HR consultant in Nepal — fractional HR, expectations, costs
Fractional HR is the fastest-growing People model in Nepal. Here's when it beats a full-time hire, what a good engagement looks like, and the fees I actually see in the market.
The Nepali market has quietly reorganised the People function over the last three years. Small companies that used to make do with an HR admin and a founder-in-charge-of-culture are now hiring fractional HR consultants for a day or two a week. This is the guide I wish existed when I first started taking on those engagements.
The label covers at least four different products. Being clear about which one you're buying is half the battle:.
- Compliance / admin outsourcer — handles PAN, TDS, SSF, festival, gratuity, and payroll processing. Transactional. Cheapest.
- Recruitment consultant — sources and screens candidates. Fee-per-hire. Not really 'HR' in the strategic sense.
- Project consultant — designs a specific artefact (handbook, comp bands, performance system, values). Fixed scope, fixed fee.
- Fractional Head of People / CHRO — embedded 1–2 days a week for 6–18 months, running the People function alongside the CEO.
- Team size 5–30 people
- You need seniority (comp philosophy, org design, layoffs)
- The role isn't yet 40 hours of real work per week
- You want to hire the full-time person right, not fast
- Team size 30+ and hiring aggressively
- You need someone in the office every day
- Compliance / payroll workload is >50% of the role
- You've had two founders quit trying to hold People part-time
- Week 1–2: listening tour with 8–12 people, review of contracts, policies, org chart, comp data, exit interviews.
- Week 3–4: written diagnosis with 3–5 prioritised bets and what NOT to work on.
- Month 2–3: two visible early wins (usually onboarding, manager 1:1 cadence, or a fixed comp band).
- Month 4–6: harder work — performance rhythm, leadership development, first calibration.
- Ongoing: monthly CEO 1:1, quarterly board update if relevant, quarterly re-scoping.
USD-billing global-facing consultants (myself included on overseas engagements) charge in the same effective range, usually USD 3,000–8,000 per month for embedded work and USD 1,500–6,000 for project engagements.
- Ask for two references from companies of your stage; call them.
- Ask what they'd stop doing at your company in the first 30 days — a good consultant has strong opinions on subtraction, not just addition.
- Ask them to price the engagement two ways (retainer and project). If they can only price one, they haven't done enough of these.
- Watch for the 'we have a template for that' answer to every question. Templates are fine; templates instead of thinking are not.
- Confirm they will document knowledge back into your systems (Notion, Google Drive) rather than hoard it in their own tools.