Human Resources Business Partner - Retail

HR Business Partner – Retail

Uni Seoul | Pune (with regular travel to stores across India)

WANTED: OUR STORE TEAMS FAVOURITE PERSON (AND THEIR TOUGHEST COACH)

Every plushie adopted, every OMG this is so cute and every happy customer at Uni Seoul happens because of one thing: a great store team.

We're looking for the person who finds those teams, sets them up to win and makes them want to stay. If you love being on the shop floor more than behind a desk, and you can hire 30 people for a new store without breaking a sweat — read on.

ROLE SNAPSHOT

- Role: HRBP – Retail

- Location: Pune Corporate HQ, with regular travel to stores across 8 cities

- Reports to: Senior Manager / Director – People & Culture

- Works with: Cluster Managers, Area Managers and the Retail Ops team

- Scope: Store teams across 17+ stores in 8 cities, plus 18 new stores in the pipeline

- Experience: 4–7 years in HR, with 2+ years in retail or frontline HR

MEET UNI SEOUL: CUTENESS AS A WAY OF LIVING

Uni Seoul is India's Korean-inspired impulse lifestyle brand. Founded in Pune in 2023, we've grown into 17+ stores across 8 cities in under three years.

Walk into one of our stores and you'll find plushies waiting to be adopted, a walk-in plushie closet, and shelves of quirky stationery, beauty and home finds. Everything is designed in-house and priced between 99 and 2,999.

What we've built so far:

- 17+ stores across Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Chennai

- 60 Cr ARR, on track to close the year at 100 Cr

- NPS above 80 and 4.7+ Google ratings — customers don't just shop, they come back

- 35 Cr Series A (June 2026), led by Riverwalk Holdings and Sauce.vc, with Panthera Peak Ventures and MIXI Global Investments

- 250+ people across our stores, warehouse and HQ — and growing fast

THE PLAYGROUND WE OPERATE IN

India's young consumers are buying small joys, often and on impulse. A 450 plushie, a pastel planner, a K-beauty find — these are everyday treats, not big-ticket decisions.

- The K-wave is mainstream. K-dramas, K-pop and K-beauty have made Korean aesthetics part of everyday Gen Z and millennial life.

- Stores are experiences again. Shoppers want places that are fun to walk into, photograph and share — not just shelves.

- Global players have proven the model. Miniso, Daiso, Pop Mart and Artbox show how big this can get. We're building the homegrown, design-led version for India.

In this business, the store team is the brand. That's why this role matters so much.

WHERE WE'RE HEADED

Our ambition is 500 stores across India, followed by the UAE and Southeast Asia through master franchises. 18 new stores are already in the pipeline.

Every one of them needs a team that's hired, trained and ready on opening day. You'll be the one making that happen.

YOUR MISSION

Make sure every Uni Seoul store is fully staffed, well trained, paid right and happy — from the day it opens.

You'll be the HR face of the company for our store teams: their hiring partner, their go-to for problems, and the Cluster Managers right hand on everything people.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

1. Store hiring: fill every shift, open every store on time

- Own end-to-end hiring for store associates, store managers and area managers across all cities.

- Build a hiring engine for new launches: job portals, campus drives, referrals, walk-in drives and agency partners.

- Keep a ready bench of talent so no store ever runs short-staffed.

- Run hiring on our ATS and track what matters: time to hire, cost per hire and offer-to-join ratio.

2. Onboarding: Day 1 should feel like unwrapping a gift

- Run onboarding for every store joiner — documents, Keka setup, PF/ESIC enrolment and first-week induction.

- Work with Retail Ops to deliver our induction programme for store managers, area managers and cluster managers.

3. Store HR operations: nothing slips through the cracks

- Manage attendance, leave, shift rosters and payroll inputs for store teams on Keka.

- Make sure every store employee is paid right and on time, with minimum wages, PF, ESIC, LWF and professional tax handled correctly in every state.

- Keep store HR records audit-ready: registers, Shops & Establishments licences and employee files.

- Run clean exits: full & final settlements, clearances and exit interviews.

4. Engagement & retention: keep the best people on the floor

- Visit stores regularly and know your store teams by name.

- Track attrition store by store, find out why people leave, and fix it with the Cluster Managers.

- Run store rewards and recognition, incentive payouts and celebrations.

5. Performance & growth: build tomorrow's store leaders

- Support KRAs, monthly store performance reviews and the appraisal cycle for retail teams.

- Spot high performers early and build the path from associate to store manager to cluster manager.

- Find training gaps and coordinate product, customer-experience and grooming training.

6. Employee relations & POSH: be the person store teams trust

- Be the first point of contact for store team grievances, and resolve them fast and fairly.

- Handle disciplinary cases, investigations and warnings as per policy.

- Drive POSH awareness across stores and support the Internal Committee.

YOUR FIRST YEAR, AT A GLANCE

- First 30 days: Visit stores in every city and meet every Cluster Manager. Audit store HR records and compare headcount with the manpower plan.

- By day 60: A hiring pipeline and a ready bench for every live store and the next launches. Store onboarding standardised on Keka.

- By day 90: Store-wise attrition dashboard live. A monthly store HR review with Cluster Managers up and running.

- By month 12: Every new store opens fully staffed. Early attrition trending down. Clean store audits. A visible path from associate to store manager.

How we'll measure you: time to hire, store staffing levels, early attrition (first 90 days), payroll input accuracy, store audit findings and grievance closure time.

WHO YOU ARE

Must-haves:

- 4–7 years in HR, with at least 2 years in retail, QSR, hospitality or another frontline-workforce setup.

- Proven volume hiring for store or frontline roles across multiple cities.

- Working knowledge of payroll inputs and statutory basics: PF, ESIC, minimum wages, LWF, professional tax and Shops & Establishments.

- Comfortable with an HRMS (Keka preferred), an ATS and Excel/Google Sheets — and keen to use AI tools and automation to work faster.

- Happy to travel regularly to stores across cities.

- A graduate degree in any discipline; an MBA/PGDM in HR is a plus.

- Fluent in English and Hindi; a regional language is a bonus.

Bonus points:

- You've hired and set up teams for new store launches.

- You've worked at a fast-growing retail brand or a startup.

The vibe we're looking for:

- As comfortable on the shop floor as at your desk.

- Warm enough to be trusted, firm enough to be respected.

- Organised, fast and relentless — an open position bothers you until it's filled.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE

- A true open-door HQ. Anyone can walk up to anyone, founders included. Good ideas win, whoever they come from.

- Real ownership. Your hiring decides whether a new store opens on time. Few roles have impact this visible.

- Flexible working hours. We care about outcomes, not attendance registers. Plan your day around your best work.

- Learn at startup speed. You'll see retail expansion, new city launches and brand-building up close.

- Grow as we grow. As we scale to 500 stores, this role can grow into leading Retail HR with a team of your own.

- Competitive pay. Strong compensation that rewards great work.

- The cutest perks in India. Employee discounts on everything in our stores. Yes, including the plushies.

- A team that actually has fun. Launch parties, store openings, festivals and celebrations are part of the job description.

THINK YOU'RE THE ONE PROVE IT (WITH STYLE)

Write it to our talent team - [Confidential Information] CC [HIDDEN TEXT] with the subject line Application for HRBP – Retail, attach your CV, and tell us:

1. Why you In 150 words or less, why should our store teams have you in their corner

2. Your hiring hero moment. The toughest store or frontline hiring deadline you've beaten, and how.

3. Your retention fix. One thing you did that made frontline people stay longer.

Consider this your first test. If your email makes us smile, you're halfway there. If it also shows you read every word of this JD, you're further than most.

We can't wait to meet you :)