Supply chain consultants study how goods move from supplier to customer and redesign routes, stocks and warehouses. Their team mixes data analysts with field consultants who visit depots and plants, and both need clear methods and fair workloads.
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Share your requirementsA supply chain consultancy advises manufacturers, distributors and retailers on sourcing, inventory, warehousing, transport and planning. The team has a principal consultant, senior consultants who lead studies, analysts who clean data and build models in spreadsheets and planning tools, field consultants who visit warehouses and depots, and coordinators who prepare reports and workshops. Client data arrives late, incomplete and in many formats, so analysts spend weeks cleaning before analysis begins. Site visits mean early mornings in warehouses, loading bays and yards. Projects are time bound, and a late data file squeezes the final weeks. Recommendations require client change in routes, shifts and stock rules, which meet resistance. Skills in modelling are scarce, and analysts are sought by logistics firms and online retailers. See also HR for professional services.
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 supply chain consultants. 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.
Analysts lose weeks cleaning files, and the deadline stays where it was.
A spreadsheet model works only because its builder remembers the fixes, and nobody else dares open it.
Early starts, heat, forklifts and dust on site, with no briefing or gear.
Depot managers and transport heads see changes as threats and withhold cooperation.
Analysis grows to fill the time, and reports are written overnight.
Analysts never see the depot, field consultants do not trust the model, and findings arrive in two voices.
A client delays sign-off, and staff wait with no assignment.
An analyst who understands networks gets a better offer from a large operator.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Analytics and Management Reporting; Learning and Development; Health, Safety and Wellbeing. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
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.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a supply chain consultants business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A checklist of formats and fields, a deadline in the scope and a clear delay consequence.
A checklist of formats and fields, a deadline in the scope and a clear delay consequence. Keep it in documentation.
Naming, layout and a second-person review of each model, with notes on fixes.
Naming, layout and a second-person review of each model, with notes on fixes. Link to learning plans.
A site safety note, protective gear and a named client contact.
A site safety note, protective gear and a named client contact. See health and safety.
Analysts join at least one depot visit per project, and field consultants review model assumptions.
Analysts join at least one depot visit per project, and field consultants review model assumptions.
Mid-project findings drafted early, so the last weeks are for polish.
Mid-project findings drafted early, so the last weeks are for polish. Plan cover with leave rules.
Stages from junior analyst to model lead to consultant, with pay reviewed against benchmarks.
Stages from junior analyst to model lead to consultant, with pay reviewed against benchmarks.
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.
Data rules and model standards that survive staff changes.
Model review and site exposure for analysts.
Briefings and gear for warehouse and depot visits.
Analyst pay that stands up against logistics offers.
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 professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
Six numbers, one page, same format each month. What they are, how to define them so they mean the same thing twice, and what each one tells you.
8 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.
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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.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Put a data deadline and its effect on timeline in the scope, track delays and tell the client early. Silent absorption by analysts is costly.
Use standard layouts, a second reviewer and short notes on assumptions and fixes. A model should survive its builder leaving.
Yes, at least once per project. Seeing the depot makes the numbers meaningful and builds trust between desk and field.
Draft findings at mid-point, fix review dates and protect the last week for polish. Surprises in the last week are usually early data problems.
Give a visible ladder, interesting problems and fair pay, and be honest about what a large operator can offer.
How data arrives, how models are built and checked, how field and desk work together and why analysts leave. A data intake sheet, a model standard or a pairing routine is a likely start. Scope, timing and fees are put in writing after that talk.
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