A granite processor cuts blocks into slabs, polishes them and trims them to size. The people problem is gang saw and polishing line crews, dust and slurry on the floor, and heavy handling with cranes and trolleys.
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Share your requirementsA granite processing unit buys blocks from quarries and turns them into slabs and cut-to-size pieces. A crane lifts the block onto a gang saw or a wire or diamond blade saw. The slabs are resined, polished on a line of heads, checked for flaws and cut to size on a bridge cutter. Output goes to exporters, builders and fabricators who want consistent colour and finish. The floor is wet and noisy, dust and slurry are constant and blocks and slabs are very heavy. Skilled hands read grain and flaw and decide how to cut. Many workers are migrants who travel with the work. 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 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 senior hand who reads flaw and grain saves the firm real money, yet there is no record of how they decide.
Slabs and blocks move by crane and A-frame trolley, and one slip can injure several people.
Wet floors, fine dust and noise cause complaints, and masks and ear protection are used unevenly.
Poor setting leaves swirl marks, and the fix depends on who is on the line that shift.
Workers travel home for harvest and festival and often do not return, leaving crews short mid-order.
A slab accepted by one grader is rejected by the export buyer, and no common samples exist.
Pay by area polished or cut can tempt hands to hurry, and breakage lands on whoever touched it last.
When a slab cracks in transit, the chain of hands is unclear and disputes follow.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Retention and Attrition Management; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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.
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.
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 processors business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Photographs and notes from the senior hand on flaw, vein and grain, used to train a successor.
Photographs and notes from the senior hand on flaw, vein and grain, used to train a successor.
A named list of people trained and authorised for crane and trolley work, with a short refresher each year.
A named list of people trained and authorised for crane and trolley work, with a short refresher each year.
Issue, fit-check and replace masks and ear protection on a schedule, and keep a log in line with health, safety and wellbeing.
Issue, fit-check and replace masks and ear protection on a schedule, and keep a log in line with health, safety and wellbeing.
A staffing plan that notes the usual exits, keeps a small pool of trained hands and fixes return dates in the attendance and leave process.
A staffing plan that notes the usual exits, keeps a small pool of trained hands and fixes return dates in the attendance and leave process.
A board of accepted and rejected slabs at the end of each line, reviewed with the graders every week.
A board of accepted and rejected slabs at the end of each line, reviewed with the graders every week.
Pay part of the rate on slabs passed at grading, as discussed in compensation benchmarking.
Pay part of the rate on slabs passed at grading, as discussed in compensation benchmarking.
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.
Lifting, dust, noise and slurry routines with training and kit records.
Leave, return dates and cover for migrant and seasonal crews.
Piece-rate and grade design that rewards care as well as output.
A route to build block readers and polishing line leads.
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 shift, weekly and monthly safety routine for rubber plants that names who checks platen guards, mill trip bars, autoclave doors, burst-test cages and slings, and who acts on near misses.
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 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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Agree return dates before they leave, keep advances and dues clear, give housing or transport help where you can and recognise length of service. Confirm advance and deduction practice with a qualified professional.
Pair them with the senior hand on live blocks, photograph decisions and compare yield afterwards. It takes months, so start early.
Who is authorised, when they were trained, inspection of slings and chains and any incident. Ask a qualified professional which certificates apply to your equipment.
Keep a shared sample board, agree what passes and review rejects each week. Buyers' feedback should reach the graders directly.
It can be, if part of the rate depends on slabs passing grading. Speed alone raises breakage and swirl marks.
We would ask who reads blocks and decides cuts, who is authorised for lifts and when migrant hands usually leave. A good first piece of work is a lifting authorisation list and a block reading guide. Scope is agreed in writing after we talk.
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