A builder's workforce changes with every project and most of it is not on the payroll. Here is how to run the people side across sites and subcontractors.
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Share your requirementsA builder or general contractor runs projects, each with a site team of engineers, supervisors and storekeepers, plus gangs of skilled and unskilled workers who are mostly engaged through subcontractors. The head office handles tendering, planning, procurement, accounts and a small HR function. Teams form at mobilisation and disperse at completion, and people move between sites with the work. The company is responsible for what happens on its site, including the safety of people it does not employ. Cash flow is tied to certification and client payment, which affects what can be paid and when. See also HR for construction.
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 project needs a full team at the start and gets whoever is available, with authorisation and induction squeezed.
The business cannot say how many people are on site or who employs them without asking each contractor.
Workers expect pay weekly while the contractor is paid after measurement, and a delay in one becomes a stoppage in the other.
When the safety officer is away, nobody else checks, and short briefings are forgotten by day five.
Capable engineers are kept checking others' work for years and leave for a project that gives them responsibility.
As-built drawings, snag lists and warranties leave with the team, and a defect two months later has no owner.
Offer letters, leave rules and attendance methods differ from project to project.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Strategy and Workforce Planning; Employee Administration; Health, Safety and Wellbeing. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
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 builders and general contractors business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Roles and dates by phase, with the lead time for each, so people arrive when needed.
What this coversHideRoles and dates by phase, with the lead time for each, so people arrive when needed. The workforce plan holds it.
Employees, subcontractors' workers and visitors in one list with employer, trade and dates, matched to gate entry.
What this coversHideEmployees, subcontractors' workers and visitors in one list with employer, trade and dates, matched to gate entry. The employee information management holds it.
A written calendar of measurement, certification and wage dates, with a route to pay workers directly if a contractor is late.
What this coversHideA written calendar of measurement, certification and wage dates, with a route to pay workers directly if a contractor is late. The payroll process covers it.
Supervisors and engineers do daily walks, with a repeating briefing and a proper induction for each new gang.
What this coversHideSupervisors and engineers do daily walks, with a repeating briefing and a proper induction for each new gang. The health, safety and wellbeing work builds it.
A section or package to run in the second year, with a mentor.
What this coversHideA section or package to run in the second year, with a mentor.
A demobilisation plan with a named owner for records and a closing review.
What this coversHideA demobilisation plan with a named owner for records and a closing review. The exit and offboarding process holds the steps.
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 plan for mobilisation by phase, so each stage starts with the right people on site.
A site register that covers subcontractors' workers, with certificates and expiry.
Induction, daily checks and a briefing routine that does not depend on one person.
A look at why engineers and supervisors leave, and what a responsibility ladder would change.
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 construction and real estate, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Site engineers, supervisors, crews and sales teams leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it between projects.
8 min readRead article
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead article
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
A laminated notice, an annual drill, and an incident register with three entries in two years. What workplace health and safety looks like when it is real.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Often more than builders assume, particularly for safety and for what happens on the site you control. The position depends on your arrangements, so confirm it with a qualified professional and write the terms into the contract.
Agree payment dates in the contract, track them and have a route to pay workers directly if a contractor is late. Most stoppages follow a delay that could be seen coming.
On the hazards of their area, the permits they need and who supervises them, with a walk of the site, before they start. A single day-one briefing is not enough.
Give them responsibility early, a mentor and a visible next step. Many leave because they are kept in a supporting role.
A planned release of people and equipment, a named owner for drawings, snag lists and warranties, and a closing review.
We would look at how you mobilise a new site, whether you hold one register of everyone working on it including subcontractor gangs, and how wage dates line up with certification. A sensible first piece of work is often a simple site register and mobilisation checklist for your next project. Scope, timing and fees are agreed in writing afterwards, so you know what you are buying before work starts.
Issue a standard site pack of letters, rules, registers and an induction checklist, name one owner for each journey and review each site against the pack after the first month.
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