At two hundred, auto component suppliers often face a customer audit asking for HR records the plant never kept.

1. 1

   Attendance and overtime rules

   First, because they touch every wage slip and every shift.

2. 2

   Pay grades by trade and level

   Replace one-by-one deals with ranges people can see.

3. 3

   A joining checklist with safety induction

   So every new hand, own or contract, starts the same way.

4. 4

   A skill matrix for one section

   Start with the section whose stoppages hurt dispatch most.

5. 5

   A grievance route

   Written, displayed, with a named contact on every shift.

6. 6

   Supervisor duties in writing

   What each shift in-charge decides, and what goes to the plant head.

Count your people, own and contract, on every shift. If the owner still decides every wage and the night shift has no named contact, start writing now. For the first hire, read your first HR hire. Our approach to plant HR scales the same pieces from workshop to plant. To talk through your stage, describe your workshop or plant.