A 5-axis shop cuts impellers, blisks and implant parts where one crash scraps days of work and costly billet. Two or three programmers and setters carry the shop.
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Share your requirementsA 5-axis shop machines complex shapes in one or two set-ups on machines that tilt and rotate the part while the tool cuts. Typical work is impellers, turbine blades, pump housings, orthopaedic parts, mould inserts and aerospace brackets in titanium, Inconel or tool steel. The CAM programmer builds the toolpath, simulation catches collisions, and a slow proving run on the first piece confirms it. One bad cut can destroy a billet that took days to reach that stage. The know-how sits with a lead programmer, a senior setter and a CMM inspector. Batches are small and costly, and buyers want a record of how each part was made. The wider manufacturing picture applies too.
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 5-axis machining shops. 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.
The shop may hang on two programmers, and the proving runs that make them valuable also make them hard to replace.
A crash or a wrong work offset eats material, spindle time and a delivery date, so careful operators turn timid and slow.
A new setter needs long supervised hours on live jobs, and the senior who teaches loses their own output.
A toolpath that looks neat on screen is awkward to run, and the setter's remarks never reach the programmer.
Aerospace and medical firms chase the same handful of people, and an offer can arrive through a former colleague.
Jobs are few, long and different each time, so bonuses must rest on quality and delivery, not parts counted.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Retention and Attrition Management; Career and Succession Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
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.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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 5-axis machining shops business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Three-axis machinist, supervised 5-axis operator, independent programmer, each step proved by a witnessed first-off.
Three-axis machinist, supervised 5-axis operator, independent programmer, each step proved by a witnessed first-off. Attach pay through compensation benchmarking.
Programmer, setter and inspector meet for ten minutes and file notes in the job folder.
Programmer, setter and inspector meet for ten minutes and file notes in the job folder. Performance management offers a light format.
A fixed skill list, simulation hours, supervised runs and a sign-off, with the senior credited for teaching.
A fixed skill list, simulation hours, supervised runs and a sign-off, with the senior credited for teaching. A learning and development plan holds it together.
Hold a stay conversation, compare pay with firms that bid for them and agree ownership of named parts.
Hold a stay conversation, compare pay with firms that bid for them and agree ownership of named parts. See employee retention.
A bonus pool for the cell that pays out on on-time parts with no scrap, never on spindle hours logged.
A bonus pool for the cell that pays out on on-time parts with no scrap, never on spindle hours logged.
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.
Stay conversations and a plan for the few people the cell cannot lose.
A named understudy for each programmer and setter, with a plan to grow them.
Checks programmer and setter pay against the firms bidding for the same people.
A signed-off path from three-axis work to independent 5-axis programming.
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
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
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 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.
Learn what each values, pay fairly, give them ownership of parts and show a growth path. Talk before an offer lands; a counter-offer afterwards rarely works.
Expect long supervised time on real jobs. Write the steps in advance and review progress each month so nobody guesses.
Yes, if they rest on delivery, right-first-time and customer feedback for the cell, not on piece counts. Keep the rule written and short.
Review each new job and file the notes with the program. Put a second person alongside on live work, and credit the senior for teaching.
Both. The setter owns the run, the programmer owns the toolpath. A no-blame joint review of every error builds trust.
We would list who can program and prove complex parts, plan stay conversations for them and look at how new setters learn. A good first job is a skill ladder with a retention plan. Once we have spoken, scope goes down in writing.
All 9 business types in CNC machining and precision engineering · 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.
