A wind energy firm builds or runs turbines on hilltops and coastal ridges. Its best people are tower climbers, blade and gearbox specialists and farm managers, who are scarce, mobile and hard to replace once they have a better offer.
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Share your requirementsA wind energy firm may erect turbines, operate and maintain a wind farm, or do both. Foundations, tower sections, nacelles and blades are lifted by cranes and crews that travel from one farm to the next. Once a farm is running, a small team of technicians climbs the towers for service, fault finding and repairs, and a farm manager answers to the owner and the grid operator. Farms sit in windy, remote districts and the work is physical, seasonal and risky. A few specialists carry knowledge of one turbine make, and losing one hurts. See also the renewable energy hub and energy and utilities sector page.
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.
Few people can work safely on a tower and nacelle, and each one is courted by rival firms and turbine makers.
If the person who knows a certain gearbox leaves, repairs wait for someone from the maker, and the farm stands still.
Staff wait for wind to drop, travel long roads and live in rented rooms, and the rhythm suits some families badly.
A hired crew that lifts turbines for four months has no work after the last blade, and skilled hands leave.
Someone may stop being comfortable at height, and without a respectful way to say so, risk grows or a good person quietly quits.
Height, rescue and electrical training sit with different providers, and renewals depend on one diary.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Career and Succession Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for energy and utilities, not in general.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
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.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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 wind energy firms business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Each person's courses, dates and next renewals in one place, reviewed before every mobilisation.
What this coversHideEach person's courses, dates and next renewals in one place, reviewed before every mobilisation. Safety and wellbeing work sets the routine.
For each specialist and farm manager, a named person being prepared.
What this coversHideFor each specialist and farm manager, a named person being prepared. Succession planning sets the pace.
Where people live, how rotation works, what travel and stay support is given.
What this coversHideWhere people live, how rotation works, what travel and stay support is given. See rewards strategy for how this fits pay.
When an erection campaign nears its end, tell crews what the next farm or role will be, or plan a clean parting.
What this coversHideWhen an erection campaign nears its end, tell crews what the next farm or role will be, or plan a clean parting.
Keep one file per person that follows them from farm to farm, with training, postings and incidents.
What this coversHideKeep one file per person that follows them from farm to farm, with training, postings and incidents. Employee information practice helps.
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.
Tower safety routines, certificate tracking and welfare for people working at height in remote places.
Named successors and development plans for specialists and farm managers.
Allowance, retention reward and grade structures that fit remote and campaign work.
One employee file that follows technicians from farm to farm.
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 energy and utilities, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Engineers, technicians and operators leave energy and utilities firms for reasons that differ by project and plant. How to listen, ask better questions and act.
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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.
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A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
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How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Pay against comparable firms, plan their next posting, give a visible grade step and treat their safety concerns as serious. They leave when they feel disposable, not only for money.
Hold a private, respectful talk and offer another role, such as ground control, training or farm support. A way out that keeps dignity prevents hidden risk and keeps their knowledge.
Share the next steps early: transfers to the next farm, a move into maintenance, or a planned release. Silence makes crews look for work elsewhere before the last blade is up.
Yes for scarce roles. A named person in preparation, even if only partly ready, is far better than a search after someone resigns. Keep it simple and review twice a year.
Give clear authority, a regional peer to speak to, relief during leave and a development route. Their isolation and heavy responsibility are the usual reasons they move.
First we would list your climbers and specialists with certificate dates, name the people a farm cannot do without and ask technicians about postings. A certificate register with named successors is a natural first job, and scope goes into writing for your sign-off.
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