Head of People — build the HR function for a plantation and a manufacturing unit

Two businesses in Kerala — a plantation in the Western Ghats with a processing facility coming up, and a petroleum road-tanker fabrication unit in Thrissur district — employ about 75 people between them, most of them skilled or semi-skilled workers, many of them migrants from central and northern India. Neither business has ever had an HR function. We are hiring the person who builds it over two years and stays to lead it.

This is a building role, not a maintaining one. In the first three months you learn both units from the inside, put every worker on a written agreement, get payroll running to schedule, and plan three workforce programmes. From month four you hold decision-making authority, recruit and house real cohorts, take both businesses onto the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme, own training and safety at the fabrication unit, and give every role in the organisation a KPI set and a performance-based pay link benchmarked against the industry. In year two you prove the programmes repeat and hand the systems to the team to run. At month 24 you convert to permanent Head of People.

We wrote this role with returning professionals in mind. The first three months on site are a paced re-entry — written milestones rather than a probation watch, a monthly review with the Managing Partner, and accommodation at both bases so the logistics are ours, not yours. After that, about 6–8 site days a month, scheduled a month ahead around your calendar, and your own hours outside them. We measure outcomes, not hours or presence. Travel to the recruitment source districts is optional — one way to build the channel, not the only way. The break itself is not a factor in selection; what you did before it is.

Shortlisted candidates receive the detailed job description, including the outcome schedule, and a short set of written questions before interview. Apply on HerKey, or write to careers@aakplantations.co.in with a CV and a few lines on your background.

Months 1–3, on site:

Learn both units — muster, picking rounds, shop floor, payroll flow, the people
Put every worker and staff member on a written agreement, explained in Hindi and Tamil
Get payroll settling on schedule at both units; build attendance reporting on the existing biometric system
Baseline every role — what it produces, how it is measured, what it is paid — and gather industry benchmarks
Plan three workforce programmes: a migrant worker supply chain, a skilled-fabricator pipeline, and an apprentice-to-manager ladder

Months 4–12, with decision-making authority:

Recruit, house and hold a migrant worker cohort for the plantation and a skilled-fabricator cohort for the unit
Take both businesses onto the National Apprenticeship Training Scheme and claim the government reimbursement
Own training and safety at the fabrication unit, with the right to stop unsafe work
Put KPI scorecards and performance-based pay links in place for every role, benchmarked against the industry
Automate the routine so office administrators handle exceptions, not data entry; one monthly report to the Managing Partner

Months 13–24:

Bring the cohorts back for a second season and recruit the next through the channel you built
See the apprentices through certification and placement
Revise benchmarks on a year of data and align pay where the business leads or lags
Hand every system to the team to run, with you as reviewer; identify a deputy
Convert to permanent Head of People

• You will need:

  At least 4 years in HR or operations with daily-rate, housed or migrant workforces — plantation, factory, construction or similar — whenever those years were gained
  Conversational Hindi, plus Malayalam or Tamil
  Excel, and working knowledge of Indian labour compliance for small establishments
  Availability to be on site at Idukki and Thrissur for the first three months, with accommodation provided
  
  Helpful, not required:

  Experience setting up HR where none existed
  Experience running a recruitment, apprenticeship or training programme
  A two-wheeler or four-wheeler licence, or willingness to obtain one within two months of joining; estate transport is available meanwhile
  Willingness to travel to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh or Uttar Pradesh — optional
  Comfort with AI tools for trackers and reports; biometric attendance or ERP payroll experience
  Education: graduate in any discipline; an HR or management qualification is a plus. Career breaks of any length are welcome.