A diagnostic equipment maker builds analysers, imaging parts, glucose meters or test readers on electronics benches, calibrates each unit and supports it in labs. Calibration skill and engineers' notes are hard to replace.
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Share your requirementsA diagnostic equipment maker builds devices that measure or read samples, such as blood analysers, glucometers, ECG machines, ultrasound parts, test readers and lab instruments. Electronic boards, optics, pumps and housings are assembled, wired, loaded with software, calibrated against reference samples and tested before dispatch. Many units also sell reagents or consumables and send engineers to labs and hospitals to install and service machines. Calibration is done by a few technicians who know how each model drifts. Product design, firmware and service knowledge are often held by two or three people, and a small team cannot easily cover when one is away or leaves. See also HR for pharmaceuticals and life sciences.
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 calibration technician who knows how each model drifts, and which reference to trust, can take months of unwritten knowledge out of the door.
One or two engineers know why a setting exists, so a field problem waits when they are on leave or have left.
Engineers explain results and settings to lab staff without backup, and a casual wrong answer reaches patient care.
Fine-pitch soldering on boards is a skill, and a poor joint shows up as an intermittent fault weeks later at a customer's lab.
Installations bunch around new lab launches and procurement cycles, and engineers travel back to back with little rest.
Stocks with temperature and expiry needs are handled by whoever is free, and mix-ups or lapses are found when a customer complains.
Few people have both electronics and lab-instrument experience, so hiring is slow and good ones are approached by larger firms.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Career and Succession Management; Learning and Development; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for pharmaceuticals and life sciences, not in general.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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 diagnostic equipment makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
The technician records the drift pattern, reference used and checks, in his own words, then a second technician repeats a unit with the note.
What this coversHideThe technician records the drift pattern, reference used and checks, in his own words, then a second technician repeats a unit with the note. See role design and job descriptions for roles around it.
A second person shadows firmware and calibration work on a set rhythm, so a gap does not stop a release.
What this coversHideA second person shadows firmware and calibration work on a set rhythm, so a gap does not stop a release. The succession planning approach applies.
A short checklist covering what an engineer may say about results and settings, and who to call.
What this coversHideA short checklist covering what an engineer may say about results and settings, and who to call. See learning and development process.
A practical test on sample boards and a graded list of who can do fine-pitch rework.
What this coversHideA practical test on sample boards and a graded list of who can do fine-pitch rework. The performance management work can add rework counts.
A shared calendar of lab launches and engineer travel so people are not on the road non-stop.
What this coversHideA shared calendar of lab launches and engineer travel so people are not on the road non-stop. See attendance, shift and leave 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.
Named backups for the few people who hold calibration and firmware knowledge.
A clear map of who owns assembly, calibration, testing and field work.
Sign-offs for service engineers and a grading path for technicians.
A way to find electronics and instrument people from a small talent pool.
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 pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why people leave pharma and life sciences roles, and how to ask about qualification, shifts, territory and quality culture in an exit conversation.
7 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
A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
7 min readRead article
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.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Have the technician write notes for each model, pair a second person on real calibrations and recognise the skill with a grade and pay. Do this before there is any sign of leaving.
Rotate work, document decisions as they are made and let a junior shadow each critical engineer. Reward sharing instead of holding knowledge.
Agree a short list of what an engineer may explain and what must go to the design team, and give them a contact for questions they cannot answer.
Use a practical test on sample boards, check rework and return rates by person and give the best a grade and the job of training others.
Look in nearby electronics units, diploma and engineering colleges and service engineers from dealers. A written role and skills list helps you screen quickly.
We would ask who alone holds calibration and firmware knowledge, list possible backups and look at recent field calls done alone. A practical first project is a documented backup plan for critical engineers with a service sign-off. Scope is agreed in writing before work starts.
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