Aerospace CNC shops machine small batches of tight-tolerance parts in titanium, aluminium and steel to customer drawings. For people, the point is that every job traces back to a named operator and inspector.
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Share your requirementsThis kind of shop cuts housings, brackets, fittings and structural pieces from bar, plate and forgings, mostly in small batches against the customer's drawing and approved process sheet. A job runs from CAM programming and fixture design to set-up, first-piece machining, CMM or hand inspection, deburring, outside special processes and packing with its paperwork. Five-axis and mill-turn machines are costly, so they run long hours, and one scrapped titanium forging hurts. Operators learn slowly because the drawing, the programme and the inspection record must all agree. Orders come as repeat schedules with sudden drawing revisions, and programmers, senior setters and inspectors are few and sought by rivals. See also HR for manufacturing.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in aerospace CNC parts makers. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Proving a five-axis programme for a tricky part takes weeks, and once its author leaves, the shop cannot repeat the job with confidence.
Some load and unload well but depend on one setter for work offsets and tool changes, so a single absence stops a spindle.
A correct part with a missing stamp or an unreadable batch card may be refused, so bench habits count as much as machining skill.
A drawing revision known in the planning office but not at the control produces scrap, and operators take the blame for a communication gap.
Machines run lightly staffed after the senior setter has gone home, and small tool wear problems grow into scrapped parts.
People who can read complex drawings and use CMM and gauges are hard to find, and an offer from a larger plant is enough to lose one.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
How many people, in which roles, by when, and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes, one for complaints, one for conduct, kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a aerospace CNC parts makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Write levels from loading operator to proving setter to programmer, naming the machines and alloys each level may handle.
Write levels from loading operator to proving setter to programmer, naming the machines and alloys each level may handle. Link it to pay through compensation benchmarking.
Ask each programmer to document the hard jobs and train one understudy per family of parts.
Ask each programmer to document the hard jobs and train one understudy per family of parts. Reflect that in the grade, as the learning and development process can structure.
The supervisor checks that the drawing revision at each machine matches the planner's list and signs for it.
The supervisor checks that the drawing revision at each machine matches the planner's list and signs for it. It takes a minute and prevents silent scrap.
Even one setter on site changes what an operator dares to stop.
Even one setter on site changes what an operator dares to stop. Plan it through the attendance, shift and leave process.
Joiners learn why signed records matter and practise on dummy jobs before live work.
Joiners learn why signed records matter and practise on dummy jobs before live work. The employee onboarding process can hold the checklist.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Grades and pay for programmers, setters and inspectors set against nearby shops, so people you cannot replace see a path.
A planned route from operator to setter to programmer, with hard jobs documented and understudies named.
A hiring process for machinists and inspectors that tests drawing reading and gauging, not only years served.
Rosters that keep a senior setter and an inspector on every long-running shift.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator can struggle as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
6 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead article
Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
6 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Document each hard job in a shared folder, pair them with an understudy on live work and give the role a clear grade and pay. People stay when they feel recognised, not just loaded.
The drawing, programme, tooling and inspection record must all line up, and each is learned on real jobs. A written skill ladder with short sign-offs shows trainees and seniors what comes next.
Some shops keep inspectors apart from the production head so a failed part is reported plainly. Whichever you choose, write the line down and never press inspectors to pass late jobs.
Pick one capable setter per night shift, give clear authority to stop a machine and list the checks to make each hour. Pay the extra responsibility visibly.
Only with care, since volume pay pushes operators to rush costly material. A team bonus tied to right-first-time parts and on-time delivery fits better. Ask a qualified adviser about pay rules.
Which jobs rest on a single programmer, how many operators can set their own offsets, and what a month of scrap says about late revisions. A skill ladder for machinists and inspectors would be a sensible opening, with scope written down after a first conversation.
All 6 business types in aerospace and defence components · Find another business type
Tell us your industry, team size and the issue you want to address. Bring one example of where work gets delayed or ownership is unclear, and the deadline or decision you are working towards.
