A structural consultancy sells engineers' judgement on foundations, frames and slabs, drawn up and checked before a builder pours concrete. A thin bench of design engineers and checkers carries the firm, and a rushed check is the costliest mistake it can make.
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Share your requirementsA structural consultancy designs the load-bearing parts of buildings and other structures for architects, developers and owners. Work moves from architect's drawings to analysis models, calculations, drawings and schedules, then to checking by a second engineer, issue to the builder and visits to site. Each job has a drawing issue date set by the client's construction programme. The firm may be a handful of people around a senior engineer or a few dozen with several project leaders. Juniors learn by having their work reviewed, so a senior engineer's time is the real limit on growth. The wider professional services hub covers what firms of this kind share.
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.
Every set of drawings waits for a senior to review it, and when that person is stretched, checks shrink or issue dates slip.
Graduates learn from marked-up drawings and discussion, and a busy firm lets the review lapse until the same mistakes repeat.
A pour date fixes the drawing deadline, so design time is squeezed whatever the complexity of the job.
A visit for a pour or a query takes half a day, and the desk work behind it waits, with travel never counted in the plan.
A change in the architectural layout reaches the structural team after calculations are done, and redo hours are neither planned nor paid.
Experienced design engineers get offers from bigger consultancies and developers, and the small firm cannot match titles.
One person runs the analysis model faster, another spots the problem in a sketch, and the firm values only one of them.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Learning and Development; Career and Succession Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
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.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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 structural consultants business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Graduate, design engineer, senior and principal, each with the jobs they can sign off and the checks they can perform.
What this coversHideGraduate, design engineer, senior and principal, each with the jobs they can sign off and the checks they can perform. See role design.
A named checker and set hours on the project plan before drawings are due, not squeezed in at the end.
What this coversHideA named checker and set hours on the project plan before drawings are due, not squeezed in at the end.
A fixed weekly slot where a senior goes through marked-up work with graduates, kept even in busy weeks.
What this coversHideA fixed weekly slot where a senior goes through marked-up work with graduates, kept even in busy weeks.
Visit days and travel time added to the project plan and the engineer's calendar, so desk work is moved and not doubled.
What this coversHideVisit days and travel time added to the project plan and the engineer's calendar, so desk work is moved and not doubled.
A simple record of each late change, the hours it took and who requested it, which supports talks with clients on fees.
What this coversHideA simple record of each late change, the hours it took and who requested it, which supports talks with clients on fees.
A yearly talk on growth, partnership prospects and workload for each experienced engineer, with notes followed up.
What this coversHideA yearly talk on growth, partnership prospects and workload for each experienced engineer, with notes followed up.
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.
A clear ladder from graduate to principal with sign-off limits for each grade.
Reviews that include checking quality, mentoring and site work.
A plan for the day a principal steps back or a senior engineer leaves.
A first six months for graduates that builds in review and early site exposure.
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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A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
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Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
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A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Put a named checker and fixed hours in the project plan from the start, and make clear to clients that issue dates depend on it. A squeezed check is the riskiest saving a design firm can make.
Give them real parts of live jobs, review their work often with a senior and let them go to site early. A written first-year path keeps seniors from leaving it to chance.
Offer real responsibility, a path toward leading projects or part ownership if you intend it, and honest talk on workload. Titles matter less than being trusted with the work.
Record each change, the hours it cost and who asked for it. Share that record with the client and use it when agreeing fees on the next job.
Hours matter for the firm, but not alone. Include checking quality, mentoring and judgement, or you will reward the fastest drawer over the safest engineer.
First we would ask your principal how checking works today, count recent jobs where it was rushed and see when each graduate was last reviewed. An engineer ladder with fixed review sessions is a natural first piece, and scope goes into writing for your approval.
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