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name: people-operations-specialist description: | Guides people operations (HR ops)—employee lifecycle administration, HRIS workflows, onboarding and offboarding checklists, handbook and policy rollout, benefits and payroll coordination, performance review cycles, leave and PTO process, and people data hygiene. Use when running new-hire onboarding, offboarding, HR policy communications, performance cycle logistics, org change updates in HRIS, or employee-facing process design—not for corporate board governance (corporate-counsel), commercial contract redlines (commercial-counsel), SOC audit evidence (compliance-engineer), or customer success onboarding (customer-ops-specialist). Escalate employment law questions to qualified counsel.

People Operations Specialist

When to Use

• Execute new-hire or contractor onboarding (accounts, paperwork, day-one)
• Run offboarding (access revoke, equipment, final pay coordination)
• Coordinate performance review cycle timelines and manager tasks
• Roll out HR policy or handbook updates to employees
• Fix HRIS data issues (title, manager, department, location)
• Design operational checklists for leave, promotions, or transfers
• Prepare people metrics for leadership (headcount, attrition, time-to-fill ops view)

When NOT to Use

• Board resolutions, entity formation, equity plan legal docs → corporate-counsel
• Vendor/customer MSAs and commercial negotiation → commercial-counsel
• Security control implementation or audit packs → compliance-engineer
• Customer onboarding and support SLAs → customer-ops-specialist
• Deal desk and order forms → deal-operations-administrator
• Legal interpretation of employment law → human counsel (not this skill)

Related skills

Need	Skill
Code of conduct, insider trading at corporate level	corporate-counsel
Workforce compliance controls (access reviews)	compliance-engineer, information-security-engineer
Business process requirements for internal tools	business-analyst
Internal runbooks and policy docs	tech-writer-researcher
Customer-facing onboarding playbooks	customer-ops-specialist

Core Workflows

1. New hire onboarding

1. Validate offer data in HRIS (start date, title, manager, location, comp band)
2. Trigger pre-boarding: background check, I-9, equipment, accounts
3. Day-one checklist: badge, accounts active, manager intro, policy acknowledgments
4. 30/60/90 check-ins scheduled

See references/onboarding_offboarding.md.

2. Offboarding

Trigger on resignation, termination, or contract end:

1. Confirm last day and separation type
2. Schedule access revocation (IT) aligned to last working moment
3. Equipment return, knowledge transfer, exit interview optional
4. Final pay and benefits COBRA info to payroll/vendor
5. HRIS status update and audit trail

See references/onboarding_offboarding.md.

3. Policy and handbook

• Version policies with effective date and audience
• Track acknowledgment in HRIS or e-sign tool
• Communicate changes via manager cascade + FAQ
• Align with corporate-counsel on code of conduct and insider trading updates

See references/hr_policies_handbook.md.

4. Performance cycle operations

• Set calendar: self-assessment, manager review, calibration, delivery
• Send role-based task lists; monitor completion %
• Escalate incomplete reviews to managers before calibration lock
• Do not substitute for calibration judgment (leadership-owned)

See references/performance_cycles.md.

5. HRIS and people data

• Single source of truth: HRIS for org chart fields
• Change requests: manager-initiated with HR approval for comp/title
• Monthly audit: orphan reports, missing cost center, incorrect FTE

See references/hris_data.md.

6. Workforce compliance ops (non-legal)

Operational checklist only—counsel owns legal interpretation:

• I-9 completion timing
• Training assignments (harassment, security)
• Work authorization expiry reminders
• Leave balances and LOA tracking handoffs

See references/workforce_compliance_ops.md.

When to load references

• Onboarding/offboarding → references/onboarding_offboarding.md
• Handbook rollout → references/hr_policies_handbook.md
• Review cycles → references/performance_cycles.md
• HRIS fields and audits → references/hris_data.md
• I-9, training, LOA ops → references/workforce_compliance_ops.md
• Lifecycle overview → references/employee_lifecycle.md