First HR Hire & Foundations
Be the HR your company doesn’t have yet. I set up the entire people function from zero — policies, handbook, hiring, onboarding, compliance — so you stop improvising and start scaling.
Open to new engagements
I build the people side of your company — from first hire to scaled team.
Fractional and consulting HR for founders who’ve outgrown “we’ll figure out HR later.” Six years setting up people functions from a blank page — recruiting, operations, performance, and the systems that hold them together.
Experience across
- Funding Societies
- Wednesday Solutions
- 10Times
- Insane Marketers
- Inc42
What I do
Whatever the people function needs — strategy and the hands to do it.
Most founders don’t need a 40-page HR strategy. They need someone senior who’ll diagnose what’s missing, build it properly, and stay close enough to make it stick. That’s the work.
Fractional HRBP
A senior people partner on your leadership team, part-time. I sit close to founders and managers, turn business goals into people plans, and handle the conversations no one else wants to.
People Operations
The unglamorous engine that keeps people paid, compliant, and looked after. I run and tidy the day-to-day — across borders when you need it.
Talent Acquisition
Hiring that actually closes. I build sprint-based recruiting workflows, manage your pipeline and vendors, and bring time-to-hire down without dropping the bar.
Performance & OKRs
Reviews people don’t dread. I design goal-setting, calibration, and career frameworks that are fair, light to run, and tied to how the business actually measures itself.
AI & Automation in HR
Cut the busywork. I find the repetitive, rules-based parts of HR — scheduling, onboarding, policy drafts, reporting — and automate or AI-assist them, with a human still checking the output.
HR Analytics & Dashboards
Decisions backed by data, not vibes. I build dashboards and read the signals — attrition, engagement, hiring — so leadership can see what’s really happening with their people.
Build Your HR Team
Ready to hire in-house? I define the roles, write the playbooks, hire your first HR people, and hand over a function that runs without me.
How I work
Diagnose, design, build, hand over.
The same four moves every time — sized to your stage, not borrowed from a company three times your size.
01
Diagnose
I start with an HR audit: what’s working, what’s missing, what’s quietly on fire. You get a clear read on your people function and the gaps that matter most.
02
Design
We agree on priorities and I design the frameworks — hiring, performance, policy, ops — to fit how you actually work today and where you’re headed.
03
Build
I do the work, not just the deck. Systems get built, roles get filled, processes get automated, and people feel the difference week to week.
04
Hand over
Everything is documented and yours. When you’re ready to bring it in-house, I leave a function that runs without me — and train whoever’s taking it on.
Selected outcomes
Six years, measured in things that moved.
A few results from past roles — the kind of impact I bring to the table, not a promise of identical numbers for every team.
50%
Cut time-to-hire from 60 days to 30 at a B2B tech company by reworking workflows and vendors.
7
Countries of payroll & HR operations run across South and Southeast Asia, through a vendor transition with zero compliance gaps.
First
The first HR hire at two companies — built each people function from a blank page, working directly with the CEO.
10–15%
Lower voluntary attrition through retention programs, regular 1:1s, and honest analysis of why people actually leave.
20→50
Scaled a media startup’s team with end-to-end recruiting and a sharper employer brand.
40%
Lift in employee engagement scores via structured 1:1 cadences, pulse surveys, and targeted initiatives.
Earlier roles include Funding Societies (Modalku), Wednesday Solutions, 10Times, Insane Marketers, and Inc42 Media. Background: M.A. in Human Resource Management and a B.A. (Hons) in Psychology.
Ways to work together
Pick the shape that fits where you are.
Every engagement starts with a short scoping call so we’re both clear on the problem before any money or calendars are committed.
Ongoing
Fractional HR
Your part-time Head of People. A set number of days each month, embedded in your team, owning whatever the people function needs that month.
- Leadership partnership & advisory
- Operations, compliance, hiring oversight
- Performance, policy & culture
Best for: startups past ~15 people with no senior HR.
Monthly retainer · scoped to your size & stage
Fixed scope
Project & Build
A defined piece of work with a clear finish line — stand up a performance cycle, build a hiring engine, write the handbook, migrate an HRIS, or run a payroll transition.
- Agreed deliverables & timeline
- Built, tested, documented
- Full handover at the end
Best for: one specific problem, solved properly.
Fixed fee · quoted after scoping
On demand
Advisory
A people expert on call. Founder coaching, manager support, HR audits, or surge help when you’re hiring hard or hitting something tricky.
- Calls & async support
- HR audits & second opinions
- Manager & founder coaching
Best for: teams who need judgement, not headcount.
Hourly or light monthly · flexible
Available now
The person behind the work.
I've spent six years building People functions in high-growth companies, starting as a first HR hire with no playbook, and currently leading People Advisory & Operations across APAC and South Asia for a fintech scaling fast. Across five companies and seven countries, I've learned the difference between people practices that look good in a deck and people practices that actually work.
The numbers, briefly: HR functions built from zero. Time-to-hire cut by 50%. Voluntary attrition down 10–15%. Founders and C-suites partnered with through the kind of messy transitions where the org chart shifts faster than the systems can keep up.
How I work with you
I work with founders and leadership teams who need a People partner, not a service vendor. What that looks like depends on where you are. Sometimes it's building a hiring engine from scratch because every role is taking three months and you're sitting in every interview loop. Sometimes it's a fractional Head of People for a company that's outgrown ad-hoc HR but isn't ready for a full-time hire. Sometimes it's a single project — a performance framework that doesn't make everyone miserable, a policy that fits the team you actually have, a difficult conversation that needs structure.
What stays consistent: I show up as a partner, not a consultant who hands over a deck and disappears.
What I believe
My approach rests on two beliefs. First, that people practices should serve both the human and the business — and if you have to choose, you've designed it wrong. Second, that good HR is specific. It's grounded in the actual team, the actual stage, the actual problem, not in best-practice templates copy-pasted from somewhere else.
Off the clock
A passionate reader, an occasional poet, a perpetual learner. I write about HR on LinkedIn, mostly because the conversations there could use more honesty and less performance. Curiosity has always been my most faithful companion — at work, and in life.
If you're building something meaningful and the People side is starting to feel like it needs real attention, let's grab a coffee ☕
— Srikavi
Let’s talk
Let’s build your people function.
Tell me where your company is and what’s keeping you up on the people side. I’ll tell you, honestly, whether and how I can help.
srikavitps@gmail.com · People & Talent