What happens when HR stops talking about innovation in theory and starts building the systems that make it work?
In this episode of Getting Personal with Compt, Lauren sits down with KK Mayo, Senior Director of People Ops at Ava Labs, to talk about scaling a people function from 45 employees to 250, building better onboarding systems, and creating the “rails” that help fast-growing teams move without breaking.
KK shares how her team thinks about automation, AI enablement, leadership buy-in, and the behind-the-scenes workflows that make People Ops more strategic and less reactive.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How KK helped scale Ava Labs’ People Ops function
- Why efficiency creates more room for strategic thinking
- The story behind Ava Labs’ 98 automated onboarding workflows
- How a 90-day quality-of-hire workflow gives recruiting and managers better feedback
- Why AI adoption should be shared across People Ops, security, and managers
- What companies risk when AI policies exist “somewhere,” but employees don’t know what to do
- The burnout lesson KK learned the hard way while scaling HR
This conversation is about AI, automation, and systems, but more than that, it’s about building work in a way that doesn’t rely on one person holding everything together.
What is Getting Personal with Compt?
In an era where the line between work and life blurs, we're asking: why do we still treat employees less like humans and more like machines? There's plenty of talk about "enhancing the employee experience" but the conversation overlooks the core of it all - the human experience.
Getting Personal with Compt, hosted by Head of Brand and Communications Lauren Schneider, ditches the formalities and gets real with trailblazers and thought leaders who simply give a hoot about humanity. Join us as we explore the successes and challenges of shaping a workplace where people come first.
Stay connected with the movement and follow Compt on LinkedIn, or explore our insights and updates at www.compt.io.