Why Bolt eliminated traditional HR and reset with a new People Ops approach

Earlier this year, Ryan Breslow returned to the helm of Bolt, the fintech company he founded in 2014.

Breslow’s return as CEO saw him dismantle a lot of the HR policies he had implemented over the past ten years – notably unlimited PTO and a four-day workweek.

He also came to the conclusion that Bolt’s HR department was misaligned with the company’s business goals, so he eliminated it and replaced it with People Operations.

“When Ryan returned to the business, we took the opportunity to challenge every structure at Bolt,” Kelly Lawson Pihl, Head of People Operations at Bolt, tells UNLEASH in an exclusive interview.

“After several internal experiments, we concluded that the traditional HR model wasn’t built for the speed and clarity we expect at Bolt”, adds Lawson Pihl.

She is clear that the shift from HR to People Operations was not “a rebrand”; “it was a reset”.

UNLEASH was keen to find out why People Ops is different to HR at Bolt.

Could this approach work for other organizations?

From ambiguity to clarity: Bolt eliminates HR and embraces People Operations

Bolt employs 159 employees across the world, and operates with an “execution-focused mindset”, according to Lawson Pihl.

The intention behind away from HR and towards People Operations is to move away from “ambiguity and trend-driven perks” and towards “structure and results”.

It involves rebuilding Bolt’s “culture around clarity and ownership”, which for Lawson Pihl is what makes the fintech a great place to work.

“People Operations was designed to remove friction, empower managers, and eliminate unnecessary layers between teams and decision-makers”, which enables high-performance.

Rather than separating employees from action, “People Ops enables faster decision-making and clearer expectations”, according to Lawson Pihl.

This approach doesn’t mean that Bolt isn’t thinking about “culture, compliance and employee wellbeing”, in fact, “we believe those goals are best achieved with fewer middle layers, not more”.

There’s no “unnecessary friction”; “serious concerns still escalate to People Ops or leadership, but day-to-day authority sits with managers”.

For Lawson Pihl, this approach “empowers teams to move quickly while managing oversight where it matters most”.

Kelly Lawson Pihl, Head of People Operations, Bolt.

UNLEASH asked specifically how the shift to People Ops was received by Bolt’s employees, and how Lawson Pihl and her team have dealt with change management challenges.

“We were clear from the start that the move to People Operations wasn’t about eliminating support for employees, it was about redesigning how that support works,” she shares.

Our focus was on removing friction, not people” – communicating the approach early, and often, was essential.

“Overall, the response has been positive. Teams appreciate the clarity and the directness of the new approach,” Lawson Pihl tells UNLEASH.

On the back of this, should other companies follow Bolt’s example and more from HR to People Ops?

Lawson Pihl’s advice is “to start with the business outcomes you’re solving for and work backward. HR has traditionally been built around processes and policies, which are important, but often disconnected from how the business actually operates”.

“People Ops at Bolt takes an agile approach”, and treats HR as a more of a product aka “something you continuously improve based on data, feedback and business needs”.

AI and the future of work at Bolt

Ultimately, for Bolt, the shift to People Operations “reflects what high-performing, AI-era companies will require: speed, clarity, and ownership”, Lawson Pihl tells UNLEASH.

As she wrote on LinkedIn, Bolt is not just talking about AI – “we’re learning it, using it and building with it”.

“People Operations gives us the flexibility to move fast on AI adoption without getting slowed down by outdated processes or overly centralized decision-making”.

The People Ops function itself is leveraging AI, for instance to automate administrative work, for transcripts and notes, and to analyze employee survey data and surface insights. “This has made it faster and more efficient to translate employee input into meaningful change”.

AI is top of Lawson Pihl’s to-do list over the next five years.

“Bolt should have a People function that’s predictive, using data and AI to anticipate needs before they become blockers, designing talent systems that scale globally without adding complexity and creating an employee experience that’s as frictionless as our product experience,” she tells UNLEASH.

Ultimately, “by 2030, People Ops at Bolt should be as core to our market leadership as the technology we ship”, Lawson Pihl concludes.