HR consulting case studies: what changed, in numbers
These HR consulting case studies show what Seven People Systems has done inside real organisations: who we worked with, what the problem was, what we did and what changed. Moreover, each one carries a number, a scope and the names of the practices and instruments behind it. In other words, none of them is a testimonial.
Eight featured consulting case studies across performance, leadership, culture and assessments, then a filterable record of HR consulting success stories across five sectors, and the organisations we have worked with since 2007.
Our evidence standard for HR consulting case studies
OD consulting outcomes, and organisational development outcomes in general, are easy to claim and hard to prove. So every case on this page carries one of three badges, and the badge tells you how much weight the numbers can bear.
Re-measured after the work
The organisation measured something before we started and again after: a Team Confidence Quotient (TCQ™) second round, an Organizational Culture Inventory re-run, an engagement score, an attrition rate. In each case, the number is the client's, and the comparison is like for like.
Counted, not estimated
No re-measurement, but hard counts: people developed, roles profiled, programmes built, years of engagement, repeat commissions. Scale is itself evidence. After all, a client that comes back for three years has run its own evaluation.
On record, kept short
Work we delivered and can describe, without a count we would put our name to on a public page. For that reason, these stay brief and sit in the record of client work, not among the featured cases.
Where a number describes the client's business rather than our work, such as disbursement growth in the year of an engagement, we say so. Performance improvement results belong to the people who did the work inside the organisation, and the HR consulting case studies on this page are written that way. Even so, our job is to make them more likely, and to measure whether they happened, which is what separates performance improvement outcomes from performance improvement claims.
Eight HR consulting case studies, in full
In short, two per pillar, chosen for scale and for the clarity of what changed. Every HR consulting case study here names the practices and instruments behind it, so you can see the same approach in the service it came from.
Performance improvement results: execution rhythm that made the plan visible
First, two performance improvement results from organisations that needed one execution system and the managers to run it. After all, performance consulting results like these depend on a review rhythm, not a workshop.
How Aavas Financiers aligned its top 50 leaders in a year when monthly disbursements grew five-fold
Leadership development for about 50 of the housing finance company's top leaders, alongside a goal-setting and execution rhythm, in a year when monthly loan disbursements grew from ₹100 crore to ₹500 crore.
The situation
At the time, a fast-growing affordable housing lender had plans that outran the bandwidth of its top team. Growth was arriving branch by branch. However, priorities were set in the head office and execution happened hundreds of kilometres away. Therefore the leadership team needed to lead the same plan, review it the same way and hold each other to it.
What we did
- Leadership development for the top team First, programmes for about 50 senior leaders focused on leading growth, delegating to regional leadership and running the review conversations that keep a plan alive.
- An execution rhythm Then, quarterly goals tied to the business plan, with a monthly review cadence that made progress and slippage visible to the whole team.
- Certification through our partner Finally, teams certified on OKRs through our partner OKR International, so the rhythm had a shared method behind it.
Why it worked
- Rhythm beats reminders. A fixed monthly review did more for execution than any amount of urging from the top.
- Develop and align in the same room. Leadership development ran alongside the goal-setting, so new skills were used on real priorities the next week.
- Keep the attribution honest. Disbursement growth is the company's achievement. Our work ran alongside it, and we say so.
How BrowserStack put 350 people on one execution system and built its manager bench at the same time
Performance management and execution using the OKR framework for nearly 350 employees, with a first-time manager programme and a DISC-based leadership programme for 35 to 40 mid-to-senior managers.
The situation
At the time, a fast-scaling SaaS company had engineers becoming managers within a year or two of joining, and teams whose priorities drifted between quarterly plans. As a result, it needed one execution system everyone could see, and managers who could run it, in the same year.
What we did
- Performance management on OKRs First, designed and rolled out performance management and execution using the OKR framework across nearly 350 employees, with the method credited to our partner OKR International.
- First-time manager programme Then, A structured programme for engineers and specialists newly promoted into management: delegation, expectations and feedback, one-to-one rhythm.
- Leadership development on DISC Finally, A DISC-based leadership programme for 35 to 40 mid-to-senior managers, so leaders understood their own style and the styles of the people they led.
Why it worked
- System and skills together. However, an execution system without capable managers stalls; capable managers without a system diverge. Consequently, doing both in one year is what made it hold.
- Start managers early. First-time manager development before bad habits form costs far less than fixing them later.
- Style awareness. Meanwhile, DISC gave managers a common language for the conversations OKRs force.
Leadership development case studies India's largest leadership populations rely on
Next, three leadership development case studies from India, each built for scale: a consumer goods leader, a global bank's operations and a chemicals group. Leadership programme case studies at this scale are rare, because few organisations develop hundreds of leaders with one partner.
How Hindustan Unilever built leadership capability at every level across South Asia
A multi-year partnership that took Seven People Systems from the top 200 leaders to functional teams, hiring managers and the HR team itself: more than 700 leaders and managers developed across South Asia.
The situation
For context, HUL runs one of the largest leadership populations in Indian consumer goods, spread across functions, plants and markets. Its Standards of Leadership set the bar for every leader, but a standard on paper only becomes behaviour when it reaches the managers who run territories, functions and hiring. However, the ask was not a single programme. Instead, it was a partner who could work at the top of the house and at the functional front line, in the same leadership language, over several years.
What we did
- Standards of Leadership, top 200 First, facilitated the Standards of Leadership workshop for HUL's top 200 leaders across South Asia in Mumbai, with Duke CE. As a result, it became the reference point for everything that followed.
- Mid-to-senior leadership development Then, cohort-based leadership development for more than 500 mid-to-senior leaders across HUL South Asia, built on the same standards.
- Functional capability In addition, leadership and business partnering skills for IT, Finance, HR and R&D teams; negotiation and analytical skills for Customer Marketing; behavioural event interviewing for Finance hiring managers.
- Teams and diagnostics Meanwhile, Team Confidence Quotient (TCQ™) diagnostics and offsites for the HR leadership team and for a 59-person consumer sales cluster after a major acquisition; DISC-based team offsites for R&D and Supply Chain; vision and mission work for the Engineering and Pharma divisions.
- Building HR's own capability Finally, train-the-trainer on training and facilitation skills, and DISC certification for the HR team in Mumbai, so HUL could run assessment-led development without us.
Why it worked
- One leadership language, every level. The Standards of Leadership workshop became the vocabulary for the mid-level cohorts and the functional work, so nothing was taught twice in two dialects.
- Diagnose before you intervene. Teams were measured before the offsite, not after the facilitator's opinion.
- Transfer the capability. Certifying HR to run DISC and facilitate is why the relationship lasted years rather than one budget cycle.
How J.P. Morgan's India retail operations trained 3,000+ people with 35 ready-to-deploy programmes
Thirty-five competency-based leadership and personal effectiveness programmes, each built as a complete training pack the bank's own trainers could run, reaching more than 3,000 employees across its BPO and KPO teams.
The situation
Of course, a retail operation this size cannot develop people one facilitator at a time. Therefore the bank needed training that mapped to its competency framework, could be run by internal trainers in any location, and would feel the same in the tenth cohort as in the first. The brief was not a workshop. It was a library.
What we did
- Mapped competencies to topics First, translated the function's competency framework into 35 distinct leadership and personal effectiveness topics, each with clear learning outcomes.
- Built every topic as a complete pack Then, facilitator guide, speaker notes, participant handouts, simulations and a presentation pack for each of the 35 programmes, written so a trained internal facilitator could run it without us.
- Designed for consistency at scale Finally, common structure, timing and assessment approach across all 35, so quality did not depend on who was in the room.
Why it worked
- Build for the trainer, not the trainee. Above all, packs that assume a competent internal facilitator and give them everything scale in a way facilitator-led delivery never can.
- Competency first. Moreover, every topic traced back to a behaviour the bank had already decided mattered.
- Simulations, not slides. Finally, practice built into each pack is what makes an internally delivered programme stick.
How Mitsubishi Chemical Group in India developed 300+ leaders and high-potentials for growth
Leadership and high-potential programmes for more than 300 employees, with the HR team certified in behavioural event interviewing so hiring decisions were made on evidence of behaviour, not impressions.
The situation
Typically, a manufacturing business growing in India needs two pipelines at once: leaders who can run plants and functions today, and high-potentials ready to step up tomorrow. It also needs HR to hire for the behaviours those roles demand. The group wanted both pipelines built on the same leadership standard, and the hiring process to match.
What we did
- Leadership programmes First, cohort-based leadership development for managers across the Indian organisation, built around the everyday decisions plant and functional leaders make.
- High-potential programmes Then, A separate track for identified high-potentials, with stretch assignments and development conversations between cohorts.
- HR certification Finally, certified the HR team in behavioural event interviewing, so selection and promotion interviews could evidence competencies rather than rehearsed answers.
Why it worked
- Two pipelines, one standard. Leaders and high-potentials were developed against the same competencies, so the talent review compared like with like.
- Fix hiring at the same time. Developing leaders while interviewing badly refills the gap. Certifying HR closed it.
- Built for plants. For example, cases came from the shop floor and the plant leadership meeting, not from a generic textbook.
Culture transformation case study: leadership retreats that turned strategy into execution
One culture transformation case study from a capability centre, where team building served execution rather than replacing it. Meanwhile, culture change case studies from our large-scale work for Tata Play, Colgate-Palmolive and Godrej Consumer Products sit in the record below.
How Morgan Stanley's Mumbai centre used leadership retreats to turn strategy into execution for 400 to 500 people
Leadership retreats for Morgan Stanley's capability centre in Mumbai, 400 to 500 employees on average, built around three themes: team building, execution excellence and strategy implementation.
The situation
A capability centre serves a headquarters in another time zone and a leadership population that rarely meets in one room. In practice, strategy arrives from above; execution happens in Mumbai. Therefore the retreat had to do three jobs at once: build the team, sharpen how it executes, and translate the global strategy into local commitments.
What we did
- Designed around three themes First, each retreat ran on team building, execution excellence and strategy implementation, with working sessions rather than speeches.
- Working offsites, not away days Then, leaders left with prioritised plans and owners, not a slide deck of intentions.
- Repeated across centres Finally, the same design, adapted, ran for Capgemini and for Salesforce's Hyderabad centre, where the annual leadership offsite doubled as annual operating plan planning for 40 to 45 leaders.
Why it worked
- Strategy needs a room. Global strategy becomes local execution only when the local leadership team works it through together.
- Team building is a means. In other words, trust was built in service of execution, not as an end in itself.
- Decisions, owners, dates. Simply put, a retreat that ends without a decision log did not happen.
OD consulting outcomes from assessment-led talent systems
Finally, two OD consulting outcomes that started with measurement: a competency framework for 430 roles, and assessments that benchmarked jobs across a healthcare chain. OD case studies India's lenders and healthcare chains can use, because the systems outlast the programmes.
How Bajaj Finance profiled 430 roles and built three years of leadership development on top of them
A competency framework covering 430 unique roles, grouped into job families with proficiency levels, followed by key result areas, appraisal skills and three years of leadership programmes for more than 500 middle and senior managers.
The situation
By then, a lender adding products, channels and people every quarter had outgrown its role definitions. As a result, managers were appraising against expectations nobody had written down, and development was being bought programme by programme. The company wanted the system first, then the people work built on it.
What we did
- Competency framework First, profiled 430 unique roles into job families with proficiency levels, so every role had a defined standard.
- Performance measures and appraisal skills Then, defined key result areas and measures, then trained two senior grades in appraisal skills so the framework was used, not filed.
- Three years of leadership development In addition, leadership programmes for middle and senior managers across the organisation, including Mortgages leadership offsites through a shift to direct and internal sales channels.
- Change work on DISC Finally, DISC-based change management with the risk and compliance team, 65 to 70 people, through a period of organisational change.
Why it worked
- System before programmes. In contrast, development built on a role framework compounds; development bought ad hoc evaporates.
- Train the appraisers. A framework fails at the appraisal conversation unless managers are trained to hold it.
- Stay three years. Change in a growing lender outlasts any single budget cycle, and so did the partnership.
How Dr Batra's used assessments to benchmark jobs and manage talent across 200+ people
Assessment-led job benchmarking and talent management for more than 200 employees at one of India's largest homeopathy healthcare chains, so hiring, development and promotion decisions used the same evidence.
The situation
Like many multi-site businesses, a healthcare chain growing clinic by clinic had the same problem many multi-site businesses have: the same job title meaning different things in different cities, and talent decisions resting on the opinion of whoever was closest. Therefore the organisation wanted a benchmark for each role and a consistent way to assess people against it.
What we did
- Benchmarked the roles First, defined what superior performance looks like in each benchmarked job, as a profile the assessments could be compared against.
- Assessed the people Then, ran assessments for more than 200 employees and compared each person to the benchmark for their role, not to a generic ideal.
- Built the talent process on the data Finally, used the results in hiring, development planning and promotion decisions, replacing opinion with a shared evidence base.
Why it worked
- Benchmark the job first. After all, assessing people without a role benchmark produces interesting reports and no decisions.
- One data set, three decisions. Equally, hiring, development and promotion drawing on the same evidence stops the talent process contradicting itself.
- Multi-site needs a standard. Consistency across locations is a measurement problem before it is a culture problem.
Client success stories across five sectors, filtered your way
Beyond the featured eight HR consulting case studies, this is the record of HR case studies India's employers have commissioned from Seven: shorter entries, one number each, and a link to the practice behind the work. Filter by what you need done or by your sector. OD consulting results and leadership training case studies sit side by side, so you can compare like with like.
An annual leadership offsite for the Hyderabad centre, which combined a leadership retreat with operating plan planning.
Leadership retreats for the Mumbai centre, so that team building, execution excellence and strategy implementation ran as one agenda.
The Coaching Clinic® coaching skills programme for the top global leaders, so that coaching became part of how they lead.
Performance management and execution with OKRs, delivered together with our partner OKR International.
Team-building and leadership offsites for the alternative assets business over three years. In addition, goal-setting and execution work with the senior team.
Leadership and personal development programmes, especially for mid to senior managers.
Leadership and personal development programmes, especially for mid to senior managers.
Leadership development for mid to senior managers, together with offsites and experiential learning.
Leadership development for managers in medical devices, together with offsites and experiential learning.
HR policies for both the plant and the management sides in India, so that blue-collar and white-collar employees worked to one framework.
Team-building and personal effectiveness programmes, as well as leadership development.
Team-building and personal effectiveness programmes, as well as leadership development.
Team-building and personal effectiveness programmes for a retail organisation, as well as leadership development.
Team-building and personal effectiveness programmes, as well as leadership development.
Team-building and personal effectiveness programmes for lifestyle brands, as well as leadership development.
A large-scale culture change exercise that, in effect, reached the whole organisation.
A large-scale culture change exercise. In addition, a three-year enterprise-wide OKR transformation through our partner OKR International.
A culture change exercise, specifically for the Finance team.
Leadership and personal development programmes in Bengaluru. In addition, emotional intelligence development for leaders.
Leadership development for aerospace teams, for example at Seletar, Singapore.
Leadership development for aerospace teams, particularly team leads.
A coaching skills programme for managers, because everyday conversations drive performance, safety and quality.
Developmental interventions built on DISC and DNA-25 profiles, so leaders worked on the behaviours and competencies that mattered in their roles.
Developmental interventions for engineering leaders, built on DISC and DNA-25 profiles so that each plan fitted the person.
No entries match that combination yet. Try a different sector or practice, or ask us directly about your situation.
Through our partner OKR International: a three-year, enterprise-wide OKR transformation at Colgate-Palmolive including coaching for the CEO and senior leadership; more than 100 Mondelez India sales leaders trained on OKRs; 40 senior leaders in Danone's global HR team; more than 300 agile practitioners certified at SWIFT in Belgium; and OKR certification for teams at Poonawalla Fincorp, Aavas Financiers, Rakuten, Accenture, InMobi and Indegene.
The organisations behind these HR consulting case studies
A selection of the 600+ organisations Seven People Systems has worked with since 2007, grouped by sector. Of course, not every engagement becomes one of our HR case studies; even so, every one of these organisations did real work with us.
IT, SaaS & GCCs
BFSI
Pharma & Healthcare
FMCG & Consumer
Manufacturing & Auto
Client logos are trademarks of their respective owners and are shown to illustrate our experience. Accordingly, their display does not imply endorsement.
HR consulting case studies: common questions
What makes these HR consulting case studies different from testimonials?
On the one hand, a testimonial tells you how a client felt. On the other hand, an HR consulting case study tells you what the problem was, what was done and what changed, with a number and a scope. Every case on this page carries an evidence badge: Measured, Delivered at scale or Documented, so you know how much weight the figures can bear.
Why are some case studies anonymised or described only briefly?
Some clients ask not to be named. In addition, some engagements have no count we would publish in HR consulting case studies. Those sit in the record of client work as short entries rather than featured cases. We would rather show less and have all of it be true.
Do you have leadership development case studies from India?
Yes. The featured leadership development case studies cover Hindustan Unilever across South Asia, J.P. Morgan's India retail operations and Mitsubishi Chemical Group, and the record includes Novartis, Wyeth, Honeywell, Rolls-Royce and others.
Do you have a culture transformation case study?
Yes. The featured culture transformation case study is Morgan Stanley's Mumbai capability centre, where leadership retreats turned strategy into execution. We have also led large-scale culture change exercises, each a culture transformation case study in its own right, for Tata Play, Colgate-Palmolive and the Finance team at Godrej Consumer Products, and we can discuss those in a conversation.
How do you measure OD consulting outcomes?
We measure before we intervene and again after, using instruments such as the Team Confidence Quotient (TCQ™), the Organizational Culture Inventory, DISC and DNA-25, alongside the client's own business and people metrics. Where a result is the client's business number rather than our measurement, the case says so.
Can we speak to a reference client?
Often, yes. First, tell us which case is closest to your situation, and then we will ask the client. Naturally, reference conversations depend on the client's agreement, so they are arranged case by case.
How do we start?
Tell us about your organisation, the people challenge in front of you and the size of the group. Then we reply within one working day with a suggested first step.
Want a case like these written about your organisation?
First, tell us about the people challenge in front of you. Then we will come back within one working day with the HR consulting case studies closest to your situation and how we would approach it.