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Electronics and Embedded Systems · Industrial Electronics Makers
HR for Industrial Electronics Makers: Drives, Controllers, Test Benches and Long Product Lives
An industrial electronics maker builds drives, PLC panels, power supplies and instruments that plants run for years. Test technicians and service engineers matter as much as designers, because a failure stops the customer's line.
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Share your requirementsAn industrial electronics maker produces motor drives, programmable controllers, power supplies and instruments for factories and utilities. Volumes are lower than consumer goods, but units must last a decade. Work runs through board assembly, harness wiring, final assembly, burn-in, calibration and functional test, then dispatch with a test certificate. Customers expect service for years, so engineers visit plants and old designs still need repair. The senior test technician who knows how a healthy unit behaves, and the service engineer who can diagnose a drive fault over the phone, are scarce. A quality complaint can mean a stopped plant. See also HR for manufacturing.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in industrial electronics makers, you may see
- The senior tester knows what a healthy unit looks like
- Service engineers work alone in customer plants
- Old designs survive on old hands
- Few units a year means uneven skill
- Field faults reach designers late
- Month-end shipping jams the burn-in racks
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in industrial electronics makers
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.
- Wiring and final assembly technicians
- Functional test and calibration technicians
- Burn-in rack and final inspection staff
- Design and application engineers
- Service and commissioning engineers
- Repair bench technicians
- Stores and production planning staff
- Technical documentation staff
Where HR strains in industrial electronics makers
The senior tester knows what a healthy unit looks like
How a good drive sounds, heats and reads on the bench has never been written for anyone else.
Service engineers work alone in customer plants
They fix faults under pressure on site, and conduct, reports and handover to the factory differ from one engineer to the next.
Old designs survive on old hands
Earlier models and their scarce parts are repaired by a small group who learned them, and their retirement is a risk.
Few units a year means uneven skill
Assembly staff build a given model only a few times annually, so mistakes recur and relearning eats time.
Field faults reach designers late
Failures arrive as a summary weeks later, and service engineers feel the lessons are ignored.
Month-end shipping jams the burn-in racks
Burn-in and test queues swell before dispatch, and technicians work overtime to release units customers are waiting for.
HR topics for industrial electronics makers
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a industrial electronics makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Put test knowledge in a bench guide
Short written and photo guides for each product's test and common faults, written by the senior tester and used to train a second person.
What this coversHide
Put test knowledge in a bench guide
Short written and photo guides for each product's test and common faults, written by the senior tester and used to train a second person.
What this coversHideShort written and photo guides for each product's test and common faults, written by the senior tester and used to train a second person. See learning and development process.
Give service engineers a site visit routine
A brief on conduct, plant safety rules, reporting and handover, with a short debrief after every visit.
What this coversHide
Give service engineers a site visit routine
A brief on conduct, plant safety rules, reporting and handover, with a short debrief after every visit.
What this coversHideA brief on conduct, plant safety rules, reporting and handover, with a short debrief after every visit.
Keep a legacy repair map
A list of old products, who can repair each and which parts are scarce, with a named learner against each.
What this coversHide
Keep a legacy repair map
A list of old products, who can repair each and which parts are scarce, with a named learner against each.
What this coversHideA list of old products, who can repair each and which parts are scarce, with a named learner against each.
Hold a quarterly field-to-design review
Service engineers present repeat faults to designers, with actions logged.
What this coversHide
Hold a quarterly field-to-design review
Service engineers present repeat faults to designers, with actions logged.
What this coversHideService engineers present repeat faults to designers, with actions logged. The hr reporting and analytics work can track the patterns.
Level out the month-end test queue
A weekly release plan agreed with sales, so testing is steady and overtime is planned, not forced.
What this coversHide
Level out the month-end test queue
A weekly release plan agreed with sales, so testing is steady and overtime is planned, not forced.
What this coversHideA weekly release plan agreed with sales, so testing is steady and overtime is planned, not forced. See attendance, shift and leave process.
Start by checking where you stand
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 requirements- Ask your senior test technician what they check that is not on paper.
- List who can repair your oldest product.
- Count last month's service visits and mark those a single engineer made alone.
- Look at the burn-in and test queue for the last three month-ends.
- Ask a designer when they last heard about a field fault.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the factory registration, record-keeping, electrical safety and employment duties that apply to your electronics works.
Confirm 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.
How GullyHR helps
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.
- Learning and development process
Turns bench knowledge into a training path for second and third testers.
- Retention and attrition management
Keeps the senior testers and service engineers who hold rare knowledge.
- Role design and job descriptions
Clear roles for test, service and repair, so each skill has a grade and a path.
- Customer-service skills
Practical training for service engineers who meet customers face to face.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Process
The training calendar nobody attends: fixing the learning and development process
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
HR Management
How to recognise and address employee workload problems
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead article
HR Management
Everyone reports to the founder: when and how to redesign the structure
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.
Questions owners ask
Ask them to write short photo guides, train a second person on real units and count teaching as part of the job, with pay that reflects their worth.
Brief them on conduct and plant safety, ask for a short written report after each visit and review customer feedback. Pair newer engineers with experienced ones first.
List the products and people, name a learner for each and give protected time to practise. Hold spares and drawings in one place.
Plan releases weekly with sales, balance the test queue and agree overtime ahead. A fair written pattern is kinder to people.
Hold a short quarterly review of repeat faults with actions recorded, and send designers to a customer plant at least once a year if possible.
What your senior tester checks that is unwritten, who can repair the oldest product and how the month-end test queue builds. A good opening job is a bench test guide with a second trainee named. Scope is agreed in writing after the first call.
More on HR for manufacturing
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