Robotic systems integrators build robot cells that weld, palletise, tend machines or assemble on a customer's line. Skills are rare, trials run long and the real test comes when the customer's operators take over.
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Share your requirementsA robotic systems integrator designs and builds robot cells: robot arms with grippers, fixtures, safety fencing, conveyors and a PLC or robot controller, fitted to a customer's task such as welding, palletising, machine tending or assembly. A project runs from layout and concept through mechanical build, electrical work, programming, factory acceptance trials in the integrator's own shop, then installation and ramp-up at the customer's plant. Robot programmers, mechanical designers, controls engineers and fitters work together, and the programmer ends up the one person who knows the cell best. Skills on a given robot brand are scarce, and engineers who gain them get poached. After handover the customer's operators must run and maintain the cell, so training them is part of the job. The wider manufacturing hub covers what plants share.
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 robotic systems integrators. 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 programmer fluent in one robot brand and one process is costly to replace and easy for another firm to attract.
A cell that misses cycle time at factory acceptance needs more trial runs, and the same engineers stay late while other jobs wait.
The customer's team needs training to run and clear faults on the cell, and when it is rushed the integrator gets called back again and again.
Build and design staff work to different habits, and mixed signals cause rework in the shop.
Guarding, interlocks and lock-out knowledge sits with a handful, and the rest learn by watching.
A few large contracts drive the year, so teams are over-stretched during build and idle between orders.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management; Health, Safety and Wellbeing. 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.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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 robotic systems integrators business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A pack per cell with program notes, set-ups and fault tips, kept by the programmer and reviewed by a second person.
A pack per cell with program notes, set-ups and fault tips, kept by the programmer and reviewed by a second person. See written process records.
A second engineer who sits in on trials, so knowledge is shared and cover exists when the lead is away.
A second engineer who sits in on trials, so knowledge is shared and cover exists when the lead is away.
A training plan agreed with the customer when the order is signed, with time, trainers and a short skill check before handover.
A training plan agreed with the customer when the order is signed, with time, trainers and a short skill check before handover. See training plans.
A short induction on guarding, lock-out and safe entry, with sign-off for anyone who works inside a cell.
A short induction on guarding, lock-out and safe entry, with sign-off for anyone who works inside a cell. See the safety work.
Pay review, a growth path and a voice in project choice for programmers and controls engineers.
Pay review, a growth path and a voice in project choice for programmers and controls engineers. See pay benchmarks.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
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.
Planning and building customer operator training, so handover is not followed by endless call-backs.
An induction and habits for safe work around robot cells.
Pay and growth bands for programmers and controls engineers you cannot afford to lose.
Written handover packs and role records so knowledge does not live in one head.
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 can struggle 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
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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Pay fairly against local offers, give them a voice in project choice and a growth path, and share knowledge so they are not stuck on every call.
Agree it when the order is placed, set time and trainers, and test a few operators before handover. Add a basic fault guide.
Plan trial time with a margin, add a second engineer and track where trials slip so the next quote is realistic.
Everyone who enters or works near a cell. A short induction with sign-off, repeated when the cell type changes, is a sound start.
Use quiet spells for training and documentation, and keep a small bench of freelance or part-time engineers for peaks.
We would ask which programmers hold brand skills nobody else has, see how handover training is planned and check who understands cell safety. A handover training plan and a second-programmer rule suit a first job, and we would write the scope down for your approval.
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