India Entry — HR & Employment Setup
If you are a company in the US, UK, Europe, Australia or the Gulf hiring your first people in India, almost nothing transfers from your home jurisdiction. Salary is structured differently, statutory registrations are triggered at thresholds you will not expect, and an employment contract written for your country will not do what you think it does here.
The problem
The common sequence: the company hires two engineers in Bengaluru on contracts drafted at home, pays them a single consolidated salary figure, and treats them as contractors. Eighteen months later there are twenty people, the contractor classification does not hold, provident fund was never registered, gratuity has been accruing unnoticed, and the salary structure has to be rebuilt retrospectively for everyone. All of it was avoidable at hire one.
What this covers
- Employment contracts drafted for Indian law, not adapted from your home template
- Salary structuring — basic, allowances and statutory components done correctly from the first hire
- Provident Fund, ESI and professional tax registration at the right thresholds
- State-specific obligations, which differ substantially between Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Delhi
- Employee versus contractor classification, and where the real risk sits
- POSH Internal Committee constituted at the ten-employee threshold
- Guidance on Employer of Record versus your own entity, with the actual trade-offs
- Your first HR hire in India — defined, sourced and assessed
Why me for this
Twenty-four years of Indian HR practice across manufacturing, EPC, media, IT and ITeS, including statutory compliance across a fifty-branch multi-state operation and HR functions built from scratch at greenfield stage. Delivered remotely across time zones.
Common questions
Do we need an Indian entity to hire employees in India?
Not necessarily at the start — an Employer of Record lets you hire without one, which suits the first few hires. It becomes expensive per head as you scale, and it limits your control over terms, equity and culture. Most companies find the crossover point somewhere between ten and twenty-five people, though it depends more on your intended trajectory than on current headcount.
Can we just use our home-country employment contract in India?
It will be signed, and it will not do what you expect. Notice periods, termination rights, non-compete enforceability, statutory benefits and salary structure all work differently under Indian law. Non-compete clauses in particular are treated very differently here than in the US. The contract needs to be drafted for the jurisdiction it operates in.
What statutory registrations does a company in India need for employees?
The principal ones are Provident Fund and ESI, each triggered at defined headcount and wage thresholds, plus state-level Shops and Establishment registration and professional tax where applicable. The POSH Internal Committee obligation begins at ten employees. Thresholds and state rules vary, which is why they are worth checking before rather than after you cross them.
How do you work with companies in other time zones?
Entirely online, with calls scheduled into your working hours. The document and advisory work is asynchronous, so the time difference affects very little in practice. Engagements are run with companies across the US, UK, Europe, the Gulf and Australia.
Related
POSH Compliance & External Member
Internal Committee constitution, external member appointment, training and annual filings under the POSH Act, 2013.
Fractional CHRO
CHRO-grade judgement on a part-time retainer, for companies that need the thinking without the salary.
HR Function Set Up From Scratch
The complete people infrastructure — policies, letters, onboarding, payroll structure and compliance — built once, properly.