A telecom infrastructure firm builds towers, lays fibre and installs equipment for network operators. Rollouts come in waves, crews climb at height in remote places, and the next work order decides who is needed where.
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Share your requirementsA telecom infrastructure firm works for network operators and tower owners. It builds tower foundations and structures, lays optical fibre in trenches or along poles, installs radio equipment and keeps sites running. Orders arrive as rollout waves with a target number of sites by a date, spread over several districts or states. Tower climbers, fibre jointers, civil gangs and survey staff are sent out in small teams, often hired for the wave and released after. Operators set tight timelines and inspect closely. The construction and real estate hub covers the wider sector, and the infrastructure contractors hub covers the neighbouring trades.
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.
A new order needs fifty extra hands in three weeks and the same number leave when the wave ends, so hiring is always in a rush.
A trained climber with a clean record is called by every contractor in the district, and he moves for a small difference in pay.
A three person team may spend a week at remote sites with no senior visit, so habits and shortcuts go unchecked.
Teams drive between districts, often on motorcycles or shared vehicles, and travel claims, fuel and stay are argued after.
If the operator rejects a site for poor workmanship, the team returns, and the delay is felt in both pay and temper.
Billing needs the team and date for each site, but the details sit in a supervisor's phone.
Pay, training and progress for a climber, a jointer and an installer are all handled the same way, and each group notices.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Retention and Attrition Management; HR Strategy and Workforce Planning. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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 telecom infrastructure firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
From each order, estimate the roles and numbers by week, and begin sourcing before the wave opens.
What this coversHideFrom each order, estimate the roles and numbers by week, and begin sourcing before the wave opens. The recruitment process works from this plan.
A list of people who worked well, their skills, certificates and availability, called first when a wave starts.
What this coversHideA list of people who worked well, their skills, certificates and availability, called first when a wave starts.
A simple site log naming team, date, and acceptance result, filled by the team lead and read by the coordinator.
What this coversHideA simple site log naming team, date, and acceptance result, filled by the team lead and read by the coordinator.
What is paid, what is allowed, how long a team may be away and how rest days are taken.
What this coversHideWhat is paid, what is allowed, how long a team may be away and how rest days are taken. Write it once, so it is not argued per trip.
A supervisor or coordinator visits each team on a schedule, and teams know when to expect a review of workmanship and safety.
What this coversHideA supervisor or coordinator visits each team on a schedule, and teams know when to expect a review of workmanship and safety.
A ladder for each trade, with tasks and certificates, and pay that follows.
What this coversHideA ladder for each trade, with tasks and certificates, and pay that follows. See 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.
A wave plan and a bench of climbers and jointers, so a new order meets ready hands.
A look at who leaves between waves and why, and what keeps climbers for the next order.
Joining papers, certificates and site records kept in one order for teams in many districts.
Right-first-time and acceptance measures that reward good workmanship, not only speed.
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 construction and real estate, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Site engineers, supervisors, crews and sales teams leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it between projects.
8 min readRead article
Sources beyond the neighbouring gate for setters, turners, inspectors and leak test hands, plus a one-hour bench trial built from your own rejected parts.
7 min readRead article
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
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Read the order book early, estimate roles per week and start sourcing before the contract starts. Keep a bench of proven hands and call them first. A little planning changes the rush into a routine.
Pay by skill, give steady work between waves where possible and treat their safety seriously. Climbers talk to each other. A reputation for fair dealing travels faster than any advertisement.
Who was on the team, which site, which dates and what the acceptance result was. A short daily message is enough. It supports billing, pay and later review of workmanship.
Set a visit schedule, give team leads a short checklist for work quality and safety, and review accepted and rejected sites with each team. People work better when they know someone will look.
They should not be. The skills, risks and market rates are different. Build a separate ladder for each trade, with tasks and certificates, and set pay beside what the local market offers.
We would ask for your order book for the next two quarters, a count of repeat climbers and jointers across your last two waves and the rejection record for sites. A rollout hiring plan with a bench list is a natural first job, and scope is put in writing.
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