Make Inclusion a Set of Practices, Not a Statement
Diversity, equity and inclusion consulting is the work of making the everyday decisions in a business consistent and defensible rather than dependent on the individual manager making them: who gets shortlisted, who gets developed, who gets heard, and how a complaint is handled. It covers hiring practice, policy, grievance routes, manager capability and a small set of measures somebody actually reviews.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consulting in brief
Diversity, equity and inclusion consulting is the work of making the everyday decisions in a business — who gets shortlisted, who gets developed, who gets heard, how a complaint is handled — consistent and defensible, rather than dependent on the individual manager making them. It covers hiring practice, policy, grievance routes, manager capability and measurement.
- GullyHR is an HR consulting, HR services, training and software company based in Bengaluru, working with Indian startups and small and medium businesses.
- This engagement covers hiring practice, policy and grievance routes, manager capability, workplace conduct standards and the measures a business uses to see whether any of it is working.
- You receive a current-state review, written practice changes, revised policy text, a manager briefing pack and a small set of measures reported on a fixed cycle.
- The work is practical, not a statement of values. Nothing in it commits you to targets or quotas unless you decide to set them.
- Scope and sequence are agreed after a review of how hiring, promotion and complaints are handled today. There is no fixed package.
The starting point
Can You Explain How a Shortlist Was Reached?
Most inclusion problems in a growing business are not matters of intent. They are the result of decisions taken differently by different managers, with no written criteria behind them and no record afterwards, so nothing can be compared or explained.
We fix the hiring process first, then policy, the grievance route, manager capability and the measures.
You may be experiencing:
- A shortlist that looks the same every time a role opens, with nobody able to say which step narrows it.
- A conduct complaint where what happened next depended entirely on who heard it first.
- Two managers applying the same policy differently, neither thinking they are doing anything unusual.
- A values statement and an equal-opportunity line in the handbook, with nothing downstream of it changed.
- A customer, investor or large client asking what your practice is, with nothing written to point at.
- People returning from extended leave and leaving within the year, with the reason never examined.
- A workforce that is genuinely mixed on the floor and uniform at the top, with the pipeline never looked at.
- Job advertisements and interview questions worded differently by each hiring manager, with nobody checking them.
- Flexible or shift arrangements granted informally to some people and refused to others, with no stated basis.
- Exit reasons clustering in one team or group, with nobody asked to look at why.
- Training sessions on inclusion held once, with no change to how any people decision is made afterwards.
What we can help with
Our Inclusion Consulting Services
Hiring Practice
Where shortlists narrow and why: job description language, sourcing channels, screening criteria, interview structure and how the decision is recorded, so a shortlist can be compared and explained.
Policy and Handbook
Equal opportunity, conduct, grievance, leave including maternity and caregiving, and flexible or shift-working provisions, written in language a manager applies rather than interprets.
Grievance and Complaint Routes
A defined route for raising a concern, who receives it, how it is recorded, how it is looked into and how the outcome is communicated, so the response does not depend on who heard it first.
Harassment Framework Readiness
Whether the committee, policy, reporting route, records and awareness sessions your business is expected to maintain are actually in place, flagged for confirmation with a qualified professional.
Manager Capability
The practical part: running a mixed team, giving feedback across difference, handling a complaint properly and chairing an interview, so managers are shown what to do rather than told what to value.
Progression and Pay Review
Who has been promoted recently, who was considered, and whether people doing comparable work at the same grade are paid comparably, examined as a management question.
Accessibility and Working Arrangements
Physical access, shift and rostering flexibility, and the arrangements that determine whether someone with a constraint outside work can realistically hold a role here.
Measurement and Communication
A small set of numbers on a fixed cycle — representation by level, hiring and promotion ratios, attrition by group, complaint volumes — and making sure the external claim does not run ahead of internal practice.
The scope
What the Consulting Covers
The aim is to make everyday people decisions consistent, recorded and explainable, without committing you to targets or labels. These are the parts we can review or design. The scope is agreed with you and can take all areas or only some.
Current Practice Review
Real hiring, promotion, complaint and exit examples, compared with what policy and intention say.
Representation Baseline
Workforce profile by level, function and location, built from records you already hold and reported at an agreed level of detail.
Job Descriptions and Advertisements
The wording of requirements and advertisements, and whether each requirement is needed for the job.
Sourcing and Screening
Where candidates come from, how applications are screened and where the shortlist narrows.
Interview and Selection Decisions
Structured questions, panel composition, scoring or note formats and a recorded reason for each decision.
Onboarding and Early Experience
What new joiners are told, who they meet and how early concerns are picked up.
Progression and Development
How people are considered for promotion, stretch work and training, and how the decision is recorded.
Pay Comparability Review
Whether people doing comparable work at the same grade are paid comparably, examined as a management question.
Policies and Handbook
Equal opportunity, conduct, leave and flexible working provisions, written so a manager can apply them consistently.
Complaint Handling and Harassment Framework
Receiving, recording and resolving concerns, and checking that the framework your business maintains is in place.
Manager Capability Sessions
Practical sessions on situations managers are likely to meet, such as chairing a panel or handling a complaint.
Accessibility and Working Arrangements
Physical access, rostering and flexibility, and the request route for arrangements people may need.
Working together
Ways to Work With Us
Current-State Review
A look at real examples rather than intentions: recent hires for a role, the last promotion round and how recent complaints were handled.
Defined Project
Hiring practice, revised policy, the grievance route, manager briefing and the measurement cycle, implemented and handed over.
Hiring Practice Only
A narrower engagement for businesses whose policy is sound but whose shortlists cannot be explained.
Review After Two Cycles
A return visit to establish what held, what quietly reverted and what needs a different approach. Most reverting happens in hiring, under time pressure.
What the business commits to is your decision, not ours. Some commit to comparable process only; others go further. We make sure the commitment and the practice match.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the scope of your engagement, deliverables can include:
- A current-state review covering hiring, progression, policy and complaint handling.
- A representation baseline by level, function and location, built from your own records.
- Written hiring practice: criteria templates, interview structure and panel rules.
- Revised policy text for equal opportunity, conduct, grievance and related leave provisions.
- A defined grievance and complaint route with recording and escalation steps.
- A manager briefing covering the situations they are most likely to meet.
- A short measurement pack and the review cycle that goes with it.
- A note on accessibility and working arrangements, and on keeping external claims aligned with practice.
- A hiring decision record format showing the criteria used and the reason for each shortlisting and selection decision.
- A progression review format that records who was considered for promotion and on what basis.
- A working-arrangements request and decision format with a stated route for review.
Step by step
How We Work
Review What Actually Happens
We look at real examples rather than intentions: the last several hires for a role, the last promotion round, and how the most recent complaints were received and handled.
Establish the Picture
Representation by level, function and location, drawn from your own records. It is a baseline rather than a judgement, and it is what later reports are compared against.
Agree the Commitment
Your decision. Some businesses commit to comparable process only; others go further. We make sure whatever is committed to is something the practice can actually support.
Fix Hiring, Then Policy
Written criteria before sourcing, a structured interview, a panel rule and a recorded decision, because hiring is where practice is most visible. Policy and the grievance route are then revised to support it.
Brief Managers and Set Measures
A working session on what has changed and the situations managers are most likely to meet. A short report on a fixed cycle follows, and we return after two cycles to see what held. Where it is included in the engagement, a pilot with one team or one hiring round is run first, and the practice is refined from what managers found before it is used more widely.
The difference
What Consistent Practice Gives You
Defined practice helps you:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering representation by level and location, and how recent hires and promotions were actually decided, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Explain a shortlist, because the criteria were written before the candidates arrived.
- Offer one route for raising a concern, with a named recipient and a recorded outcome.
- Give managers something to do rather than something to value.
- Use policy text a manager can apply without asking what it means.
- Answer a client or investor question about your practice with something written.
- Track a small number of measures that show whether anything actually changed.
- Review a promotion round against a record of who was considered and why.
- Respond to a flexible-working or access request through a stated route rather than a manager's discretion alone.
- See where in hiring and progression the numbers narrow, using your own records.
- Describe your inclusion practice to employees and clients in terms your records can support.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Businesses Where Managers Set Practice
Companies large enough that individual managers now decide how things are done, without a common standard.
Companies Uniform at the Top
Businesses whose frontline workforce is mixed and whose senior team is not, with the pipeline never examined.
Companies Facing Client Questions
Businesses answering diversity questions in customer, investor or large-client due diligence.
Organisations With a Values Statement
Companies that have written the statement and now want the practice underneath it.
Multi-Location Businesses
Companies where each site has developed its own norms over time.
Businesses After a Bad Case
Companies that have had a conduct complaint handled badly and do not want a second one.
Site-Based and Shift Workforces
Companies where rostering, access and site conditions shape who can realistically take or keep a role.
HR Leads Without a Written Framework
HR heads asked by employees or clients to explain practice that exists only in individual managers' habits.
Founders Reviewing Their Pipeline
Owners who want to know where people drop out between hiring and promotion, using their own records.
Good to know
A Practice Cycle from Review to Revisit
Understand and decide
- Review: examine real hiring, promotion and complaint examples.
- Baseline: build the representation picture from your own records.
- Commit: decide what the business commits to and what it does not.
Change and sustain
- Redesign: write hiring criteria, interview structure and decision records, then revise policy and the complaint route.
- Brief: run manager sessions on what has changed and the situations they are likely to meet.
- Revisit: report the agreed measures on a fixed cycle and review what held.
Practice usually slips back under time pressure, most often in hiring. The revisit step is there to find where that is happening.
Good to know
Track Inclusion Practice
Hiring and progression
- Representation by level: how the workforce profile changes from entry to senior roles.
- Shortlist to selection movement: where in the hiring steps the numbers narrow.
- Promotion consideration: who was considered and how the decision was recorded.
- Attrition by group: whether leaving patterns differ across groups.
Complaints and working arrangements
- Complaint volumes and routes: how concerns are raised and who receives them.
- Response and closure time: how long a recorded concern takes to resolve.
- Return-from-leave retention: whether people who return from extended leave stay.
- Working-arrangement requests: how many are made, and how they are decided.
Small groups can make percentages misleading, so we agree with you when a figure is reported as a count, as a trend or not at all.
Good to know
Scope and Service Boundaries
Each engagement defines
The decisions in scope, such as hiring, progression, policy and complaints, the locations and employee categories covered, whether a representation baseline and pay comparability review are included, and the manager sessions and implementation support provided.
Requires a separate agreement
- Legal advice on equal opportunity, harassment or discrimination obligations.
- Investigation of individual complaints.
- Membership of, or secretariat support for, a complaints committee.
- Recruitment for the roles once hiring practice is redesigned.
- Salary corrections and pay structure design.
- Certification, ratings or public reporting of your position.
Commitments, targets and decisions on individual cases remain with authorised management. Policies, formal complaint steps and employment actions should receive appropriate specialist review.
Good to know
Timeline and How to Prepare
Timeline
The review is the shorter part. Changed hiring practice is tested over a real hiring cycle, so the schedule depends on how often you hire and how quickly managers can take part. We confirm it after agreeing the scope.
Useful inputs
- Recent job descriptions and advertisements for roles you have filled.
- Interview formats and selection records.
- A workforce list by level, function and location, redacted where possible.
- Current policies on conduct, grievance, leave and flexible working.
- Redacted records of recent complaints and how they were handled.
- Recent promotion decisions and exit reasons.
We ask for individual-level data only where the purpose has been agreed with you.
Good to know
Confidentiality and Employee Information
Handled by agreement
Representation figures, complaint records and pay data are sensitive. Before work begins we agree what data is needed, who may access it, how it is shared and reported, the confidentiality terms and retention arrangements.
Complaints and findings
Where complaint records are reviewed, we agree whether they are redacted and how findings are reported so that individuals are not identifiable.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Not unless you decide it should be. The default work is about making decisions comparable and defensible: written criteria before candidates arrive, a structured interview, a recorded decision. What the business commits to beyond that is your choice.
We do not state a legal position, and GullyHR is not a legal practice. The work builds consistent practice and proper records, and flags where a requirement may apply. Please confirm statutory obligations with a qualified professional.
It is reviewed for readiness: whether the committee, policy, reporting route, records and awareness sessions exist. Whether your constitution and conduct meet what is required is a question for a qualified professional, and we coordinate that review.
Because it is where practice is most visible, most comparable and most easily corrected. Written criteria, a structured interview and a recorded decision change shortlists quickly, and they give you something concrete to point at when asked.
That risk is real, which is why the briefing is practical rather than ideological. It covers the three or four situations managers actually meet and what to do in each. Managers who are shown what to do generally engage; managers who are lectured do not.
It usually does, most often in progression or in how a past complaint was handled. Findings are reported to you rather than published, and the response is a management decision. Knowing is better than being asked about it by a client first.
Largely, yes. Much of the work is about process and records rather than about individuals. Where representation measures are wanted, what is collected and how it is held should be confirmed with a qualified professional first.
By keeping the measures short enough that leadership actually reviews them, and by returning after two cycles. Most reverting happens in hiring under time pressure, when a panel rule or written criteria get skipped to fill a role quickly.
After the current-state review. The scope states which locations and processes are covered, what is revised and whether the measurement cycle and follow-up review are included. It is agreed in writing before work begins.
Yes for the practice work. Written criteria, a complaint route and clear policy are easier to set up early than to retrofit later. At small headcounts, percentages move too much to read as trends, so we agree how figures are reported.
Usually the pipeline rather than the headline. Many businesses are mixed at entry level and less so at senior level, and have not examined which step between the two narrows it.
Yes, and that is the usual starting point. A practice review looks at real hiring, promotion and complaint examples, which tells you more than reading the policy file.
We run manager sessions built around specific situations, such as chairing a panel, giving feedback across difference and handling a complaint. General awareness sessions on their own rarely change how a decision is made.
With a small set of measures agreed at the start, such as representation by level, hiring and promotion movement, attrition by group and complaint volumes. Keeping the set small helps leadership actually review it.
It is the same discipline applied to a particular set of decisions. If you are already revising policies and grievance routes, this extends that work to hiring practice and progression.
The review is short. Hiring changes need a real hiring cycle to test, with policy and manager sessions alongside. The measures need more than one cycle before they say anything useful.
Pricing depends on your workforce size, locations, the decisions in scope and the support required. Share your requirements and we will send a tailored proposal.
Write the Criteria Before the Candidates Arrive
Make shortlists explainable, give concerns one route with a recorded outcome, put policy in language managers apply, and track a few measures somebody reviews.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
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