The Screening Room: Building Culture Without Compromise

The conversation reveals Abha's refreshingly honest approach to hiring and culture. She talks about why she refuses to panic hire even when asked to double the team in three months, the importance of "surprise reference checks" that catch candidates off guard. She also shares her strong opinions on corporate culture clichés, including why the "we're a family" narrative, and what she'd never delegate to AI no matter how advanced it gets.

Abha's commitment to radical candor and her focus on cultural fit over pure skills makes this episode essential listening for anyone building teams at hypergrowth startups.

At Equip, we’ve spoken to dozens of HR leaders who’ve scaled teams without losing what made their culture special. In this episode, Abha Khurana, Head of People and Culture at Atlys, shares how she’s done exactly that.

The Three Decision-Making Parameters

"When I speak to somebody during recruitment, I always ask them what are the top three decision-making parameters for them to decide their next move. Let's suppose they have two offers, X and Y. How do they decide which one they'll go forward to? Some say location, some say it's the money, some say it's the title, some say it's the flexibility. So basis that, whenever I'm crafting the offer or whenever I'm trying to get somebody on board, I always try to look back and literally deep dive on those three parameters and make sure the offer that we craft is according to that."

It's the kind of insight you'd expect from someone who started in sales. It’s a deceptively simple question, one that surfaces values faster than any assessment. We’ve seen similar patterns among companies using Equip’s assessments to gauge motivation and culture fit early.

The Anti-Panic Hiring Philosophy

"If the CEO came to me and said double the team in three months, a lot of companies end up reaching out to external agencies, external recruitment agencies, so that they can help you hire fast. And honestly, I wouldn't start hiring like my hair is on fire. I'd actually work how we work usually, and it's always better to be a leaner team and understaffed team than to bring in the wrong people and spend months actually trying to fix the culture."

Even with budget and pressure to scale fast, Abha refuses to compromise on process. She'd rather beef up her own recruiting team and maintain the same opening debrief and scrutiny for every role than fall into the trap of panic hiring. It's a counterintuitive stance in the world of hypergrowth startups, but one that prevents costly cultural debt.

Many of Equip’s customers tell us they used to rush hiring decisions to keep up with growth. Adding structured assessments helped them maintain culture without slowing down hiring.

The Surprise Reference Check Strategy

"Instead of speaking with those folks that candidates provide as references, we have LinkedIn nowadays. You can always find who they're reporting to, who are their peers. Just map it yourself on LinkedIn. Let's suppose they're working at Blinkit. Just an example. You go on LinkedIn, go on Blinkit. Let's say it's a backend role. Go to backend and understand which person is actually working in the team. Then do a surprise referral because any reference that have been given by them would always turn out to be well."

Candidate-provided references are inherently biased. Abha's workaround is simple but effective: use LinkedIn to identify actual team members and reach out directly. These "surprise references" have led to both avoided bad hires and confirmed great ones, making them a crucial step in Atlys's hiring process.

Radical Candor in Action

"I do terminate interviews early, but not five minutes in. Let's say the call is up for an hour. Maybe I give that person 15 minutes, understand, and if the conversation is really digressing or really not the way I expected it to be, I'd be very upfront. Maybe, 'Hey, this role is not the right fit for you or maybe the role is not actually the role that you're looking for next.' It saves time for both of us because I don't want to be in a loop where that person's following up, dropping me an email, WhatsApp, what's the update, what's the update because then I have to think, when do I have to send the rejection email? Instead we save time for both of us."

This is radical candor applied to recruiting. While it might feel uncomfortable to cut an interview short, it's actually the most respectful approach. Candidates aren't left in limbo wondering where they stand, and recruiters don't waste time on mis-matched candidates. Having built the people function herself, her perspective feels grounded, not theoretical, a rare trait in fast-scaling environments.

Skills Build Products, Attitude Builds Teams

"I've made this mistake a couple of times where we've hired people who are brilliant at what they did, just not great to work with. They did exceptional work, but the cracks in culture showed up faster. That literally hit me that skills can build a product, but attitude builds a team."

Abha learned this lesson the hard way by hiring someone who shipped fast but was disrespectful to teammates. The person was let go despite their technical brilliance. Now, cultural fit isn't negotiable at Atlys—it's evaluated as rigorously as technical skills through careful interview questions and surprise reference checks.

Working with 700+ companies across 80 countries, we’ve noticed a consistent pattern: teams that assess for both skills and values build stronger collaboration from day one.

The "We're a Family" Culture Cliche

"I never actually loved how founders say, 'we're a family.' In families you forgive people no matter what, even if they mess up again and again, it's okay. But in a team, accountability actually matters. You can care about people and still hold them to high standards, and that's how it works. It's a team setup, like a football team, how the coach holds the team accountable."

This is one of the most overused phrases in startup culture, and Abha calls it out directly. Teams aren't families—they're more like sports teams where everyone has a role, accountability matters, and sometimes people need to be benched or cut from the roster. It's possible to care deeply about people while maintaining high standards.

Not Everyone Needs to Be a Manager

"I think not everybody needs to be a manager. Some people just love doing great work and they would love to just be ICs because they're enjoying the work. And they don't want to manage humans. And I think that's more than okay. The organization shouldn't push them into carving up people management roles for them. They're good as is. They don't have to be managing humans to be an exceptional person or like a five-star employee."

This challenges the traditional corporate ladder where the only path to higher compensation and recognition is people management. At Atlys, individual contributors can be senior ICs doing exceptional work without the pressure to become managers just to progress in their careers.

What AI Can't Replace

"Don't touch anything that needs empathy or maybe a gut instinct, because I think machines don't get people. They're just good at getting patterns, but when there has to be an empathetic, heart conversation, it has to be in person and a person should lead it because they'll be able to get the context more."

When asked what she'd delegate to AI, Abha had a clear answer: data-heavy tasks like appointment letters and reports. But she draws a hard line at anything requiring empathy. If someone pitched her a bot that could counsel her team, she'd "show them the door." Human judgment and emotional intelligence remain irreplaceable.

Great Culture Is When People Feel...

"Great culture is when people feel seen, heard, valued. Everything else follows from that. It's when you're trusted and excited to show up."

This simple definition cuts through all the ping-pong tables and free lunch perks. Culture is about whether people feel genuinely valued and whether they want to be there.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from thousands of assessments run on Equip, it’s that skill tests show what someone can do, but cultural signals show how they’ll do it. The best teams look at both.

All quotes are excerpts from Abha Khurana, People and Culture Leader, as featured on Episode 3 of The Screening Room, recorded Nov 2025

Watch the full episode

This conversation is part of Equip’s “Screening Room” podcast, where we learn from people leaders who’ve scaled with integrity. Watch the full episode below and explore more insights from HR leaders.

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About the podcast: The Screening Room is hosted by Jayanth and focuses on the real stories, strategies, and insights from talent acquisition leaders who are scaling teams and building the future of work.