HR strategy and workforce planning for Solar EPC companies: a plan from one project to the next
A solar EPC company wins projects in lumps and staffs them from a small pool. Planning means knowing, a few months out, which engineers finish where and which site needs them next.
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Share your requirementsWhy HR strategy and workforce planning matters in solar EPC companies
Most EPC companies plan people project by project. A manager asks for two engineers and a supervisor, whoever is free goes, and the next project starts with a scramble. The same capable people end up on every difficult site, while others sit at the office between handovers waiting for an order.
A working plan is simple. It lists every live and expected project with start and handover dates, the roles each needs and the people now on them. Set side by side, it shows gaps and idle weeks early enough to hire, train or tell someone their next posting.
How to set it up
1. List projects and dates
Put every live and likely project in one table with start date, handover date, location and the roles it needs. Keep it on one page, updated monthly.
2. List people against the table
For each engineer and supervisor, note the current project, its end date and what they can do. Mark who can lead a site and who needs support.
3. Mark gaps and idle weeks
Colour the months where a project has no named engineer and where a person has no project. These are your hiring and posting decisions, six to eight weeks ahead.
4. Decide who moves where
Agree postings with project heads, tell people early and write down the reason. Avoid sending the same three managers to every hard site.
5. Review the plan monthly
Sit down with project heads for half an hour. Update dates, add new orders and see whether the recruitment process needs to start for any role.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Count the weeks in the last year when a site engineer was between projects with no posting.
- Ask project heads how many days it took to find a replacement the last time someone left mid-project.
- List the people who have been on the hardest sites more than twice in a row.
- Check whether any engineer learned about their next posting less than two weeks before moving.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach HR strategy and workforce planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
As far as your order book is firm, and no further. Three to six months is usual. Treat anything beyond that as a guess and mark it so, then update each month as orders firm up.
Plan the sure projects fully and list likely ones with a probability in plain words, such as likely or hopeful. Hire for the sure ones and keep a shortlist of people for the likely ones.
One person, usually in the HR or operations office, who talks to every project head. The plan fails when each project manager keeps their own list of people and nobody sees the whole.