Parts are cleaned, etched, plated, anodised, passivated, blasted or coated to resist wear and rust. This page covers bath operators, chemical handling, process records, effluent duties and customer approvals.
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Share your requirementsA surface treatment company takes finished metal parts and changes the skin of the part. Workers rack parts, dip them through cleaning, etching, plating, anodising or passivation baths, rinse, dry and inspect. Others blast, shot-peen or apply coatings. Bath chemistry, temperature, current and dip time decide the result, and a chemist or senior operator checks and tops up the baths. Acids, alkalis and fumes are part of the day, and spills, splashes and ventilation lapses are the main risks. Customers in auto, aerospace and electronics ask for certificates and process records with every lot. Related reading: HR for manufacturing.
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 surface treatment companies. 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.
Splashes, fumes and skin contact occur, and protective gear is used inconsistently.
The chemist or senior operator who knows when a bath is off is the key, and his leave stops the line.
Dip times, bath readings and operator names are written late, so certificates cannot be backed up.
Poor racking leaves uncoated spots or burn marks, and new hands learn slowly.
The staff running the treatment plant are poorly trained, and mistakes attract attention from outside.
Hot, wet and smelly conditions push people to leave for easier work.
Approvals depend on training, calibration and records, and gaps are found in a hurry.
Few workers know what to do in a spill, a fume release or an eye splash.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Learning and Development; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
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.
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 surface treatment companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Labelling, storage, spill steps, eyewash and protective gear, with a signed record.
Labelling, storage, spill steps, eyewash and protective gear, with a signed record. See health, safety and wellbeing.
A second analyst or senior operator trained on readings and top-ups, with a written method.
A second analyst or senior operator trained on readings and top-ups, with a written method. See the learning and development process.
Per-lot sheets for dip time, bath reading, rack and operator name.
Per-lot sheets for dip time, bath reading, rack and operator name. See HR documentation.
Training by part family, with samples and a sign-off before unsupervised work.
Training by part family, with samples and a sign-off before unsupervised work.
A procedure, a log and a backup operator for the treatment plant.
A procedure, a log and a backup operator for the treatment plant. Confirm duties with a qualified professional.
Spill, fume and eye-wash drills each quarter, with attendance noted.
Spill, fume and eye-wash drills each quarter, with attendance noted.
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.
Chemical handling, spill and emergency routines with records.
Cross-training for bath control, racking and effluent plant staff.
Training and role records that support customer approvals.
A safe induction before a new hand meets the first bath.
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 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 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
How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Train, label, supply gear, run drills and review near misses. Ask a qualified professional what rules apply.
Document methods, train a second person and rotate checks.
Who was trained, on what, by whom and when. Ask the customer which proof they expect.
Improve ventilation and heat conditions, give a ladder and pay fairly for hazard.
A trained, named operator with a backup, procedures and logs. Confirm legal duties with a qualified professional.
We would ask about chemical training, bath control cover and process records. A good first job is a training matrix and cross-training plan. After a first talk, scope and fee are put in writing.
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