Senior Manager – Human Resources (Fluent Hindi Mandatory)

Senior Manager – Human Resources (Fluent Hindi Mandatory) Company: Amadora Gourmet Ice Cream Pvt Ltd Location: Chennai (Velachery) — with travel to Bangalore and Hyderabad Reports to: Managing Director Team: HR & Admin executives, recruitment support Employment type: Full-time, on-site About Amadora Amadora is a premium artisanal ice cream brand founded in Chennai in 2011. Everything we sell is made from scratch at our central kitchen — no premixes, no shortcuts. We operate roughly 30 company-owned and franchise stores across Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, alongside a growing bakery, sauces and frozen novelty line. We are in an active expansion phase, which means the HR function has to scale ahead of the store count rather than behind it. Role Summary We are looking for a Senior Manager – HR who can own the entire people function end to end: hiring, payroll, documentation, statutory compliance and the HR team itself. A large share of our kitchen, production and store workforce is drawn from Hindi-speaking states, so fluency in Hindi is non-negotiable — you will interview, onboard, counsel and resolve grievances in Hindi every single day. This is a hands-on role in a founder-led business; you will build the systems and also run them until the team is deep enough to take over. Key Responsibilities End-to-End Recruitment

• Own the full hiring cycle for all roles — store crew, production and kitchen staff, supervisors, and corporate/management positions across all three cities.
• Build and maintain a reliable sourcing pipeline: migrant labour channels and contractors, hotel management and catering institutes, job portals, referral schemes and local walk-in drives.
• Run screening, interviews, salary negotiation, offer rollout and document verification; keep offer-to-joining drop-offs low with structured follow-up.
• Maintain a live manpower plan against store openings and seasonal peaks, so hiring starts before the vacancy bites.
• Own onboarding and induction end to end, including accommodation coordination and documentation for outstation hires. Managing the HR Team
• Lead, allocate work to and develop the HR and admin executives; set weekly priorities and review output.
• Build capability in the team so recruitment, payroll input and compliance filing continue without escalation to you or the MD.
• Act as the single escalation point for people issues across the central kitchen, stores and franchise network. Payroll
• Own the monthly payroll cycle end to end — attendance and biometric reconciliation, leave, overtime, incentives, deductions, full-and-final settlements — and close it on a fixed date every month with zero slippage.
• Validate payroll inputs against rosters and store-level attendance before processing; investigate and resolve discrepancies rather than passing them through.
• Coordinate with Accounts on salary disbursement, payroll accruals, reimbursements and statutory payments.
• Maintain salary structures and bands, and support the MD on compensation benchmarking and revision cycles. HR Documentation
• Maintain complete, audit-ready employee files: offer letters, appointment letters, KYC and ID documents, background checks, confirmation letters, increment and transfer letters, warning letters and exit paperwork.
• Own and keep current the employee handbook, HR policies, SOPs and the code of conduct; ensure they are communicated in both Hindi and Tamil where the workforce requires it.
• Maintain the HRMS/employee database and all trackers — headcount, attrition, leave, probation and confirmation status — as the single source of truth.
• Draft and issue all disciplinary documentation, show-cause notices and inquiry records in a legally defensible format. Statutory Compliance
• Ensure full compliance across all locations with PF, ESI, Professional Tax, Gratuity, Bonus, Shops & Establishments, Labour Welfare Fund, Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act and POSH.
• Manage timely returns, challans, registrations and renewals; maintain statutory registers for every establishment.
• Handle labour department inspections, notices and audits, and coordinate with consultants and legal counsel where required.
• Ensure contractor and third-party manpower compliance, including verification of their statutory filings.
• Constitute and run the Internal Committee under POSH; conduct mandatory awareness sessions. Employee Relations & Engagement
• Manage grievances, disciplinary action and conflict resolution across a largely frontline workforce.
• Run confirmation and performance review cycles; work with Operations and Training on appraisal inputs.
• Drive retention initiatives and track attrition by store, role and tenure with actual root-cause analysis.
• Conduct exit interviews and convert findings into corrective action. Qualifications & Competencies
• MBA/PGDM in HR or equivalent; 8–12 years of HR experience with at least 3 years in a managerial capacity.
• Fluency in Hindi is mandatory — speaking, reading and writing. You will use it daily with the kitchen, production and store workforce. English is required; Tamil is a strong advantage.
• Proven end-to-end ownership of payroll and statutory compliance for a workforce of 200+, ideally multi-state.
• Background in food service, QSR, retail, hospitality or manufacturing strongly preferred — high-volume frontline hiring and high attrition are the norm here, not the exception.
• Working knowledge of Indian labour law and hands-on experience handling inspections and audits.
• Strong Excel skills and comfort with HRMS/payroll software and biometric attendance systems.
• Ability to operate independently in a founder-led, fast-moving business with limited support structures — this is a builder's role, not a caretaker's.
• Willingness to travel to Bangalore and Hyderabad, and to be present at stores and the central kitchen, including during peak season. What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)
• Time-to-fill for store and kitchen roles is cut to under 15 days, with a standing pipeline that lets new store openings be staffed before launch day rather than after.
• Payroll closes on the same fixed date every month with under 1% error rate, and full-and-final settlements are completed within 30 days of exit.
• Zero statutory non-compliance findings across Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad; all registers, returns and registrations current and inspection-ready at any time.
• Employee documentation is 100% complete and digitised — every active employee has a full file, and confirmation, increment and exit letters are issued on time without prompting.
• Frontline attrition is reduced measurably against the current baseline, with the drivers identified store by store and at least two retention interventions implemented and tracked.
• The HR team runs recruitment, payroll input and compliance filing independently, escalating only exceptions.