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Industrial Automation and Robotics · SCADA Systems Companies
HR for SCADA Systems Companies: Control Rooms, Software Teams and Plant Commissioning
SCADA companies build the screens, alarms and historians that let operators watch and run a plant. Their engineers split time between software desks and customer control rooms, and duty continues long after go-live.
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Share your requirementsA SCADA company designs supervisory control and data systems for water works, substations, process plants and factories. A job starts with the process and the customer's I/O list. Engineers then build HMI screens, alarm lists, historian tags and reports, link to PLCs and RTUs, and prove the logic on a simulator at factory acceptance. Site acceptance and commissioning happen in the customer's control room, often inside a short plant shutdown. After go-live the system must stay up, so support engineers take calls at night. Process understanding matters as much as coding, and customers lean on the one engineer who knows their plant. Handover documents decide whether the customer can run alone. See also HR for manufacturing.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in SCADA systems companies, you may see
- One engineer holds each plant in their head
- Shutdown windows are short and fixed
- Night support has no fair rule
- Documents wait until after go-live
- Process knowledge is learnt at the customer's expense
- Desk engineers and site engineers pull apart
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 SCADA systems companies
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.
- HMI and SCADA configuration engineers
- Database and historian developers
- PLC, RTU and communications engineers
- Site commissioning engineers
- Remote support and service engineers
- Project managers
- Simulation and FAT test staff
- Documentation and operator training staff
Where HR strains in SCADA systems companies
One engineer holds each plant in their head
Customers ring whoever built their system. When that person quits or takes leave, support falls apart.
Shutdown windows are short and fixed
A plant stoppage gives a narrow slot to cut over. Engineers work long stretches with no room to slip.
Night support has no fair rule
After-hours alarm calls land on the same few people, and rest and thanks are left vague.
Documents wait until after go-live
As-built drawings, tag lists and operator guides are written in a rush once the site team has gone, if at all.
Process knowledge is learnt at the customer's expense
A software engineer new to water or power learns the process by making mistakes on a live plant.
Desk engineers and site engineers pull apart
The desk side wants test time. The site side faces the shutdown date. The gap opens at commissioning.
HR topics for SCADA systems companies
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Employee Administration; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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.
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.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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 SCADA systems companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Name a primary and a backup for each customer
Every live system gets two engineers with shared notes, so support never rests on one person.
What this coversHide
Name a primary and a backup for each customer
Every live system gets two engineers with shared notes, so support never rests on one person.
What this coversHideEvery live system gets two engineers with shared notes, so support never rests on one person. See role design and job descriptions.
Plan commissioning with rest inside it
A schedule that covers handover between engineers, rest between long stretches and a backup for each key task.
What this coversHide
Plan commissioning with rest inside it
A schedule that covers handover between engineers, rest between long stretches and a backup for each key task.
What this coversHideA schedule that covers handover between engineers, rest between long stretches and a backup for each key task. See attendance, shift and leave process.
Set a fair on-call rota
A shared roster for after-hours calls with time off after a night call and clear recognition, with the legal side checked by a qualified professional.
What this coversHide
Set a fair on-call rota
A shared roster for after-hours calls with time off after a night call and clear recognition, with the legal side checked by a qualified professional.
What this coversHideA shared roster for after-hours calls with time off after a night call and clear recognition, with the legal side checked by a qualified professional.
Make the handover pack a project stage
As-built drawings, tag lists and operator guides get an owner and a date ahead of the payment milestone.
What this coversHide
Make the handover pack a project stage
As-built drawings, tag lists and operator guides get an owner and a date ahead of the payment milestone.
What this coversHideAs-built drawings, tag lists and operator guides get an owner and a date ahead of the payment milestone. See HR documentation process.
Teach plant basics to new engineers
A short learning plan on the water, power or process plants you serve, paired with a senior.
What this coversHide
Teach plant basics to new engineers
A short learning plan on the water, power or process plants you serve, paired with a senior.
What this coversHideA short learning plan on the water, power or process plants you serve, paired with a senior. See learning and development 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- List your live customers and the engineer who knows each one best.
- Check how many customers have a named backup engineer.
- Count last month's night and weekend calls and note who took them.
- Look at your last three projects and find when the handover documents were finished.
- Ask a newer engineer which plant processes they find hardest to follow.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, record-keeping and employment duties that apply to your supervisory control and HMI engineering firm.
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.
- Role design and job descriptions
Primary and backup engineer roles with clear duties, so no customer hangs on one person.
- Attendance, shift and leave process
Commissioning and on-call rosters with rest rules built in.
- HR documentation process
Handover and knowledge records written during the project, not after it.
- Learning and development process
Plant-process learning plans for software engineers moving into new industries.
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 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 article
HR Process
One employee, three versions of the record: fixing employee information management
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 article
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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Name a backup for every customer, share notes and let the backup join a visit or two. Review the pairings each quarter.
Build the schedule with rest inside it, name a backup for each key task and agree in advance who decides if a delay is called.
A shared rota, time off after night calls and clear recognition. Check the employment side with a qualified professional.
Treat them as a project stage with a named owner, tied to a milestone. Read a sample before sign-off.
Pair them with a senior, give short lessons on the process and let them shadow a commissioning before they lead one.
We would line up customers against the engineer who knows them, count who has a named backup and see how night calls are shared. A sensible opening job is a primary and backup engineer scheme. We put the scope in writing once we have spoken.
More on HR for manufacturing
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