Senior Associate – HR

About the organisation

The Antara Foundation (TAF) envisions a world where women and children do not suffer from preventable health conditions. We believe that every mother and each child deserves an equal start to a healthy life. We support the public health system to deliver solutions at scale and improve maternal and child health outcomes, by partnering with government and communities.

Our work follows two closely integrated paths: helping the government system deliver better quality health care to the community, and supporting the community to mobilise and seek better health outcomes.

We are a young, energetic and passionate team, working across eight districts, 38 blocks and 5,700 villages, with 20,000 Frontline Health Workers (FLWs), and reaching 379,000 women and 650,000 children in central India. Over the next few years, we see ourselves expanding across multiple locations in India to create impact at scale. For more information, visit antarafoundation.org.

Position summary

The Senior Associate – HR will support the Head – HR in running a strong, well-organised HR function for a geographically distributed workforce. The role covers four areas of work: HR processes, HR operations, hiring, and organisation excellence. It is a hands-on role, suited to someone who is organised, takes ownership, and enjoys making processes work well for people.

Key responsibilities

1. HR processes

• •Document and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) and checklists for core HR processes such as onboarding, confirmation, transfers and exits.
• •Help keep HR policies and the employee handbook up to date, and support their communication to teams.
• •Identify gaps and bottlenecks in current processes and suggest recommendations, including moving routine workflows to digital formats.

2. HR operations

• •Manage day-to-day HR operations across the employee lifecycle: joining formalities, contracts, confirmations, transfers and exits, including full and final settlements.
• •Maintain accurate employee records and personnel files and keep the HR data system up to date.
• •Coordinate with Finance on payroll inputs, leave, attendance, statutory deductions and reimbursements.
• •Support statutory compliance (PF, ESI, gratuity, POSH and other applicable requirements) and prepare documentation for audits.
• •Prepare regular HR reports on headcount, attrition, leave and compliance for the Head – HR.
• •Be the first point of contact for employee queries on HR policies, benefits and processes, and resolve them in a timely and empathetic way.

3. Hiring

• •Support the full hiring cycle: raising requisitions, sourcing, screening, scheduling interviews and coordinating with hiring managers.
• •Prepare offer letters and contracts, complete pre-joining formalities and ensure a smooth joining experience.
• •Track open positions and hiring status in a simple tracker, and share updates regularly.
• •Support hiring for field roles in coordination with regional and field teams.

4. Organisation excellence

• •Support the Director – Organisation Excellence in collecting information, inputs and examples from teams to build the skill and competency metric.
• •Help organise conversations, workshops and feedback sessions with employees and managers, and document the outcomes.
• •Support the implementation of the competency metric in the appraisal process, including preparing templates, coordinating with managers and tracking completion.
• •Help with other organisation-wide initiatives, such as learning and development coordination, as they arise.

Skills and experience required

• •Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or a related field.
• •[4–6] years of experience in HR operations, HR processes or talent acquisition. Experience in the development sector, public health, consulting or a growing, distributed organisation is an advantage.
• •Working knowledge of Indian labour laws and statutory compliance (PF, ESI, gratuity, POSH).
• •Experience with an HRIS or HR tech platform, and good skills in Excel and MIS reporting.
• •Strong process orientation, with attention to detail and good documentation habits.
• •Good communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work with colleagues across functions and locations.
• •Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment, with high ownership and responsiveness.
• •Comfort with handling confidential information.