HR Manager job description template (India, 2026)
A HR Manager job description written for Indian companies: responsibilities, requirements, CTC and notice-period framing, five screening questions, and the full text to copy or post on ofper.
Last updated 3 September 2026. Competitor pricing and plan limits are re-verified against each vendor’s own pages.
What does a HR Manager do?
A company hires its first HR Manager when the founder can no longer personally decide every hire, raise and exit, and when compliance exposure — PF, ESI, labour law, POSH — needs an owner. The HR Manager sets policy and runs the annual cycle: hiring plan, appraisals, increments, engagement, and the compliance calendar. In an SME the role stays hands-on; the manager still runs senior hires and handles the difficult conversations personally.
The posting should be clear about scope: headcount, locations, whether there is a factory or field workforce, the size of the HR team, and how much the founder expects HR to shape decisions versus execute them. Candidates from large-company HR with narrow specialisations need to understand the generalist reality.
HR Manager responsibilities
Written as work the person does, not qualities they have. A responsibility a candidate can picture is one they can decide about.
- Own HR policy and the employee handbook — leave, attendance, conduct, remote work, expenses, POSH — and keep them current with Indian law and the company's stage.
- Build and run the annual HR calendar: hiring plan, performance reviews, increments and promotions, engagement surveys and statutory deadlines.
- Lead recruiting for senior and critical roles personally, and run the recruiting process — sourcing channels, interview structure, offer bands — for the rest of the company.
- Design and run the performance and compensation cycle: goal setting, reviews, calibration, increment budgets and letters.
- Own statutory and labour compliance — PF, ESI, professional tax, Shops and Establishment, contract labour, factory rules where relevant, POSH — with the accounts team, compliance vendor and legal counsel.
- Handle employee relations: grievances, disciplinary processes, performance improvement plans, terminations and settlements, with documentation that would stand up to scrutiny.
- Manage and develop the HR team — HR Executives, recruiters — and the HRMS and HR vendors.
- Advise the founder and managers on organisation design, compensation benchmarks, retention risks and people decisions, with data.
HR Manager requirements and qualifications
Keep the required list to what you would actually reject a candidate for. Everything else goes under nice to have — a long required list mostly filters out the people you wanted.
- MBA or PGDM in HR, or equivalent, with 6 to 10 years in HR including 2 or more years leading an HR function or a large part of it in India.
- Depth in Indian labour and statutory compliance — PF, ESI, gratuity, POSH, Shops and Establishment, and contract labour or factory rules where relevant.
- Experience designing and running a performance and compensation cycle, and recruiting for senior roles personally.
- A record of handling difficult employee-relations cases — terminations, grievances, investigations — correctly and humanely.
- Comfortable with HR data and Excel: headcount, attrition, compensation analysis, hiring funnel.
- Able to advise a founder candidly and to hold a position with managers.
Nice to have
- Experience in a company at the same stage — the first HR Manager in a growing SME or a funded startup.
- Experience with a factory, field or multi-state workforce, if relevant.
- Experience implementing an HRMS or a performance tool.
Salary, CTC and terms for a HR Manager in India
State a CTC range. Postings without one get fewer and worse-matched applications, and the range is the first thing an Indian candidate looks for. Say how the CTC is made up — fixed, variable, and any statutory components — so the in-hand figure is not a surprise at offer stage.
- State the CTC range with the split into fixed and variable, and any ESOP if the company is funded. HR Managers benchmark compensation professionally; a posting without a range signals a low one.
- State the scope explicitly — headcount, locations, HR team size, workforce type — since it defines the seniority of the role.
- State the reporting line (usually the founder or CEO) and the expected involvement in leadership decisions.
- Notice period is commonly 60 to 90 days at this level; plan the joining date around the appraisal cycle.
HR Manager job description template
Replace every [placeholder]. Cut anything that is not true of your company — a generic paragraph is worse than no paragraph.
HR Manager — [Company name], [City] Employment type: Full-time | Location: [City] / [On-site, hybrid or remote] | CTC: [range] per annum | Experience: [years] About the role A company hires its first HR Manager when the founder can no longer personally decide every hire, raise and exit, and when compliance exposure — PF, ESI, labour law, POSH — needs an owner. The HR Manager sets policy and runs the annual cycle: hiring plan, appraisals, increments, engagement, and the compliance calendar. In an SME the role stays hands-on; the manager still runs senior hires and handles the difficult conversations personally. The posting should be clear about scope: headcount, locations, whether there is a factory or field workforce, the size of the HR team, and how much the founder expects HR to shape decisions versus execute them. Candidates from large-company HR with narrow specialisations need to understand the generalist reality. What you will do - Own HR policy and the employee handbook — leave, attendance, conduct, remote work, expenses, POSH — and keep them current with Indian law and the company's stage. - Build and run the annual HR calendar: hiring plan, performance reviews, increments and promotions, engagement surveys and statutory deadlines. - Lead recruiting for senior and critical roles personally, and run the recruiting process — sourcing channels, interview structure, offer bands — for the rest of the company. - Design and run the performance and compensation cycle: goal setting, reviews, calibration, increment budgets and letters. - Own statutory and labour compliance — PF, ESI, professional tax, Shops and Establishment, contract labour, factory rules where relevant, POSH — with the accounts team, compliance vendor and legal counsel. - Handle employee relations: grievances, disciplinary processes, performance improvement plans, terminations and settlements, with documentation that would stand up to scrutiny. - Manage and develop the HR team — HR Executives, recruiters — and the HRMS and HR vendors. - Advise the founder and managers on organisation design, compensation benchmarks, retention risks and people decisions, with data. What we are looking for - MBA or PGDM in HR, or equivalent, with 6 to 10 years in HR including 2 or more years leading an HR function or a large part of it in India. - Depth in Indian labour and statutory compliance — PF, ESI, gratuity, POSH, Shops and Establishment, and contract labour or factory rules where relevant. - Experience designing and running a performance and compensation cycle, and recruiting for senior roles personally. - A record of handling difficult employee-relations cases — terminations, grievances, investigations — correctly and humanely. - Comfortable with HR data and Excel: headcount, attrition, compensation analysis, hiring funnel. - Able to advise a founder candidly and to hold a position with managers. Nice to have - Experience in a company at the same stage — the first HR Manager in a growing SME or a funded startup. - Experience with a factory, field or multi-state workforce, if relevant. - Experience implementing an HRMS or a performance tool. Compensation and terms - State the CTC range with the split into fixed and variable, and any ESOP if the company is funded. HR Managers benchmark compensation professionally; a posting without a range signals a low one. - State the scope explicitly — headcount, locations, HR team size, workforce type — since it defines the seniority of the role. - State the reporting line (usually the founder or CEO) and the expected involvement in leadership decisions. - Notice period is commonly 60 to 90 days at this level; plan the joining date around the appraisal cycle. How to apply Apply with your resume through this page. We reply to every application, and shortlisted candidates hear from us within [number] working days.
Opens a free ofper workspace with the title, description and screening questions filled in.
Screening questions for HR Manager applicants
Five questions is the ceiling on ofper, and it is the right ceiling: a form that asks more than that costs applications. Use them for the things that decide a shortlist, not for anything the resume already says.
| Question | Type | Knockout | Why it earns a slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Have you led an HR function — policy, hiring, performance cycle and compliance — for at least 2 years? | Yes / No (pass: Yes) | Yes | Separates HR Managers from senior executives; the title is used loosely. |
| How many years of HR experience do you have? | Number (pass: 6+) | Yes | The experience floor for owning compliance and difficult cases unsupervised. |
| Have you personally designed and run a performance and increment cycle? | Yes / No (pass: Yes) | No | Not a knockout, but it decides whether the first cycle needs outside help. |
| What is your current notice period, in days? | Number (pass: 0 to 90) | No | Plans joining around the HR calendar. |
Questions, answered straight
What should an HR Manager job description specify?
The scope — headcount, locations, workforce type, HR team size — the reporting line, the compliance responsibilities, the cycles the role owns (hiring plan, appraisals, increments), and the CTC range with variable and any ESOP. Scope is the first thing a senior HR candidate evaluates.
When does an SME need an HR Manager?
When the founder can no longer personally decide every hire, raise and exit, when compliance exposure needs an owner, or when the company passes roughly 50 to 80 people. The trigger is decisions and risk, not headcount alone.
Should the HR Manager also recruit?
In an SME, yes — senior and critical hires personally, and ownership of the recruiting process for the rest. State this in the posting; candidates from large companies where recruiting is a separate function need to know.