It usually started with a knock on the door.
“Hey, is this procedure covered?”
“I am at the doctor and forgot my insurance card. Can you send it?”

To employees, these felt like quick requests. But for Heerva Macwan, Vice President of Human Resources at Hackman Capital Partners, they were rarely simple. What looked like a five-minute favor often stretched into two hours of work. “An employee would think they were asking something simple,” she explains. “But on my end, it could take up to two hours to find the answer, verify it, and send it back.”

With a two-person HR team, every question mattered. Heerva managed a lot of benefits and strategy while her colleague focused on billing. But together, they were still responsible for every request, every compliance check, and every benefits issue.

Hackman Capital Partners is a small company in headcount but a big name in the real estate industry. Based in Culver City, California, it is the largest single owner-operator of studio space in the world. Despite its scale, the HR team was just Heerva and her generalist. That structure meant that every problem landed directly on their desks. And because Hackman’s culture is in-person and highly relational, employees were used to walking straight into HR for answers. “I knew our employees were supported,” she recalls, “but I was burning hours on work that did not need to be that hard.”

The breaking point

By the time Heerva joined Nava, she had learned to live with the interruptions. Her expectation was not transformation, just continuity. She had not been searching for a new way of working. She believed she was happy with the broker support she already had.

What she did not realize was how much better things could be until Nava introduced her to HQ.

The first time she used HQ

When Heerva first tested HQ, she was skeptical. She had managed without a platform like it for years. But the very first time she tried it, she understood what she had been missing.

“The first time I used HQ, it saved me hours,” she says. “A question that used to take me two hours, I had the answer in five minutes.”

For Heerva, the change was immediate. She no longer needed to spend afternoons digging through plan documents or waiting for responses. She could type her question into HQ and have a clear, accurate response right away. What once derailed her day was resolved in minutes.

She also discovered that HQ could help her communicate. Instead of starting from scratch, she could use HQ to draft clear, employee-ready emails. It was faster, easier, and gave her back time to spend elsewhere. “HQ feels like an extension of our team,” she says. “It is like having another HR person on staff.”

From constant interruptions to real impact

Before HQ, Heerva’s days were filled with interruptions. A knock on the door that seemed minor could throw off her entire afternoon.

With HQ, she regained control of her time. “Now I can finally focus on people,” she says. “The heart of HR can flourish when you are not buried in admin work.”

Instead of sitting behind her desk chasing documents, she can walk the floor, connect with employees, and spend time on culture. HQ gave her the breathing room to move from firefighting to forward-looking.

Employees learn to trust HQ, too

At first, employees were slow to adopt HQ and the Nava app. They were used to going straight to HR. But once new hires were introduced to HQ on day one, adoption quickly improved.
“Now they expect to use it,” she says. “They love that their ID card is always in the app. They are not chasing me for it anymore.”

The feedback came not through praise but through silence. “No one comes to HR to say, ‘This is amazing,’” she explains. “But I know it is working because the complaints are gone. In HR, no news is good news.”

Facing renewals with confidence

Renewal season was always one of the most draining times of year. Even if Hackman’s benefits stayed the same, the process meant multiple spreadsheet versions, recalculations, and back-and-forth with finance.

This year, HQ will change that. “I am not a numbers person,” Heerva admits. “HQ will help me walk into renewal meetings already armed with answers.”

Instead of waiting on versions of spreadsheets, she can use HQ’s modeling tools to test contribution levels, evaluate tradeoffs, and prepare for CFO questions in real time. What once felt like endless versions now feels like a streamlined process.

More than she expected

What makes Heerva’s story remarkable is that she was not searching for change. She thought she was fine. She only wanted stability. But HQ showed her how much better her HR function could be.

“I did not think I needed more,” she says. “But Nava completely exceeded my expectations. HQ is a game changer.”

Her advice to other HR leaders is clear: stop confusing “fine” with “great.”

“Almost everyone who says they are happy does not know how much better it could be,” she says. “Nava and HQ do not just give you service. They give you time back. And you cannot put a price on that.”

The real lesson? Sometimes the biggest transformation comes not from searching for change, but from discovering what you never knew you were missing.