A modular kitchen studio sells a design in the showroom and delivers it as boxes, shutters and hardware at a home. The sale, the site measurement and the fitting are done by different people, and the customer judges all three as one.
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Share your requirementsA modular kitchen studio runs from a showroom with display kitchens, where sales designers talk to couples and families about layout, finishes and budget. After the order, a site team measures the room, a design team makes drawings and quotes, and a factory or partner unit makes the carcasses, shutters and accessories. Installers then fit the kitchen at the home, often over several days, with plumbers and electricians from outside. Snags are common in the final week. Showroom designers are paid partly on sales, installers by the job or by day, and freelance fitters appear in busy months. The wider professional services hub and the architects and interior design hub cover common ground.
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.
A layout promised in the showroom may not suit a wall with a pillar or a window, and the measurement team and the installer bear the blame.
A small mistake in a site measurement is found only when the cabinets arrive, and everyone argues over who measured.
Fitters hurry to finish, skip checks and leave small faults for the snag team, because the next job pays more than the polish.
Customers visit on holidays, so designers work Sundays and festivals and wait for a weekday off.
A designer who closes a hard-to-fit kitchen is paid, while the site team who rescue it get nothing.
In busy months extra fitters are called in, and finish quality varies from one house to the next.
A drawer closes poorly, a shutter sags, and the customer calls the designer who has moved on to other orders.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Onboarding and Probation; Performance Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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 modular kitchen studios business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A checklist and sign-off before any order goes to the factory, with the measurer and designer both named.
What this coversHideA checklist and sign-off before any order goes to the factory, with the measurer and designer both named.
A part of the designer's variable pay depends on clean delivery and few snags, and installers are rewarded for right-first-time.
What this coversHideA part of the designer's variable pay depends on clean delivery and few snags, and installers are rewarded for right-first-time. See performance and incentive design.
Showroom walk, factory visit, site shadowing and a checklist, so designers understand fitting and installers understand sales.
What this coversHideShowroom walk, factory visit, site shadowing and a checklist, so designers understand fitting and installers understand sales. The onboarding process supports it.
A one-page finish checklist per kitchen, signed by the supervisor, with a clear route for rework.
What this coversHideA one-page finish checklist per kitchen, signed by the supervisor, with a clear route for rework.
A rota posted a month ahead with compensatory days, so showroom staff know when they will be off.
What this coversHideA rota posted a month ahead with compensatory days, so showroom staff know when they will be off.
Short practice on explaining limits, delays and snag repairs.
What this coversHideShort practice on explaining limits, delays and snag repairs. Customer-service skills fits this.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
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.
Incentives that reward clean delivery and few snags, not only orders closed.
A first fortnight that connects showroom, factory and site.
Practical customer handling for designers, coordinators and installers.
Understanding why showroom designers and fitters leave, and what keeps the good ones.
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 professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
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Hour by hour, then week by week, for a recruit's first month at a module, inverter, pack or junction box line: safety and handling first, a practice bench, a buddy, a sign-off and a day-30 review.
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Measures that show how reactor, console, lab and gantry staff are really doing, the ones that mislead or bury near misses, and a monthly sheet an in-charge can run in twenty minutes.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
A steady base plus a variable part tied to orders is common. Add a smaller part linked to clean delivery and few snags, so they care about what happens after the sale.
Use a checklist, a second check on unusual walls and a sign-off before the order goes to production. Train measurers on common site surprises such as uneven walls.
Pay per job but add a quality factor based on rework. Reward teams that finish well, and share the standard so rushing is not the only way to earn.
Give them the same standard and checklist as employees, assign a supervisor to check the first job and keep notes on who does well. Good freelancers become a bench you can call again.
Enough to spot problems at the showroom: clearances, services, wall conditions. A day on a site early in their joining plan changes how they design and sell.
We would count kitchens reworked for measurement errors, ask designers how snags affect their pay and talk with an installer about what is skipped under pressure. A shared incentive and a measurement sign-off are a natural first job, with scope set out for your approval.
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