Your HR team is smart.
They just need AI that works.
HARQ builds and deploys AI agents for recruiting, onboarding, and HR operations — so your People Team can focus on people, not process.
Series A · B · C+ · 25–500+ Employees
Recruiting
4–6 hrs
saved per recruiter/week
HR Ops
70%
of questions auto-answered
Onboarding
40%
faster new hire ramp
0%
of HR time is spent on repetitive manual tasks
0%
reduction in time-to-hire with AI-assisted screening
0x
faster onboarding with automated AI workflows
The Problem
Your People Team is drowning in process.
And the tools are there. The gap is the time and expertise to build them into your stack.
Manual tasks, all day every day
Resume screening, interview scheduling, onboarding paperwork, policy questions — your team is doing things a well-built AI agent could handle in seconds.
AI tools with no one to build them
Everyone knows AI can help with HR workflows. But knowing which tools to use, how to connect them, and how to actually deploy agents — that's a different skill set entirely.
Assuming your systems can't change
HR professionals are smart but bandwidth-constrained. Many assume their HRIS or ATS is a closed box — when it often isn't. The integrations exist. They just need someone who can build them.
Why HARQ
We don't just advise. We build.
Most AI consultants hand you a strategy deck and wish you luck. HARQ deploys working agents into your actual stack.
Agents, not decks
We build and deploy production-ready AI agents. You get a working system, not another slide deck telling you what's possible.
People Team domain expertise
We know recruiting, onboarding, HR ops, and L&D. We build for how your team actually works — not a generic enterprise template.
Right-sized for startups
Priced for Series A–C budgets. No six-month SOW, no 30-person engagement team. Just focused delivery by someone who gets your stage.
Trust-first rollouts
We run in note-only mode for the first two weeks before any automated actions — so you can see exactly what the agent does before it does it.
HARQ vs. The Rest
ApproachStrategy decksBuilt agents
ExpertiseGeneric AIHR-specific
Pricing$50K+ retainersStartup-sized
Timeline6–12 monthsWeeks, not months
RolloutSink or swimTrust-first staging
Built For
High-growth startups at Series A, B, and C+
25–500+ employees·US-based·CPOs & VPs of People·HR Managers
Ready to stop doing what AI should handle?
Book a free 30-minute workflow audit. We'll identify the 3 highest-impact automation opportunities in your People Team stack.
Services
Start where you are. Scale as you grow.
Three tiers built around a crawl → walk → run framework. Each one builds on the last — so you're never starting from scratch when you're ready for more.
Crawl
First Agent
Walk
Discovery & Build
Run
Embedded Partner
Tier 01 · Crawl
1 Workflow
First Agent
Starting at $2,500
You already know the process you want to automate. We scope it, build it, test it, and hand it off — live in your stack in two weeks. No audit, no strategy deck. Just one working agent.
1 fully deployed AI agent of your choice
n8n + Claude API + your existing tools
2-week note-only observation before go-live
DPA and compliance documentation included
30-day post-launch async support
Best for: Teams with a specific pain point and a clear workflow in mind.
★ Most Popular
Tier 02 · Walk
3 Workflows
Discovery & Build
$9,000 – $18,000
Not sure where to focus? We audit your entire People Team stack, identify the 3 highest-ROI opportunities, and build all three. One engagement takes you from scattered processes to a functioning AI layer.
Everything in Tier 01, plus:
Full People Team process audit (ATS, HRIS, comms)
3 highest-ROI workflows identified and prioritized
3 AI agents designed, built, and deployed
Team training and handoff docs for each agent
60-day post-launch support
Best for: Teams ready to invest in AI across multiple workflows at once.
Tier 03 · Run
Ongoing
Embedded AI Partner
$5,000 – $7,500/mo
Your AI layer is live. Now we grow it. HARQ stays embedded as your on-call AI build partner — expanding, optimizing, and maintaining your agent ecosystem every month as your team scales.
Everything in Tier 02, plus:
1–2 new agent builds per month
Ongoing performance monitoring and optimization
Priority intake for new workflow requests
Quarterly roadmap planning sessions
Dedicated Slack channel for async collaboration
Best for: Teams that have seen results and want to keep building.
Workflows We Build
Nine ready to deploy — and anything else on your list.
These are our most-requested automations, built and battle-tested. But if your People Team does it, there's a good chance we can build the agent for it. The nine below are a starting point, not a ceiling.
AI Resume Screener
Interview Scheduler
Onboarding Buddy Bot
Policy Q&A Agent
Performance Review Drafter
Job Description Generator
Candidate Outreach Agent
Offboarding Workflow
L&D Content Curator
Don't see your workflow? Bring it to us.
If your People Team does it, there's a good chance HARQ can automate it — whether it's one of these nine or something we've never built before.
Tell us what you need
Not sure which tier fits?
Start with a free workflow audit. We'll tell you honestly where you are, which tier makes sense, and — if you're ready to crawl — exactly which workflow to automate first.
About HARQ
Built by someone who's been in HR. Powered by AI.
HARQ (pronounced "hark") was founded on a simple observation: People Teams are smart, capable, and overwhelmed. The AI tools to help them exist. But implementing those tools — building the agents, connecting the systems, making it actually work — requires a skill set most HR teams don't have bandwidth to develop.
That's the gap HARQ fills. We're not here to sell you software or hand you a strategy deck. We build the agents, deploy them into your stack, and make sure your team knows exactly how they work before anything runs automatically.
Our name comes from "hark" — to listen. Because the best AI implementations start with actually understanding how your team works, what's slowing them down, and where automation will genuinely help.
The HARQ Approach
01
Listen first
We audit your current workflows before recommending a single tool.
02
Build the agent
We do the technical work — stack connection, prompt engineering, testing.
03
Trust-first rollout
Note-only mode for two weeks. You validate everything before it runs automatically.
04
Handoff with confidence
Training, documentation, and ongoing support so your team owns it.
Our Values
What guides every engagement
Build, don't just advise
Every engagement ends with something working in your stack. Strategy without implementation isn't our business.
Respect the buyer's intelligence
HR professionals are not intimidated by technology. They're time-constrained. We treat them accordingly.
Remove friction from decisions
Our pricing is set so the right person in your organization can say yes without escalating to a CFO.
Trust before automation
We never flip a switch and hope. Every agent runs in observation mode first. You approve everything you see.
People-first, always
AI should make HR teams more human, not less. We build tools that free up time for the work only people can do.
Right-sized for your stage
We're built for Series A–C, not Fortune 500. Our process, pricing, and timelines reflect how growth-stage companies operate.
Let's build something together.
Start with a free 30-minute workflow audit. No pitch, no pressure — just an honest look at where AI can help.
Get in Touch
Let's talk about your People Team.
Book a free 30-minute workflow audit. We'll look at your current stack, identify the highest-impact automation opportunities, and tell you exactly what's realistic for your team and budget.
No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about where AI can actually help.
People Teams handle some of the most sensitive data in any company. This document explains exactly how HARQ approaches that responsibility — the regulations that apply, how we design every agent with compliance in mind, and what we ask of our clients in return.
Before a single line of workflow logic is written, HARQ establishes the data handling principles that govern the entire engagement. These aren't aspirations — they are structural decisions that shape how every agent is designed, built, and handed off.
🔐
Signed DPA Included in Every Engagement
A Data Processing Addendum is included as a standard exhibit in every HARQ Master Services Agreement. It defines exactly what data we process, for what purpose, how long it is retained, and which sub-processors we use. You will never work with HARQ on a live system without a signed DPA in place.
👤
Human-in-the-Loop on Every Consequential Decision
No HARQ-built agent makes a final hiring, rejection, or employment decision autonomously. Every agent surfaces recommendations for a human reviewer to act on. This is non-negotiable — it protects your team legally, satisfies GDPR Article 22, and keeps your people in control of decisions that affect other people.
📉
Data Minimization by Design
We build workflows that process the minimum personal data required to accomplish the task. We do not log raw PII in intermediate systems, do not accumulate data outside the client's ATS or HRIS as the system of record, and configure data retention to match your own retention policies.
🧪
Synthetic Data During Development
Real candidate and employee data is never used during the build and testing phase. HARQ uses anonymized, synthetic datasets that mirror the structure of your data without exposing actual individuals. The transition from test environment to production requires your sign-off.
👁️
Two-Week Observation Mode Before Any Automation
Every HARQ deployment begins in note-only mode. The agent runs, evaluates, and writes what it would do — but takes no automated actions. Your team reviews its outputs for two weeks before anything goes live. This is how we catch any unexpected data handling behaviors before they matter.
📋
Full Documentation on Handoff
Every engagement concludes with a plain-English explanation of what each agent does, what data it touches, and how decisions are made — suitable for sharing with your employees, candidates, or legal team if asked. You own everything we build; you should also be able to explain everything we build.
02 · The Technology Stack
Every tool in the chain has a signed DPA.
HARQ acts as a data processor — meaning we process personal data on your behalf using third-party tools. Every tool in our standard stack has a Data Processing Agreement in place. Here's the breakdown.
What a DPA means in practice: A Data Processing Agreement contractually obligates each vendor to: only process data on our documented instructions, maintain appropriate security measures, support your rights as data controller (including deletion and access requests), and not use your data to train their models or share it with third parties for their own purposes.
Tool
Role in Workflow
DPA Status
Key Data Handling Notes
Anthropic (Claude API)
AI reasoning and generation engine
Processes resume text, policy documents, and workflow prompts to generate structured outputs and recommendations
✓ DPA in Place
Anthropic does not train on API inputs. Data is not retained between API calls. EU Standard Contractual Clauses available for GDPR coverage.
n8n
Workflow automation and orchestration
Routes data between systems, triggers workflows on events, manages automation logic
✓ DPA in Place
SOC 2 Type II certified. GDPR-compliant, with a pre-signed DPA available. Workflow data is not retained beyond execution logs, which are configurable; on self-hosted n8n, HARQ controls the data environment entirely.
Airtable
Structured data staging and tracking
Used as a lightweight staging layer for workflow status tracking; not the primary system of record for PII
✓ DPA in Place
Business-tier Airtable with DPA coverage. PII is not stored long-term — it is passed through and cleared per the defined retention schedule.
Your HR Tech Stack
ATS, HRIS, payroll, L&D — your systems of record
Primary data source and destination for People Team workflows. HARQ reads from and writes back to your existing systems via API — they remain your systems of record (e.g. Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, Rippling, Gusto, BambooHR).
✓ Covered by Your Agreement
HARQ's access is governed by your existing vendor agreements. We operate as an authorized integration, not an independent data processor of your HR system data.
Google Workspace / Slack
Communication and notification delivery
Used for notifications, scheduling, and employee-facing communications in onboarding and HR Ops workflows
✓ Covered by Your Agreement
HARQ connects to your existing instances using your credentials. We do not store messages or email content — we trigger sends only.
03 · Regulatory Landscape
The laws that apply to AI in People Teams.
Compliance for AI in HR is not one-size-fits-all — it depends on where your company operates, where your employees and candidates are located, and which workflows you're automating. HARQ is familiar with all of the major frameworks and designs accordingly.
US · California
CCPA / CPRA
California Consumer Privacy Act & California Privacy Rights Act. Applies to any company doing business in California, regardless of headquarters.
Employees and job applicants in California have the right to know what personal data is collected about them, the right to request deletion, and certain opt-out rights. The CPRA created the California Privacy Protection Agency, which can investigate AI-driven employment decisions. A DPA with all vendors handling California resident data is legally required.
HARQ approach: DPA included as standard. Data minimization practices reduce CCPA surface area. Deletion workflows can be configured on request.
US · New York City
NYC Local Law 144
Automated Employment Decision Tools regulation. Applies to any employer using AI to screen or rank candidates for NYC-based roles.
Employers using an AI screening tool for NYC-based hiring must conduct an annual third-party bias audit, publish the results, and notify candidates that an automated tool is in use. Fines range from $375–$1,500 per violation per day for non-compliance.
HARQ approach: We flag this during intake for NYC-hiring clients, design workflows to support audit documentation, and can connect you with qualified bias audit providers.
US · Federal
EEOC Guidance on AI
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2023 guidance establishes that employers remain liable for discriminatory AI outcomes, even from third-party tools.
If an AI screening or ranking tool produces outcomes with disparate impact on a protected class, the employer is liable regardless of whether the bias was intentional. This is why rubric design is a legally consequential act, not just a UX preference.
HARQ approach: All screening rubrics are skills-based, documented, and reviewed. We never use criteria that correlate with protected classes. Rubric methodology is included in handoff documentation.
EU / Global
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation. Applies whenever any EU resident's personal data is processed — regardless of where your company is based.
GDPR requires a lawful basis for every processing activity, strict limits on automated decision-making with significant effects (Article 22), and mandatory Data Processing Agreements with every sub-processor. If you have EU-based employees or candidates, GDPR applies even if your company is US-based.
HARQ approach: All tools in our stack have GDPR-compliant DPAs with EU Standard Contractual Clauses available. Human-in-loop design satisfies Article 22. We flag EU data scope during intake.
US · Illinois
Illinois AI Video Interview Act
Applies to any employer using AI to analyze candidate video interviews for Illinois-based applicants.
Employers must notify candidates before using AI video analysis, obtain consent, limit who the video is shared with, and destroy video data within 30 days of a rejection. Illinois BIPA also applies to any processing of biometric identifiers including facial geometry and voiceprints.
HARQ approach: We do not build workflows that analyze video interview content. If you use video interview tools, we integrate with metadata only — not audio or video content.
EU · Emerging
EU AI Act
Effective August 2026 for high-risk AI systems. Explicitly classifies AI tools used in employment and recruitment decisions as high-risk.
High-risk AI systems require technical documentation, conformity assessments, human oversight mechanisms, and transparency to affected individuals. The compliance posture HARQ builds — human-in-loop, documented rubrics, data minimization — is already substantially aligned with EU AI Act requirements.
HARQ approach: Our design principles are structurally aligned with EU AI Act high-risk requirements. We proactively discuss this for any EU-facing engagement.
04 · What We Build
Capable — and deliberate about the limits.
Responsible AI implementation means knowing not just what's technically possible, but what's appropriate to automate and what isn't. The decisions in the right column below aren't limitations — they're choices that protect your company and the people your workflows affect.
✓
We Build This
Resume screening with documented, skills-based rubricsAI evaluates candidates against a transparent, role-specific rubric. Scores and rationale are written back to your ATS. A human recruiter reviews every recommendation before any candidate is advanced or declined.
Interview scheduling automationCoordinates calendar availability, sends invitations, and handles reschedule requests — reducing recruiter administrative burden without touching protected data categories or making autonomous decisions.
Candidate outreach personalizationGenerates personalized outreach messages for recruiter review before sending. The recruiter reads and sends every message — the agent drafts, the human decides.
Inclusive job description generationProduces complete, on-brand job descriptions from a hiring manager intake form. Systematically removes biased language. No personal data processed — one of the lowest-risk workflows in the catalog.
Onboarding workflow orchestrationTriggers IT provisioning, equipment requests, document delivery, Slack welcomes, and 30/60/90-day check-ins based on confirmed start date. Operates on logistical data, not sensitive personal data categories.
HR policy Q&A botSurfaces answers to employee policy questions from your company documentation. Does not store conversation history in uncontrolled systems. Does not access individual employee records.
Offboarding checklist automationNotifies IT, finance, payroll, and the departing employee's manager with role-specific tasks. Tracks completion. HR retains final approval before access is revoked.
L&D content curationPersonalizes learning paths based on role, stated skill gaps, and completion history. Does not infer or store health-related or disability-related data to drive recommendations.
—
We Don't Build This
Fully automated candidate rejection without human reviewAny system that rejects candidates without a human reviewing the decision creates GDPR Article 22 exposure and elevates EEOC disparate impact risk. Every HARQ screening workflow requires human review before a negative outcome is recorded.
Video interview content analysisWe do not build agents that connect to video interview platforms to analyze audio, video, or facial expressions. Illinois law imposes strict consent and data destruction requirements. We integrate with metadata only.
Inferences about protected-class characteristicsWe do not prompt AI to infer, flag, or score candidates based on attributes that correlate with protected classes — including name origin, graduation year, school prestige, or zip code. Even unintentional proxies create legal exposure.
Autonomous compensation or equity decisionsAI can surface benchmarks and flag anomalies, but we do not build systems that recommend or set individual compensation, equity grants, or bonuses without explicit human approval at each step.
Workflows that use real PII in testingWe do not use actual candidate or employee data during the build and testing phase. All development uses synthetic, anonymized data. Real data enters the system only after your team has reviewed and approved the workflow.
Data retention beyond your defined policyWe do not allow PII to accumulate in workflow systems beyond the retention period defined in your DPA. Staging data is cleared on a schedule you approve. Your ATS remains the source of truth.
Integrations with health or benefits dataWe do not build workflows that connect to benefits administration platforms, EAP systems, or any system where protected health information may be present. These require specialized HIPAA-compliant infrastructure.
Biometric data processing of any kindHARQ does not build any workflow that touches biometric identifiers — facial geometry, voiceprints, fingerprints, or similar data — regardless of jurisdiction.
05 · Regulatory Environments
How HARQ navigates your specific context.
During your free workflow audit, HARQ asks a set of scoping questions to identify any regulatory requirements that should shape the design of your agents before we build a single workflow.
How we find out: Every engagement begins with five compliance scoping questions built into the workflow audit: whether you have California employees or candidates, whether you hire for NYC-based roles using any screening tools, whether you have EU-based employees, whether you hold federal government contracts, and whether you're in a regulated industry.
CCPA / CPRA
California Employees & Candidates
Handled
Virtually every startup in HARQ's target market has California employees or receives California-based applications. CCPA compliance is a baseline, not an edge case — which is why a signed DPA is included in every engagement as standard.
How We Handle It
Signed DPA covers CCPA obligations for HARQ as data processor. Data minimization practices reduce the volume of CA resident data flowing through third-party systems. Deletion request workflows can be configured on request.
NYC Local Law 144
Hiring for New York City Roles
Let's Discuss
If you're using an AI screening tool for candidates applying to NYC-based roles, you are subject to Local Law 144. This requires an annual third-party bias audit and candidate disclosure — both need to be in place before the agent goes live.
How We Handle It
We flag this at intake. We design your screening workflow to generate the documentation a bias auditor needs. We can connect you with qualified AEDT audit providers and help you draft candidate disclosure language.
GDPR
EU Employees or International Hiring
Let's Discuss
Many US startups don't realize they become GDPR-covered the moment they hire one EU-based remote employee. If EU residents' data is in your ATS, GDPR applies to that data regardless of where your company is headquartered.
How We Handle It
All tools in the HARQ stack have GDPR-compliant DPAs with EU Standard Contractual Clauses available. For clients with significant EU data, we add a GDPR-specific addendum documenting the lawful basis for each processing activity.
EEOC + Disparate Impact
AI-Assisted Screening (All US Hiring)
Handled by Design
EEOC guidance applies to all US employers. The key risk is disparate impact: an AI screening tool that produces statistically worse outcomes for a protected class creates liability for the employer, even if the bias was unintentional.
How We Handle It
HARQ builds all screening rubrics around skills and role-specific outcomes — never proxies that correlate with protected characteristics. During the two-week observation period, we review scoring patterns for signs of skew before automation goes live.
Illinois BIPA / AI Video Act
Illinois Candidates or Employees
Handled by Scope
Illinois has some of the strictest AI-in-hiring regulations in the country. BIPA covers biometric data; the AI Video Interview Act covers any use of AI to analyze candidate video interviews for Illinois residents.
How We Handle It
HARQ does not build video analysis workflows. If you use platforms like HireVue or Spark Hire, we integrate with scheduling metadata only — the AI never touches the video content. This eliminates BIPA and AI Video Act risk at the architectural level.
HIPAA / Regulated Industries
Healthcare, Financial Services, Defense
Requires Scoping
Companies in regulated industries often face vendor compliance requirements beyond standard DPAs — including HIPAA Business Associate Agreements, SOC 2 Type II documentation, or OFCCP-compliant audit trails.
How We Handle It
We surface these questions at intake and scope honestly. For some regulated-industry clients, we focus initial engagements on non-hiring workflows that carry lower regulatory complexity. We will not scope work we cannot deliver compliantly.
06 · Your Responsibilities
What we need from you to stay compliant.
HARQ handles the workflow design, data minimization architecture, and vendor DPAs. But as the data controller — the entity that determines the purpose of processing your employees' and candidates' data — you retain certain obligations that only you can fulfill.
01
Your Own Privacy Policy and Data Notices
Your company's privacy policy and any candidate or employee data notices need to reflect how you use AI tools in HR processes. HARQ can tell you what the agents do — your legal team needs to ensure that's disclosed appropriately to candidates and employees under applicable law.
02
Bias Audit (for NYC Hiring)
If you hire for NYC-based roles using an AI screening tool, NYC Local Law 144 requires you to commission an annual bias audit from an independent third party. This is a client obligation. We design your workflow to support the audit — you engage the auditor and publish the results.
03
Your HRIS and ATS Data Governance
HARQ accesses your ATS and HRIS via API as an authorized integration. Your own data governance policies, user access controls, and retention settings within those platforms are your responsibility. We build to respect those settings — we cannot enforce them for you.
04
Employee and Candidate Data Subject Requests
If an employee or candidate submits a data access or deletion request under CCPA or GDPR, you are the data controller responsible for responding. HARQ will support you by clarifying what data our workflows processed — but the obligation to respond is yours.
05
Rubric Review and Approval
Before any AI screening agent goes live, your team reviews and approves the evaluation rubric in writing. This is both a compliance requirement and a practical necessity — you know your role requirements better than anyone. Your approval is required before we proceed.
06
Human Review on Consequential Decisions
HARQ builds human-in-loop into every workflow — but the humans in the loop are your team. That means your recruiters, HR managers, and people leaders are active participants in every consequential decision the workflow surfaces.
A note on legal counsel: This document is educational — it explains HARQ's compliance approach and the regulatory landscape, but it is not legal advice. We strongly recommend that you engage your own legal counsel to review your data processing obligations, privacy notices, and any jurisdiction-specific requirements before deploying AI in your People Team workflows.
Bring your compliance questions to the free workflow audit.
Every audit begins with a compliance scoping conversation — where you operate, who you hire, what regulations apply to your situation. We'll tell you honestly what's in scope, what needs extra care, and what we can build for you with confidence.