Startups & Scaling

HR Checklist for a 50-Person Startup

The infrastructure a 50-person company should have in place, grouped by what breaks first when it's missing.

6 min read

Employment essentials

The non-negotiables. If these are wrong, everything else is built on sand.

  • Compliant contracts in every country you employ in
  • Correct worker classification
  • Payroll running accurately with a documented process
  • A single system of record for employee data
  • Leave and absence tracking

Consistency layer

The things that prevent unfairness from accumulating.

  • Compensation bands and a review cadence
  • Levelling framework for the main job families
  • A documented hiring and interview process
  • Structured onboarding
  • Written performance expectations

Management layer

At 50 people you typically have six to ten managers, most of them first-timers. Give them a one-to-one structure, a feedback expectation, and somewhere to go when something goes wrong.

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