| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Human Resources |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Executive Officer |
| Direct reports | HR Operations Manager, HRIS Manager, Payroll Manager, Onboarding Executive |
| Experience | 10 to 14 years in HR, including 5 or more in HR operations or HR technology for a growing company |
Head of People Operations job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Head of People Operations
Department: Human Resources
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Head of People Operations runs the machinery of HR in growing companies, especially startups and technology firms: onboarding, employee data, HR systems, payroll inputs, policies, benefits administration and exits. The role usually reports to the CEO or CHRO and makes sure every employee touchpoint, from offer acceptance to full and final settlement, happens on time without anyone chasing. A good head of people ops builds processes that keep working as the company grows from 100 to 1,000 employees.
Key responsibilities
- Map every lifecycle process from offer acceptance to exit, and set a written service level for each step that employees can see.
- Select, configure and own the HR systems for attendance, leave, payroll inputs, documents and employee records, and keep the data clean.
- Run onboarding so laptop, email, documents, bank details and a first-week plan are ready before each joiner's first day.
- Own payroll inputs and sign-off together with finance, whether salaries are processed in house or by an outsourced provider.
- Write people policies on leave, remote work, travel, devices and conduct in plain language, and publish every change with its effective date.
- Administer benefits such as group health insurance, wellness programs and meal or learning allowances, and resolve employee escalations.
- Set up an HR helpdesk, publish answers to frequent questions and review response times every week.
- Manage offboarding: exit checklist, asset recovery, access removal, relieving letter and full and final settlement on the committed date.
- Build dashboards on headcount, joiners, exits, time to onboard and query volumes for the leadership team.
- Control access to employee records and salary data in line with company data privacy practice, and review access rights every quarter.
- Lead the people operations team and decide which work stays in house and which goes to vendors.
Requirements
- MBA or PGDM in HR, or a graduate degree with deep HR operations experience
- Working knowledge of Indian payroll, PF, ESI and the Labour Codes
- Training in process improvement or project management is an advantage
- 10 to 14 years in HR, including 5 or more in HR operations or HR technology for a growing company
KRAs and KPIs for a Head of People Operations
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Day-one readiness | At least 95 percent of joiners have laptop, email and documents ready on their first day |
| Query resolution | HR queries answered within 1 working day and resolved within 3 working days |
| Data accuracy | Data errors in monthly payroll inputs below 1 percent of employee records |
| Exit settlement | Final dues paid within two working days of each employee's last working day |
| Scalable operations | People operations staff per 100 employees held at or below the agreed ratio as headcount grows |
| Policy upkeep | Every people policy reviewed at least once a year and acknowledged by employees after each change |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: HRMS, Payroll software, Freshdesk or Jira Service Management, Google Workspace, Slack or MS Teams, Google Sheets or Excel.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Human Resources Officer, HR Director, Vice President HR
Interview questions for a Head of People Operations
- Walk us through the onboarding process you would design for 30 joiners a month across three cities.
- How do you decide whether payroll should run in house or with a provider?
- An employee has chased a reimbursement for six weeks. What does that tell you about the process?
- Which HR data would you restrict first, and who should be able to see salaries?
- Our headcount will double next year. What breaks first in people operations, and how do you prevent it?
- An employee resigns and leaves in two weeks. What has to happen for their dues to be paid on time?
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What does a head of people operations do?
A head of people operations runs the processes and systems behind the employee lifecycle: onboarding, employee records, HR systems, payroll inputs, benefits, policies, HR queries and exits. The goal is that every employee interaction with HR is quick, accurate and predictable, even as the company grows quickly.
What is the difference between people operations and HR?
People operations is the part of HR that runs daily processes and data: onboarding, records, payroll inputs, benefits and exits. HR as a whole also covers hiring, performance, rewards, learning, employee relations and culture. Many startups use people operations as the name for their entire HR team.
Who does the head of people operations report to?
In startups and smaller technology companies the head of people operations often reports to the CEO or COO. In larger companies with a CHRO or HR Director, the role reports into that leader and works alongside the heads of talent acquisition, rewards and learning.