A BIM consultancy builds digital models of buildings and checks them for clashes before work starts on site. Its people are trained modellers working to client deadlines. This is how to hire, grow and keep them.
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Share your requirementsA building information modelling consultancy produces three-dimensional models of architecture, structure and services for builders, developers and design firms. Teams are made of modellers for each discipline, coordinators who merge models and find clashes, and a lead who deals with the client. Work arrives as projects with fixed submission dates, so hours stretch near deadlines. Many staff are young engineers and diploma holders trained on a few software tools, and software changes quickly. Some work is for clients abroad, which means odd working hours. Skill is hard to see from a certificate, and quality depends on discipline in naming, file sharing and review. For the wider sector, read HR for the construction industry.
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 BIM consultants. 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.
A modeller with software training cannot handle a complex family or clash set, and this appears only after hiring.
Submission dates push people to long nights, and the next week brings fatigue and leave requests.
Training is left to individuals, and teams use different methods on the same project.
A single coordinator merges models for several projects and misses clashes.
Calls with overseas clients run late, and staff feel on duty always.
Without a checklist, review comments differ by reviewer.
They learn the tools and then move to larger firms or abroad.
Rework is done without extra time, and the team absorbs it.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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.
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 BIM consultants business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A short, paid or timed modelling and clash exercise at interview, with a scoring sheet.
A short, paid or timed modelling and clash exercise at interview, with a scoring sheet. See recruitment support.
A resource plan with cover, comp-off or rest rules after deadline sprints, linked to attendance and shift rules.
A resource plan with cover, comp-off or rest rules after deadline sprints, linked to attendance and shift rules.
Monthly sessions on tools and standards, with recorded notes, under learning and development.
Monthly sessions on tools and standards, with recorded notes, under learning and development.
A second coordinator trained per discipline and a standard clash report format.
A second coordinator trained per discipline and a standard clash report format.
Naming, levels, families and file sharing, used for every review and handover.
Naming, levels, families and file sharing, used for every review and handover.
Modeller, senior modeller, coordinator and BIM manager, with skills at each rung.
Modeller, senior modeller, coordinator and BIM manager, with skills at each rung. Compensation benchmarking shows the pay market.
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.
Practical tests that show real modelling skill before the offer.
A software learning plan so the team works to one standard.
Rest and comp-off rules after deadline sprints and overseas calls.
Pay and ladders that make modellers stay beyond two years.
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
How a D2C founder can test a performance marketing hire on real work, ignore weak signals such as dashboard screenshots, and run a fair process.
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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Give a small timed task using your tools and score model structure, accuracy and clash handling. A certificate is a starting point only.
Plan resources early, set a limit on consecutive late days and give rest after a sprint. Confirm legal hour limits with a qualified professional.
Show a path to coordinator or manager roles, support learning and pay fairly for scarce skill.
Record changes in writing, price the rework and tell the team what has changed and why.
Use a roster, limit late calls per person and give time off in return.
We would look at the hiring test, sprint planning and the career path. Scope, timing and fees are written down so you know what you are buying.
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