A medical device maker builds instruments, monitors, implants or diagnostic kits where precision and traceability decide trust. Engineers, assemblers and service staff must follow strict records. This page covers how to staff and retain them.
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Share your requirementsA medical device manufacturer makes equipment used on or for patients, such as monitors, diagnostic analysers, surgical instruments, orthopaedic implants, infusion pumps or test kits. A typical unit has a design and development team, a machining or moulding section, precision assembly benches, electronics and calibration areas, a quality and regulatory team, stores with traceable lots, and service engineers who install and maintain devices in hospitals. Production runs are smaller and more controlled than in general engineering, and every step leaves a record. People come from varied backgrounds: mechanical, electronics, biomedical and clinical. The HR challenge is to hire scarce technical staff, train them to a documented standard, keep quality people independent and look after service engineers who work in hospitals. For the wider sector, see 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 medical device manufacturers. 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 missing signature or an unrecorded rework can sink an audit or a recall. Staff used to speed find paperwork tiresome.
Design, regulatory and biomedical engineers have options. A rival or a start-up can draw them away mid-project.
It takes months to reach consistent quality. High turnover wastes that time and raises rejection.
When the founder pushes a shipment, a quality executive may feel unable to hold it. Without clear authority, standards erode.
They are called at odd hours into theatres and wards, and carry the brand's reputation. Allowances, safety and rest are rarely planned.
Assemblers learn from neighbours. When an audit asks for competence evidence, there is no matrix and no sign-offs.
Clinical specialists, engineers and sales do not share a language. Handoffs on complaints and feedback are lost.
A product complaint can point to a training or conduct gap. HR hears about it only after a customer escalation.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance. 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.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
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.
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 medical device manufacturers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A table of tasks against people, showing who is trained, signed off and due for refresher.
A table of tasks against people, showing who is trained, signed off and due for refresher. See learning and development.
Written duties for assemblers, inspectors and quality heads, including who may hold or release a lot.
Written duties for assemblers, inspectors and quality heads, including who may hold or release a lot. The HR documentation process shows how to keep them.
Pay review, project ownership, learning budget and a clear technical ladder, so skilled staff stay through a product cycle.
Pay review, project ownership, learning budget and a clear technical ladder, so skilled staff stay through a product cycle. See compensation benchmarking.
On-call rules, travel, stay, allowances, hospital conduct and rest after night calls, written once.
On-call rules, travel, stay, allowances, hospital conduct and rest after night calls, written once.
A first-week plan that covers cleanliness, record habits and who to ask.
A first-week plan that covers cleanliness, record habits and who to ask. See employee onboarding.
When a complaint is closed, note whether training or supervision was a factor and update the matrix.
When a complaint is closed, note whether training or supervision was a factor and update the matrix.
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 competence matrix and task sign-offs that stand up at audit.
Role, authority and training records filed so they can be retrieved fast.
A first-week plan for hygiene, records and safe working.
A pay and ladder structure that keeps scarce engineers.
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.
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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.
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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.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Offer project ownership, a technical ladder, fair pay and a visible learning plan. Involve them in decisions about product roadmap.
Use short documented modules, buddy supervision and written sign-offs. Retest after a break or product change.
Give them written authority, report them to someone senior outside production and back them when a lot is held.
A fair on-call and travel policy, rest after long nights, hospital conduct training and a point of contact at base.
In some steps, yes, with training and records. Critical steps need accountability. Confirm contract labour duties with a qualified professional.
We would start with the competence matrix and quality authority: who is trained for what and who may hold a lot. A modest first task is a matrix plus role sheets. Scope is then confirmed in writing before anything begins.
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