HR From Scratch: The Complete Guide to Building People Operations in Startups and Scale-Ups

By Mayur N Koikar

Nobody hands the first HR hire a blueprint. HR From Scratch is it.

You have just been brought in to build the people function at a company with no policies, no processes, and no roadmap - or you are the founder who is also, suddenly, the accidental HR department. Either way, you need to know what to build first, what can wait, and what breaks a fast-growing company if you get it wrong.

Drawing on 25+ years of senior HR leadership across the GCC and India, Mayur N Koikar walks founders, first HR hires, and scale-up people leaders through the complete build: the HR audit and priority map, policies and the employment framework, compensation and benefits on a startup budget, hiring at speed, culture by design rather than accident, onboarding that actually works, and performance management that fits a company still finding its shape. The book carries you through the hardest growth thresholds - 20 to 100 people, 100 to 500 people - and equips you to build and lead the HR team that takes the function beyond you.

Anchored by the HR From Scratch Readiness Checklist(TM), a Startup HR Policy Toolkit, a Hiring Scorecard and Interview Framework, and a 30-60-90 Day Plan for first HR hires, this is the instruction manual for building people operations from zero - under real time pressure, with real constraints.

For founders, first HR hires, and people leaders building HR from the ground up.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H99LTJM8
• ISBN13: 9798187705986
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.0" x 10.0"