India
Bengaluru & Karnataka
Bengaluru is India's deepest technology talent market and its hardest retention market. I work with companies there remotely — most often on HR setup, fractional CHRO retainers and Global Capability Centre work.
What makes the Bengaluru market different
Karnataka has its own Shops and Commercial Establishments Act and its own registration, register and return requirements. Companies arriving from another state, or from overseas, consistently underestimate how much of their compliance framework has to be rebuilt for the state rather than simply copied across.
The retention problem in Bengaluru is structural rather than incidental. Compensation benchmarks move faster than annual increment cycles, which means a company running one review a year is falling behind the market for eleven months of it. Counter-offers are routine, notice-period buyouts are normal, and candidates commonly hold multiple offers.
It is also the market where compensation structures come under the most pressure. Rapid external hiring at market rates creates internal parity problems within a year — the person who joined eighteen months ago earns materially less than their new peer doing identical work. That problem is expensive to fix retrospectively, straightforward to prevent with a proper compensation architecture, and it is the single most common cause of avoidable senior attrition I see in the city.
Bengaluru hosts the largest concentration of Global Capability Centres in India, which makes it the toughest market for senior talent. You are competing against centres that have been recruiting there for two decades and can point to a track record of real ownership. Compensation alone does not win those candidates.
Finally, it is a market full of young companies with no HR foundation. A funded startup in Bengaluru will typically cross ten employees — and therefore the POSH Internal Committee obligation — months before it hires anyone with HR responsibility.
What I do for Bengaluru employers
- HR function set up from scratch for funded startups — contracts, policies, salary structure, compliance
- Karnataka statutory compliance review and registration
- Compensation architecture benchmarked against the Bengaluru market, reviewed more than annually
- Global Capability Centre HR setup — org design, talent strategy, leadership hiring
- POSH Internal Committee constitution and external member seat
- Retention strategy targeted at identified high-potential and critical-role employees
- Fractional CHRO retainers for companies from 50 to 500 people
Most relevant here
HR Function Set Up From Scratch
The complete people infrastructure — policies, letters, onboarding, payroll structure and compliance — built once, properly.
Global Capability Centre — HR Setup
People infrastructure for multinationals standing up a captive GCC in India.
Fractional CHRO
CHRO-grade judgement on a part-time retainer, for companies that need the thinking without the salary.
POSH Compliance & External Member
Internal Committee constitution, external member appointment, training and annual filings under the POSH Act, 2013.
HR in Bengaluru — common questions
How do we handle attrition in the Bengaluru market?
Attrition there is rarely solved with compensation alone, because the market will always outbid a single reactive increase. What works is a compensation architecture reviewed more than once a year, clear career paths so people can see what comes next, and identifying high-potential employees before they resign rather than after. Counter-offers are the most expensive and least durable option available.
We are a funded startup in Bengaluru with no HR. Where do we start?
With the foundation, in this order: legally sound employment contracts and offer letters, a salary structure that will not need retrospective correction, statutory registrations at the right thresholds, and the POSH Internal Committee once you reach ten employees. Culture and engagement programmes matter, but they are built on top of that foundation rather than instead of it.
What does Karnataka require that other states do not?
Karnataka operates its own Shops and Commercial Establishments Act with its own registration, registers and returns, and its own minimum wage notifications. The specifics change periodically, so the practical answer is to confirm the current Karnataka position rather than assume your existing framework transfers.
Elsewhere
International