HR for Rooftop solar installers: what to set up first

A solar firm with three crews went from forty rooftops a month to seventy in one season. Its owner knew every crew lead. He did not know who could crimp an MC4 properly, who had been shown the lifeline, or which helper could wire a string. Growth had come from the surveyor's quotes. The HR side lived in the owner's memory. Here is what to set up first, in an order that suits a firm of this size.

A rooftop crew has a lead technician, a solar electrician and one or two helpers. The van driver often doubles as material handler. Each seat has a task. The lead reads the layout and decides the rail spacing. The electrician runs the DC cable, fixes the inverter and checks earthing. Helpers carry modules, mark holes and clean up. Lose one seat and the day slips.

• List every crew seat by name and by the skills it needs.
• Name a trained spare for each seat, even if the spare is a helper from another crew.
• Keep one flex helper on the payroll who rides with different crews and learns all of them.
• Plan Saturdays with the same care. Customers book weekends, and crews tire first on those days.

Helpers learn the roof by watching whoever stands nearest. Bad habits travel as fast as good ones. Make a one-page roof card for the first week. It should say how the ladder is footed and tied. It should say when the harness clips to the lifeline. It should say how to carry a module in wind and how to step round skylights, asbestos sheets and tin roofs. It should also say when rain or heat stops work. The skills page for the sector is at learning and development.

1. 1

   Morning roof check

   The lead looks at the edge, the parapet, the sheet condition and the wiring overhead before anyone climbs.

2. 2

   Tools and kit count

   Count harnesses, lifelines, drill bits, torque spanner, MC4 crimper and multimeter into the van, and count them out at day end.

3. 3

   Shade and orientation note

   The lead confirms the shadow line against the surveyor's sketch and records any change.

4. 4

   Stop rule

   Any crew member can call a halt for wind, wet surface or a missing harness, and the lead must record it without argument.

Photographs show a tidy array. They do not show a good earth. Add a short closure sheet. The electrician fills it and the lead signs it. It lists the earth resistance reading, string voltage and polarity, inverter settings and cable dressing. It also lists the bolts checked on the structure and the customer's signed walk-through. Collect them weekly. A quality pattern emerges within a month, and so does the name of the crew whose sheets are always blank.

Crews leave when the next step is unclear. A helper who has carried modules for two years, with no change in title, will follow a rival's small offer. Draw a ladder with three rungs. Name the skills for each: reading a single-line diagram, crimping and testing a string, talking to a customer on site. State the minimum months. Attach a small pay step to each rung, tied to a signed skill list.

Jobs per week is easy to count and tempts crews to hurry. Add a rework count and a customer rating from the closure sheet. Pay a part of the incentive only on jobs with no return visit in sixty days. A pay and performance design that crews can recompute alone keeps quarrels low. Do not mix commission for the sales team with crew incentives, as the two groups quarrel over whose job slipped.

• Rail and clamp. The aluminium rail on the structure and the mid and end clamps that hold the module frame.
• Ballast and GI leg. Concrete blocks on a flat slab, or a galvanised leg bolted to the slab or purlin.
• String and MC4. A run of modules wired in series, joined with MC4 connectors that must click and be crimped true.
• DCDB, ACDB and SPD. The two combiner boxes and the surge protection inside them.
• Net meter and DISCOM visit. The bi-directional meter and the inspection by the power utility before switching on.
• Earth pit and lightning arrestor. The grounding path, tested with a meter and logged in ohms.
• Soiling and shade. Dust on glass and shadow from tank, parapet or neighbour, which cut yield.

• Shoe covers or a clean mat at the door of the terrace stairs.
• Introductions at the gate, with a printed company card.
• No smoking, no spitting, no loud calls on speaker.
• A water point agreed with the customer, and no use of the family bathroom without leave.
• Daily clean-up, with offcuts and packing cartons removed.

Once the crew bench, roof card, closure sheet, ladder and conduct note exist, add the papers. These are appointment letters, role notes, a leave register per crew and a training record. Hiring is its own task, covered by recruitment process consulting for companies who need it. For this business type, see the rooftop solar installers page. The wider sector sits on the renewable energy hub.