A stone processor handles granite, marble, limestone and other stones, each cut, treated and finished differently. The people problem is knowing which stone needs which care, and the gap between factory hands and site fitters.
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Share your requirementsA mixed stone processor works with more than one material. Marble stains and cracks easily, granite is hard on blades, limestone and sandstone absorb water, and each needs its own cutting speed, resin, polish and packing. The factory runs saws, tile lines, edge profilers, polishing heads and sometimes carving or inlay benches. Orders vary from standard tiles to custom stair treads, cladding and kitchen tops. Many firms also send fitting teams to homes and project sites, where installation errors and damage in transit become a people problem. Finishers who know the stones are few. The workforce is a mix of regular hands, piece-rate crews and site labour. See also HR for manufacturing.
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 granite, marble and stone processors. 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 hand good on granite damages marble, and nobody has written the differences down.
Patching and resin work needs a trained eye, and a missing finisher leaves whole orders waiting.
Fitters feel blamed for damage that happened in cutting or crating, and factory hands never see the installed result.
Chipped corners and cracked slabs trace to packing, loading or fitting, and no record settles it.
Site helpers hired per job get thin briefing on lifting, adhesives and customer homes.
Slabs, blades and wet floors cause cuts and strains, and training is passed from hand to hand.
Special sizes and designs slow standard lines, and rates for one-off work are argued daily.
Inlay and carving hands are known in the trade and are offered more by rival workshops.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management; Employee Administration. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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.
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 granite, marble and stone processors business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
One page per stone with blade, speed, resin and handling notes from your best hands, used in induction.
One page per stone with blade, speed, resin and handling notes from your best hands, used in induction.
Grades from patching hand to colour matcher to finishing lead, with pay steps agreed through compensation benchmarking.
Grades from patching hand to colour matcher to finishing lead, with pay steps agreed through compensation benchmarking.
Monthly look at damage, with photographs showing where each fault began, so blame moves to the process.
Monthly look at damage, with photographs showing where each fault began, so blame moves to the process.
A short checklist on lifting, adhesives and customer conduct before each job, and an attendance record via the attendance and leave process.
A short checklist on lifting, adhesives and customer conduct before each job, and an attendance record via the attendance and leave process.
Named authorisation for crane, trolley and A-frame work, with refreshers recorded under health, safety and wellbeing.
Named authorisation for crane, trolley and A-frame work, with refreshers recorded under health, safety and wellbeing.
Agreed hours or rates for special cuts, so one-off jobs do not become daily arguments.
Agreed hours or rates for special cuts, so one-off jobs do not become daily arguments.
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.
Handling, cutting and site safety with training and kit records.
Grades and pay for finishers and craftsmen against similar workshops.
Attendance and cover for factory and site teams alike.
A route from helper to finisher and colour matcher.
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 often struggles 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
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 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.
Photograph slabs at crating and at delivery, record handling steps and review each case with both teams. The aim is to find the stage, not the person.
Give a visible grade, pay that reflects the craft, a say in design work and recognition on finished jobs. Many leave because the craft is not seen.
Use a short checklist, a named supervisor, an attendance record and clear pay. Confirm the engagement terms with a qualified professional.
Yes. Start with the most common stone, sign off, then add others. Each stone should have a written care sheet.
Agree a rate card for common special cuts and a review route for the rest, so crews know what a job will pay before they start.
We would ask who knows each stone best, how site helpers are briefed and how damage disputes are settled. A good first piece of work is a stone care sheet and a finisher ladder. Scope is agreed in writing after we talk.
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