Why organisations turn to HR consulting

Most organisations reach a point where people’s issues begin to constrain strategy: growth outpaces structure, policies lag reality, performance management feels burdensome, or key roles remain unfilled.

Independent HR consulting helps management to:

• Translate business strategy into practical people and organisation plans.
• Design HR policies, processes and systems that are fair, compliant and workable.
• Improve how performance, rewards and careers are managed across levels.
• Access specialist expertise for specific projects without large permanent overheads.

Hmsa’s Human Capital Consulting practice is sector agnostic. We work with promoters, CXOs and HR leaders across manufacturing, services, financial services, infrastructure, development and public sector entities, helping them address concrete people challenges without losing sight of business realities.

Our HR consulting and people advisory services

We provide end-to-end HR consulting as well as focused project support. Based on your brochure, these are the core service modules we should showcase.

1. Organisational restructuring and organisation design

We help organisations realign structure, roles and reporting to their strategy and scale. This includes:

• Reviewing current organisation structure, layers and spans of control.
• Designing structures (functional, business unit, matrix or hybrid) that support growth.
• Redefining department mandates, role profiles and job descriptions.
• Supporting manpower rationalisation and redeployment where needed.

2. Capacity building and institutional strengthening

We evaluate the ability of teams and institutions to meet current and future demands and design interventions to strengthen them.

Typical work includes:

• Assessing individual and team capability (education, experience, learning ability, role fit).
• Analysing capacity to handle projected business volumes and complexity.
• Designing capacity building plans, training schedules, and role changes.

3. Training needs assessment and learning design

We conduct structured training needs assessments to identify knowledge and skill gaps, then design practical learning solutions.

This usually involves:

• Analysing “as-is” capabilities versus “to-be” requirements from strategy.
• Designing surveys and interviews to map gaps across levels.
• Recommending training, lateral hiring or role redesign as appropriate.

For many clients, this forms the basis of an annual learning and development plan.

4. HR policies, employee handbook and HR manuals

We develop HR policies and employee handbooks that create a common understanding of rules, processes and expectations across the organisation.

Typical coverage includes:

• Recruitment, induction and probation.
• Promotions, transfers and career progression.
• Remuneration, increments, variable pay and benefits.
• Leave, working hours and attendance.
• Grievance and disciplinary procedures, separation scenarios.

Policies are drafted in clear language, aligned to Indian legal requirements and your organisation’s culture, and integrated with SOPs and process manuals where relevant.

5. Compensation benchmarking, structuring and benefits

We design compensation structures that are market-informed, internally equitable and linked to performance.

Our support includes:

• Benchmarking roles against industry pay levels using credible data.
• Designing salary structures, pay ranges and grade frameworks.
• Advising on fixed vs variable pay mix, sales incentives and recognition schemes.
• Reviewing benefits (insurance, allowances, long-term incentives) for competitiveness and cost effectiveness.

Where relevant, we align compensation design with performance management and ESOP schemes.

6. Performance management system (PMS) design and implementation

We design performance management systems that link individual effort to organisational outcomes and are practical to run.

Our work typically covers:

• Translating business strategy into cascading goals and KPIs.
• Designing PMS frameworks (KRA/KPI, balanced scorecard, competency-based models).
• Simplifying forms, timelines and review processes.
• Designing rating scales, calibration mechanisms and linkages to rewards.
• Supporting pilot runs, communication and manager training.

We have experience implementing PMS across multi-location and multi-function organisations, including survey-led engagement work and balanced scorecard-based systems.

7. Executive recruitment for critical roles

For leadership and niche roles, we provide targeted executive recruitment support using our own networks and research.

This includes:

• Defining sharp role and person specifications aligned to strategy.
• Identifying and discreetly approaching potential candidates, often from comparable organisations.
• Supporting screening, assessment and selection in consultation with the client.

This is not a volume recruitment service; it is focused search for roles that are critical to your success.

8. Workload assessment and rightsizing

We use scientific workload measurement techniques to help you right-size teams and align manpower to business volumes.

Assignments often involve:

• Analysing activity volumes and time spent across roles.
• Identifying overstaffing (inefficiency, duplication) and understaffing (burnout, delays) risks.
• Recommending redeployment, process changes or automation to achieve sustainable staffing levels.

This work often links closely to business process re-engineering and organisational restructuring.

9. ESOP and long-term incentive scheme design

We help design and implement Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs), Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPP), Restricted Stock Units (RSU) and Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) as part of total rewards.

Our support covers:

• Clarifying objectives (attraction, retention, alignment, liquidity).
• Designing eligibility, vesting, exercise price, performance conditions and holding periods.
• Advising on trust formation, governance, accounting and tax treatment in collaboration with legal and tax advisors.

We focus on schemes that are understandable to employees, administratively workable and aligned to shareholder interests.

How a typical HR consulting engagement works

While each organisation and mandate is different, most HR consulting assignments follow a structured sequence:

1. Inception and scoping
   Clarify the business context, objectives, pain points, stakeholders and constraints. Agree the scope of work, timelines and success markers.
2. Diagnostic and data collection
   Review existing policies, processes, organisation structures, HR metrics and documentation. Conduct interviews, workshops and surveys with leadership, HR and line managers.
3. Analysis and design options
   Analyse findings to identify root causes and opportunities. Develop design options (for structure, policies, PMS, compensation, etc.) with clear pros, cons and implications.
4. Co-creation and sign-off
   Work with management and HR to refine options, make design choices and agree on implementation plans and responsibilities.
5. Implementation support
   Assist with detailed documentation, communication, training and initial roll-out. Where relevant, help embed changes into systems and SOPs.
6. Review and fine-tuning
   After an agreed period, review early experience, gather feedback and suggest refinements so changes stabilise and continue to add value.

Assignments can be one-off projects or part of longer relationships where we support management over multiple cycles.

Our Team’s HR consulting credentials

• Performance management and engagement – design and implementation of PMS, reward and recognition schemes and employee engagement surveys for large industrial and services organisations.
• HR policies, manuals and SOPs – development of HR and admin manuals, SOPs and HR indicators for government departments, corporates and networks of NGOs.
• Organisation design and rightsizing – restructuring, manpower assessment and rightsizing assignments for utilities, banks, industrial companies and ports.
• Capacity building and training – design and delivery of training programmes, manuals and capacity building frameworks for public sector entities and multilateral projects.
• HR systems and tools – development of HR information tools and personnel information systems for utilities and large employers.

These credentials demonstrate our ability to handle complex HR and organisation challenges across different sectors and ownership structures.

Who we work with

We work with:

• Promoters and owners of growing businesses who need formal HR structures and policies.
• CXOs of mid- to large-sized organisations looking to align structure, performance and rewards with strategy.
• Public sector and development institutions seeking to strengthen HR systems, capacity and governance.

Engagement sizes range from focused assignments (for example, designing a performance management system or HR manual) to multi-year programmes involving restructuring, capacity building and HR transformation.