A mounting structure maker cuts, punches, welds and coats steel or aluminium frames for rooftop and ground-mount solar. Work comes in project lots with fixed dispatch dates, and welders and fabricators are hard to find and keep.
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Share your requirementsA mounting structure maker turns steel sections, sheet or aluminium profiles into rails, purlins, legs and brackets for solar plants. The shop cuts, punches, bends and welds, then sends parts for hot-dip galvanising or coating before bundling by project. Orders arrive as lots tied to a plant's installation schedule, with a drawing and a dispatch date, so the shop runs hard before each lot leaves and sits quieter between. Welders and press operators carry the skill. Helpers do lifting, loading and bundling, and the stores keep track of material by project. Truck loading and site delivery add a late push at the end of every lot. See also HR for energy and utilities.
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.
Every project lot has a delivery date, and the last days before loading mean long hours for welders and helpers.
A welder who can read a drawing and keep a clean bead has many offers, and pay alone is rarely why he leaves.
Long steel sections are moved by hand and crane, and injuries come from poor lifting and loose rigging habits.
Parts bundled for the wrong plant or missing brackets are found only on site, and the blame lands on stores and dispatch.
Workers near the zinc bath and welding stations breathe fumes, and protective gear use is uneven.
Pay by the part encourages fast cutting and welding, and errors in length or hole position cost rework at site.
Quiet weeks make people leave for steadier shops, and the next lot then starts short of hands.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for energy and utilities, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
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.
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.
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 solar mounting structure makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Levels from helper to fitter to senior welder, tied to drawings read and joints passed.
What this coversHideLevels from helper to fitter to senior welder, tied to drawings read and joints passed. See compensation benchmarking.
Look at the project order book each week and decide hiring, overtime and borrowed hands ahead of time.
What this coversHideLook at the project order book each week and decide hiring, overtime and borrowed hands ahead of time. The recruitment process supports it.
A short first-week session on lifting long sections, chain checks and signals, repeated when new lots arrive.
What this coversHideA short first-week session on lifting long sections, chain checks and signals, repeated when new lots arrive. See health, safety and wellbeing.
A project checklist signed by stores and checked by a second person before loading, with errors logged by lot.
What this coversHideA project checklist signed by stores and checked by a second person before loading, with errors logged by lot.
A simple inspection step before parts go to coating, so piece rates count only what fits.
What this coversHideA simple inspection step before parts go to coating, so piece rates count only what fits. The performance management work covers it.
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.
Welder and fitter grades set against nearby fabrication shops so skilled people stay.
Lifting, rigging, fume and galvanising safety habits for helpers and welders.
Piece rates tied to parts that pass inspection, so speed does not cost fit.
Hiring plans matched to the project order book, with a ready list of welders and helpers.
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.
6 min readRead article
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
A laminated notice, an annual drill, and an incident register with three entries in two years. What workplace health and safety looks like when it is real.
7 min readRead article
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Offer a clear grade, a pay path tied to skill and a say in how jobs are planned. Check what other shops pay for the same level and talk to your top welders about what would keep them.
Share the order book with the shop floor early and plan hands for the last days. Spread loading over more than one shift where possible so the same people are not worn out.
It can be, if only passed parts count and rates are fair and written. Without an inspection step, people cut speed from accuracy.
Teach lifting, chain checks and hand signals in the first week, supervised, and repeat it for every new lot. Choose a trained senior as the helper's partner.
Use a checklist per project and a second check before loading. Record each error by lot and person so you see patterns, not just one-off blame.
We would ask how many welders can work independently from drawings, review recent site complaints for bundling or fit errors, and check overtime in the days before dispatch. A good first piece of work is a welder and fitter grade plus a bundling checklist. Scope is agreed in writing before work starts.
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