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Why manufacturing employees leave and how to understand why
Operators, technicians and supervisors leave for reasons that sit in shifts, skills and supervision. How to ask, read the pattern by shift and act on it.
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Industrial Automation and Robotics · PLC Panel Builders
HR for PLC Panel Builders: Wiring, Testing, Drawings and Commissioning Visits
PLC panel builders assemble control panels to customer drawings, wire them, test them and often commission them on site. The wiring bench and the commissioning engineer are where the quality and the delays come from.
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Share your requirementsA PLC panel builder makes control panels for machines and plants. A job starts with a customer's electrical drawing or the firm's own design, then enclosures are cut and drilled, components are mounted, and wiring is done to the drawing, ferruled and tested. Programming of PLCs, drives and operator screens is done by engineers, and many firms also send people to commission the panel on site. Each job is different, so there is little repetition and a lot of reading drawings. A wiring technician who works neatly and traces faults quickly is valuable. Work arrives in lumps tied to customers' machine deadlines, and site visits mean travel and long days. Engineers who commission are also the ones customers phone for faults. See also HR for manufacturing.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in PLC panel builders, you may see
- Neat wiring is a skill that takes time to build
- Drawing changes arrive late
- Testing is squeezed at the end
- Commissioning engineers carry too much
- Work comes in lumps
- Helpers learn by watching
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 PLC panel builders
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.
- Panel wiring technicians
- Mounting and fabrication helpers
- Electrical designers and draftspeople
- PLC and drive programmers
- Testing and checking technicians
- Site commissioning engineers
- Stores and purchase staff
- Project coordinators
Where HR strains in PLC panel builders
Neat wiring is a skill that takes time to build
A technician who wires neatly and reads a drawing well works faster and leaves fewer faults, but cannot be hired off the shelf.
Drawing changes arrive late
A customer revises a drawing after wiring has started, and unrecorded changes lead to errors at testing or on site.
Testing is squeezed at the end
When delivery is close, testing time is cut, and faults are found by the customer instead of the bench.
Commissioning engineers carry too much
The same engineer designs, programs, travels and takes fault calls, and burnout or resignation leaves a project stranded.
Work comes in lumps
A rush of orders stretches the bench, followed by a quiet spell, and both extremes strain people.
Helpers learn by watching
Helpers pick up habits on the bench, good or bad, and there is no set path from helper to technician.
HR topics for PLC panel builders
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
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 PLC panel builders business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Grade wiring technicians by what they can build and test
A ladder from helper to senior technician with panel types, drawing reading and fault tracing at each step.
What this coversHide
Grade wiring technicians by what they can build and test
A ladder from helper to senior technician with panel types, drawing reading and fault tracing at each step.
What this coversHideA ladder from helper to senior technician with panel types, drawing reading and fault tracing at each step. See compensation benchmarking.
Log every drawing revision on the job
One sheet per job showing revisions, who was told and which wires changed, signed before work continues.
What this coversHide
Log every drawing revision on the job
One sheet per job showing revisions, who was told and which wires changed, signed before work continues.
What this coversHideOne sheet per job showing revisions, who was told and which wires changed, signed before work continues.
Protect testing time in the project plan
A fixed testing stage in each job that cannot be shortened without the project coordinator and owner agreeing in writing.
What this coversHide
Protect testing time in the project plan
A fixed testing stage in each job that cannot be shortened without the project coordinator and owner agreeing in writing.
What this coversHideA fixed testing stage in each job that cannot be shortened without the project coordinator and owner agreeing in writing.
Share commissioning load across engineers
A roster for site visits and fault calls, with a second engineer named on each project.
What this coversHide
Share commissioning load across engineers
A roster for site visits and fault calls, with a second engineer named on each project.
What this coversHideA roster for site visits and fault calls, with a second engineer named on each project. The attendance and shift process can help cover travel and time off.
Make a helper path with set stages
A programme from mounting and ferruling to wiring and then testing, with a senior reviewing each stage.
What this coversHide
Make a helper path with set stages
A programme from mounting and ferruling to wiring and then testing, with a senior reviewing each stage.
What this coversHideA programme from mounting and ferruling to wiring and then testing, with a senior reviewing each stage. 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 wiring technicians and mark who can trace a fault without help.
- Look at the last three jobs and count drawing revisions after wiring started.
- Check how many jobs had testing time cut in the last quarter.
- Ask your commissioning engineers how many site visits and fault calls each had last month.
- Find out how long your last helper took to become a wiring technician.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the registration, record-keeping and employment obligations that apply to your PLC panel building business.
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.
- Compensation benchmarking
Technician and engineer grades with pay steps tied to what each person can build, test or commission.
- Learning and development process
A planned path from helper to wiring technician and from technician to engineer.
- Attendance, shift and leave process
Rosters for site visits, fault calls and time off around project peaks.
- Role design and job descriptions
Clear duties for designers, programmers and commissioning engineers so one person does not carry everything.
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 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 article
HR Management
Salary bands for SMEs: building grades when you have never had any
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 min readRead article
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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Recognise skill with a grade and pay step, give them clean, well-planned work and show a path to senior or testing roles. Technicians leave when the work is chaotic and unrecognised.
Record each revision on a job sheet, brief everyone on the bench and remove the old drawing. A short check before wiring resumes catches most mistakes.
It is the last stage, so delays flow into it. Fix a testing window in the plan and agree changes to it in writing so it is a decision, not a squeeze.
Share fault calls and site visits on a roster, name a backup on each project and give time off after long site trips.
Plan a small bench of part-time or returning technicians for peaks, and use quiet periods for training and cross-skilling.
We would ask who can trace faults unaided, look at drawing revisions on recent jobs and see how site visits are shared. A good first piece of work is a technician grading scheme and a revision log. Scope is agreed in writing afterwards.
More on HR for manufacturing
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