AVALAHI
Interim · Fractional HR leadership
Build the people function your company needs now, and for what's next.
The hardest part of building HR at a growing company is deciding what comes first. That's where I start.
A few ways I can help
I step in as an interim or fractional Head of People for growing tech companies around the world: building HR from the ground up, modernizing what's already there, or keeping it running while you find your next leader. You get a clear roadmap, the programs to deliver it, and a senior leader who does the work alongside your team.
| The People search that won't close |
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| Interim or Fractional |
| Your first senior HR role has been open for months. Often the job description is asking for everything at once, because it isn't yet clear what needs to happen first to build a foundation and get momentum going. Strong candidates pick up on that. |
| Your business is growing faster than your people function |
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| Interim or Fractional |
| A new funding round, an acquisition, a shift in business model or a new CEO can change a lot very quickly. Hiring picks up, roles change, and the quick fixes that get you through this year can turn into next year's problems. |
| Your HR leader just left |
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| Interim |
| A good search takes four to six months, and the day-to-day doesn't wait. I'll keep things steady in the meantime and hand your next leader a function in good shape. |
| HR that was built for how work used to happen |
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| Fractional |
| You already have HR in place, but it was designed for a smaller company or an earlier way of working. I can help you modernize how HR is organized and run, including where AI fits, while keeping what already works. |
| 3x |
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| Chief People Officer / CHRO |
| $6.5M |
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| attrition costs avoided in one year |
| 1,800 to 3,100 |
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| employees in 18 months |
| 12 |
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| acquisitions integrated |
How we'd work together on a build or modernization
| 1. Assess |
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| A People Foundations Assessment looks at what you have, what's missing and what matters most for your business. It ends with a 12–24 month roadmap, in priority order. |
| 2. Build |
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| We put the most important pieces in place first: the programs, systems and processes your team relies on, with AI built in where it saves real time or improves the employee experience. |
| 3. Hire |
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| We write the permanent role around where the company is going, and I help you find and choose the right person for it. |
| 4. Handoff |
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| Your new leader starts with a working function and a plan they can own. I stay involved long enough to make the handover smooth. |
Hands-on, from start to finish
I partner with you to set a plan that clearly ties to the business priorities, drive the decisions required during execution and lead the change. I do the senior work myself: comp design, executive hiring, the hard employee relations cases. When specialists are needed for payroll, systems or administration, we bring in the right ones and I run the work with them week to week, so nothing gets handed off and left alone. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and on site with your team when the work calls for it.
| Interim |
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| Full coverage for a set period while you search. |
| Fractional |
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| A set number of days a week for an agreed period of time. |
What I build
I've designed, built or rebuilt every part of a People function, at companies from several hundred employees to more than 12,000.
| Talent acquisition |
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| A recruiting engine that can land specialized talent and executives, not just fill seats. |
| Culture and change |
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| Communication and change management that keep people with you through growth, acquisitions and reorganizations. |
| Performance and growth |
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| Goals, reviews, calibration, and succession planning managers actually use, and career growth that resonates with people. |
| People analytics |
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| Dashboards, KPIs and insight your leadership team and board can make decisions with. |
| Compensation |
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| Job architecture, incentive plans and equity programs that hold up as you scale and when investors look closely. |
| Global HR operations and systems |
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| AI-enabled People operations that let a small team run like a big one, plus clear guidance on entity and employer-of-record decisions as you expand. |
| Benefits |
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| Competitive benefits in every country you operate in, managed so costs don't quietly climb at each renewal. |
| Managers and employee relations |
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| Real support for first-time managers, and fair, steady handling of the hard cases. |
| Leadership and development |
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| Coaching, competencies and training options for all levels of an organization. |
Some of my recent work
| SaaS company |
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| Cutting attrition nearly in half |
| With clearer goals and reviews, a redesigned bonus program, well-built change management plans, and real career growth plans, voluntary attrition fell from 32% to 17% and regrettable attrition from 55% to 13%, avoiding about $6.5M in cost in a single year. |
| SaaS company · 2024 |
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| Career growth plans, drafted with AI |
| Nobody wants to write a development plan from a blank page. We used AI to draft a tailored growth plan for each person from competencies, past reviews and manager notes, then managers and employees refined it together. Career conversations were rated 50% higher in a user pulse survey, and people reported saving 10–20 hours each. |
| Global IT services firm |
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| Scaling fast without losing people |
| The company grew from 1,800 to 3,100 employees in 18 months. Predictive attrition analysis and early manager coaching helped cut voluntary attrition from 43% to 28% at the height of the Great Resignation, while Glassdoor ratings rose from 2.9 to 3.8. |
| Global enterprise technology company |
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| A new technology business inside an established one |
| I helped build the team and operating model behind a new IoT platform business, including a small design-thinking team that co-created early proofs of concept with major enterprise customers, and led the people side of acquiring a data analytics company. |
| SaaS company |
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| Better benefits while managing cost |
| We expanded benefit options for employees in the US, UK, Canada and India while avoiding $950K of cost increases. |
About Megan
I've spent more than 25 years in HR leadership, most of it in fast-growing and transforming tech companies. I've been Chief People Officer or CHRO three times, at Brillio, Xactly and One Inc. Before that, I spent 13 years at Hitachi Vantara leading HR business partnership and the people side of M&A as the company grew from 2,500 to 12,000 employees, and early in my career at Cisco, I redesigned global operations and managed compensation programs.I've led teams and programs across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and I know when to bring in local specialists and how to translate their advice into plain business terms. I've worked closely with CEOs, investors and boards through hypergrowth, acquisitions, restructuring, technology disruptions and a few complete changes of business model, and I'm as comfortable with the strategy as I am rolling up my sleeves to get it done.Having built the large-company version of most HR programs, I know which pieces a growing company needs now and which can safely wait.
I also take on focused projects: People Foundations Assessment · operating model and organization design · people due diligence and M&A integration · change management and communication · AI-enabled workforce planning
Let's start with a conversation
If any of this sounds familiar, 20 minutes is usually enough for us both to tell whether I can help.
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