A turnkey construction firm takes a project from design to handover, so its people span design, procurement, building and commissioning. This is how to run teams that must hand a client a working building.
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Share your requirementsA turnkey construction company delivers a finished facility to the client: design, approvals, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning under one contract. Its own staff include design managers, estimators, procurement officers, project managers, planning engineers, site engineers, quality and safety staff and commissioning engineers. Specialist packages such as structure, electrical, plumbing, air conditioning and finishes go to sub-contractors whose workers are not on its payroll. The company owns the outcome, so a failure in any package is its failure. The team must hold design intent, cost control and site detail together. Delays in approvals or client decisions pass pressure down the chain. Commissioning and handover test everybody's records. For the wider sector, read HR for construction and real estate.
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 turnkey construction. 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.
Design changes pass by phone to a site that has already built, and nobody owns the cost.
Dozens of sub-contractors' workers are on site, and the company cannot say who they are or what training they have.
A late order idles crews and the engineer is blamed for a decision made elsewhere.
Variations arrive verbally, work proceeds and payment is argued at handover.
Most staff are placed for the build, and the testing team is small and exhausted at the end.
At handover people move to the next project, and warranty or defect queries find no owner.
Capable site engineers spend years chasing sub-contractors with no route to lead a package.
A sub-contractor's lapse injures someone, and the main company faces the client and authorities.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Operations and Governance; Organisation Design; HR Strategy and Workforce Planning. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
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.
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.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
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.
The pieces a turnkey construction business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
One forum where design, procurement and site agree changes, costs and dates, with minutes sent to all.
One forum where design, procurement and site agree changes, costs and dates, with minutes sent to all. Use a clear change record.
A common register across packages: employer, trade, training, entry date and induction, held in employee records.
A common register across packages: employer, trade, training, entry date and induction, held in employee records.
A look-ahead of material needs by week, reviewed with site engineers, so crews are not idled.
A look-ahead of material needs by week, reviewed with site engineers, so crews are not idled.
No extra work starts without a signed variation note stating scope, cost and time.
No extra work starts without a signed variation note stating scope, cost and time.
Plan the commissioning team at project start, with training and a handover checklist.
Plan the commissioning team at project start, with training and a handover checklist. Plan it with workforce planning.
A named person and team for defects and warranty, with records handed over.
A named person and team for defects and warranty, with records handed over. Complete the people side with exit steps.
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.
A common worker register across packages and sub-contractors.
Planned hiring for design, site and commissioning phases.
Variation notes, role descriptions and handover checklists in simple, consistent forms.
A shared induction and checking routine across all packages.
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 construction and real estate, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
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Hold a weekly joint meeting, minute decisions, and make one person own the cost and time effect of each change.
Often substantially, as the main party on site. Have a qualified professional review your contract and duties, and run a common induction.
Insist on a signed variation note before work begins, even for small items, and record who instructed it.
At project start, not at the end. They review drawings, plan tests and avoid last-minute surprises.
A named person and small team, with the project file handed over and a defined period of support.
Give them a package to lead in the second or third year, with a mentor and visible progression.
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