A maker of pumps, drives and thermal equipment builds machines that move fluids and heat. This page looks at machinists, assemblers, test bench staff and field service teams who must get tight tolerances right.
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Share your requirementsA maker of pumps, drives and thermal equipment such as heat exchangers, boilers, chillers and gearboxes works to tolerances and test results. Castings and plates come in, machinists turn and bore them, fabricators weld shells and tubes, assemblers fit shafts, seals, bearings and impellers, and the test bench checks flow, pressure, temperature or noise before dispatch. Finished units go to water works, factories, buildings and plants, where field service engineers install and repair them. Quality depends on small details: a misaligned shaft or a poorly seated seal comes back as a failure in the field. Orders include standard models and customised units, and test and delivery schedules tighten at quarter ends. Related reading: manufacturing HR. The business relies on careful assemblers, patient testers and field engineers who work alone, so training, records and fair treatment for site work are central.
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 pumps, drives and thermal. 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.
Two assemblers fit the same seal differently, and failures in the field cannot be traced to a hand.
A few trained testers hold up dispatch, and speed pressure at month end leads to skipped checks.
Site breakdowns and installations are handled with no support, long travel and little recognition.
Out-of-tolerance parts are found at assembly, and arguments settle nothing.
Pressure parts depend on weld quality, but skill is judged by reputation and not by test.
Dispatch targets cause overtime and shortcuts followed by a quiet month.
Failed units are repaired but the lesson does not reach the shop floor.
Castings, shells and motors are shifted by hand or aging cranes, and strains are common.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Performance 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.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
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.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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 pumps, drives and thermal business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Torque, alignment and seal fitting steps for each product, with a signed check.
Torque, alignment and seal fitting steps for each product, with a signed check. File them in HR documentation.
Practical tests and grades for testers, welders and assemblers.
Practical tests and grades for testers, welders and assemblers. The learning plan holds it.
Remote help, travel terms and rest after long trips.
Remote help, travel terms and rest after long trips. Details sit in the shift and leave rules.
Receiving checks for machined parts, with a record, so disputes use facts.
Receiving checks for machined parts, with a record, so disputes use facts.
A production plan that avoids quarter-end rushes, with overtime limits agreed in advance.
A production plan that avoids quarter-end rushes, with overtime limits agreed in advance.
A monthly review of returns with the teams that built the units, linked to training.
A monthly review of returns with the teams that built the units, linked to training. See performance management.
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.
Assembly standards and test records on file.
Graded skills for welders, assemblers and testers.
Travel rest and overtime limits.
Quality feedback from warranty returns.
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.
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
A practical design for an IT services appraisal cycle: when to run it, how to rate fairly across projects, and how to explain hikes so they hold.
7 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.
Write the steps and values for each product, train to them and have a second person check key fits.
Train a second tester, schedule tests through the month and keep the test sheet mandatory.
Give them remote help, clear travel terms and rest after trips. Check legal obligations with a qualified professional.
Use a practical test for each type of weld and a periodic re-test. Confirm required certification with a qualified professional.
Spread loading, set overtime rules in advance and protect final checks.
Review returns monthly, group causes and share them with the teams involved.
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