10 Tips for Building an HR Function from Scratch
“We have HR, but not an HR function.”
A CEO said this to me recently, and it is something I sometimes hear from founders and executives, especially during pre-opening phases or periods of rapid growth.
Whether you are launching HR in a new organization or formalizing it in a scaling one, the challenge is to move quickly, stay lean, and build structure that creates meaningful impact from day one. This holds true even when HR is just one person or a small team managing multiple responsibilities.
Here is a practical approach I recommend that avoids both oversimplifying and overcomplicating:
Position HR from the start as a data-informed strategic partner focused on enabling execution, building capability, and shaping culture, whether it is a team of one or a growing function, rather than limiting HR to creating and enforcing policy.
Identify the top 2-3 operational pain points and needs (such as hiring delays, payroll errors, compliance gaps, or skill shortages) in order to prioritize efforts that will deliver the fastest results.
Develop a focused HR plan with 3-5 initiatives aligned to business goals, supported by clear KPIs, defined ownership, allocated budget, and a 90-day roadmap to track progress without overextending limited resources.
Establish a lean HR foundation by setting up a basic organizational structure, clearly defining all roles through job architecture, launching a minimum viable recruitment engine, and implementing HRIS, LMS, and payroll systems within the first 30 days, even if responsibilities are shared across cross-functional collaborators.
Select an HRIS that supports at least 70 percent process automation, includes e-signatures, and provides real-time analytics to reduce administrative burden by 50 percent or more and improve HR response time.
Deploy a structured hiring process with templated job descriptions, Service Level Agreement dashboards that track time-to-fill and interview stages, and a centralized interview toolkit to improve hiring consistency, shorten decision cycles by 20-40%, and ensure roles are filled within pre-set SLA targets aligned to business needs.
Design a 30-day onboarding journey with defined checkpoints by direct managers on Day 1, 7, 14, and 30, and linked to metrics such as engagement, retention, and time-to-productivity to accelerate new hire proficiency and reduce time-to-full-performance by up to 25% compared to unstructured onboarding.
Establish clearly defined pay bands based on reliable market data and maintained by HR, Finance, or Compensation leads to ensure fairness, reduce negotiation bias, and support pay transparency and internal alignment.
Create a performance management system anchored in measurable, goal-driven outcomes that directly link individual and team contributions to organizational priorities, replacing generic evaluations with role-specific expectations, behavioral clarity, coaching and accountability for results across all teams.
Conduct monthly reviews of key HR metrics such as turnover, time to fill, cost per hire, and absenteeism alongside other business and function leaders to transform data into actionable insights, address performance gaps, align on priorities, and ensure HR stays integrated with business execution.
Feel free to adapt this to your context. Every organization is different, and the structure and size of your team will influence how these steps are applied.
Wishing you the best of success.
Dr. Mohammed Almathil