HR for Interior design firms: what to set up first

Saturday afternoon, final week before possession. Two juniors are re-issuing elevations for a master bedroom while the site supervisor rings to say the veneer lot has a coarser grain than the approved sample. Nobody can say who allowed the swap. Studios that grew through referrals and never wrote down their working habits live in this loop.

What follows is an order of work for a studio of ten to thirty people that designs and also executes: flats, villas, small clinics, boutique offices. It is aimed at interior design firms specifically. Pure drawing offices without carpenters on their payroll sit better under the wider architects and interior design hub.

A 2D layout reaches the client. The furniture plan shifts. Nobody refreshes the electrical points drawing, and the carpenter keeps building from last week's print. A revision habit costs nothing and removes the commonest argument in the studio.

• Each sheet bears a revision letter, an issue date and the issuer's initials.
• One senior designer per project guards the master set of working drawings and the BOQ; colleagues ask that person for changes.
• The site folder holds only sheets stamped 'issued for execution'; the supervisor lifts superseded prints at every visit.
• A loose heap of printouts on a draftsperson's tray is a symptom, not a filing system.

Carpenters, tile setters, painters and electricians belong to vendors with three other sites that week. The supervisor cannot hire or fire them. What the supervisor can carry is a stage checklist that the principal designer has endorsed, with photographs sent to the project group after each stage.

1. 1

   Marking and measuring

   Wall lengths, window sills, beam drops and floor levels compared with the drawing before plywood is cut. A photo of the chalk-marked floor goes to the group.

2. 2

   Carcass and false ceiling

   Squareness of the carcass, channel and hinge make as per the BOQ, laminate batch numbers noted, gypsum or POP framing signed off before any putty.

3. 3

   Finishing

   Putty coats, primer, grout lines, skirting and polish viewed with a torch held at a low angle. Every flaw goes on the snag list, never into anyone's memory.

4. 4

   Possession

   Client walk-through against the snag list, keys, remotes, warranty cards and care sheets handed over together in one folder.

Clients relocate wardrobes after the carcass is cut. That is not a surprise; it is a season. A short change note decides who pays: what moved, which sheet it touches, extra board and labour days, who at the client's side agreed, and the date. A designer who carries the note stops apologising and starts re-planning.

A designer may measure a living-room wall in the morning, haggle over tile samples at a showroom after lunch and finish a moodboard at night. A punch-in at the studio door tells you very little. Ask for a Friday post of next week's locations and a half-line entry after each visit.

Name and project codes
Studio days: the render, drawing set or BOQ due on each
Client meetings: address, hour, what must be decided
Site visits: address, supervisor met, stage inspected
Showroom or vendor-yard trips: name, material, sample wanted
Half days and leave already known
One item needing the principal's decision

Fresh graduates arrive fluent in SketchUp and blind to a live site. Seat each beside a senior through the first three stages and let them write one snag list alone. After six months give them the detailing of one room, such as the pooja unit or the vanity. A named climb from trainee to junior designer to designer is cheap and slows the drift to rival studios.

Two or three possessions often collide in one fortnight, and night work then becomes a habit. Settle the rules early: who may start late after a possession weekend, how extra site days are offset against studio days, who answers the client's evening calls. The attendance and leave routine is enough as a base.

Every studio has a favourite carpenter, a tile mason who answers calls at night, a polish team that disappears in Diwali week. Hold a one-sheet roster: trade, contact, usual rate basis, sites this month, and a line on quality. When the favourite carpenter is booked, the supervisor should not be improvising with a stranger on a Thursday before possession. Review the roster quarterly and thank the reliable ones before the festival break, not after.

Postpone appraisal forms, competency frameworks and engagement surveys. Get revision letters, change notes, stage checklists and the Friday plan running first. After that, a light performance review routine and clear role descriptions for design, procurement and site posts make sense. To plan the order for your own studio, write to us on the requirements form.