A concrete block maker runs a vibration-press machine, cures green blocks on pallets in a yard and loads builders' trucks. The pressure points are loader counts, rain days and the operator who sets every block's density.
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Share your requirementsCement, sand and aggregate are batched, mixed and dropped into the block machine, which vibrates and presses blocks onto steel or wooden pallets. The green blocks wait in the curing yard, then are stacked, counted and loaded onto trucks for builders and contractors. A few operators run the plant while many yard and loading hands move the product. The machine operator sets the feed, vibration time and head height, and a bad setting gives crumbling or uneven blocks that surface only at the building site. Loaders are often paid per thousand, so the count becomes the argument. Rain halts curing and dispatch, yet builders still ring for blocks the same day. See also HR for construction and real estate.
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.
Feed, vibration time and head height rest with a single person, and one careless shift fills the yard with blocks nobody will buy.
Loaders, drivers and the office each hold a different number for pallets, breakages and loads, and no paper settles it.
Chipped corners and rough stacking go up when crews chase the count, and the plant absorbs the broken blocks.
Wet weather stops curing and dispatch, so people sit one day and then load twice the usual number of trucks the next.
Stackers and loaders take better daily rates nearby, so lifting and truck-loading safety must be taught again and again.
Drivers, loaders and builders' men wait in line, and the irritation turns into shouting matches and absent crews.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Employee Administration. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
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.
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 concrete block makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A start-of-day setting check, a first-block test and a second person who can run the press.
What this coversHideA start-of-day setting check, a first-block test and a second person who can run the press. Capture it in role design and job descriptions.
Count, chipped blocks and names, signed by loader and driver, then totalled weekly.
What this coversHideCount, chipped blocks and names, signed by loader and driver, then totalled weekly. The HR reporting and analytics work can summarise the slips.
Pay the thousand-rate on sound blocks only, with breakage shown openly and shared by a fixed rule.
What this coversHidePay the thousand-rate on sound blocks only, with breakage shown openly and shared by a fixed rule. See performance management and incentive design.
A list of jobs for rain days such as pallet repair and yard clearing, a written pay rule and a phone message for the crew.
What this coversHideA list of jobs for rain days such as pallet repair and yard clearing, a written pay rule and a phone message for the crew. The attendance, shift and leave process can hold it.
Pallet lifting, truck reversing signals and stacking height covered before the first load.
What this coversHidePallet lifting, truck reversing signals and stacking height covered before the first load. See employee onboarding process.
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.
Written duties for the press operator, backup operator and loading lead.
Truck and crew counts on paper, so daily rows become weekly facts.
A loading rate that pays on sound blocks and shares chipping fairly.
A proper first-day induction for casual yard and loading hands.
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
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Use one slip per truck, signed by loader and driver, then go through the totals with the crew each week. A shared paper record usually removes the daily row.
Pay only on sound blocks, show crews how to stack and load, and spot-check loads. Share each week's chipped count with the people who loaded.
Run a setting and first-block check every morning, train a second operator and sit down with the operator over rejects as they occur.
Agree the pay rule and a list of useful jobs beforehand, and tell the crew by phone early. Check the pay rule against employment law with a qualified professional.
Pay on the due date, reward careful loaders with a grade or allowance, and show the route to stacker lead. People leave when they see no step upward.
We would read the last ten truck slips, ask who could run the press if the operator were away, and see which loading crews break the most blocks. A signed slip and a loading rate with a breakage share would likely come first, with scope written down after a first conversation.
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