HR Pepper

What HR Pepper does

HRpepper GmbH & Co. KGaA is a Berlin-based organizational consulting firm founded in 2012 by five founders, structured as a German partnership (GmbH & Co. KGaA) with approximately 60 employees, of whom nearly all hold equity stakes. The firm delivers five core service lines: organizational and culture transformation (We Shape Organisations & Culture), HR function and people experience advisory (We Transform HR & People Experience), aptitude diagnostics and assessment centers (We Assess Competencies & Potential), learning and leadership development including corporate academies (We Enable Development & Leadership), and C-level executive coaching. Its evidence-based methodology combines neuropsychology, organizational psychology, and experience-oriented intervention design, with academic anchoring through a Scientific Advisor (Prof. Dr. Carsten C. Schermuly) and a supervisory board chaired by Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Kabst.

The firm serves enterprise and public-sector clients across the DACH region, with 50%+ of projects conducted for international corporations and 150+ projects completed per year. Named clients span utilities (50Hertz, enercity, TenneT, Berliner Wasserbetriebe), finance (Berliner Sparkasse, DKB, Sparda-Bank, Hamburger Sparkasse, PwC), transportation (Deutsche Bahn, BVG, Elbe Flugzeugwerke), manufacturing (Robert Bosch, thyssenkrupp, WAGO), research (Fraunhofer, Helmholtz), and government (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). Engagement is delivered through direct, individually contracted consulting projects with monthly interim invoicing, hourly billing, and travel-time charges; a secondary revenue stream comes from rental of conference facilities at the Berlin-Kreuzberg headquarters.

The firm operates a self-managed organizational model with steering groups (people, market, governance, strategy and budget, functional) and a distinctive collective remuneration system that distributes 50% of profit to all employees as variable compensation without performance-based hierarchy, a structure recognized by the German Equal Pay Award in 2022. Brand eins has ranked HRpepper #1 in HR and Change Management in 2024, 2025, and 2026, with additional recognitions from Handelsblatt, FOCUS, Great Place to Work (six consecutive years through 2025), and Tagesspiegel. The company has begun expanding beyond Berlin, opening a co-working office in Frankfurt am Main in 2024, and has launched an AI-themed executive training program (KI für Führungskräfte) and a C-level coaching service.

Name

HR Pepper

Legal name

HRpepper GmbH & Co. KGaA

Website

https://hrpepper.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HRpepper is a Berlin-based organizational consulting firm with ~60 employees serving enterprise and public-sector clients across the DACH region. It delivers evidence-based transformation, HR advisory, diagnostics, leadership development, and executive coaching rooted in organizational psychology and neuropsychology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Organizational Transformation and HR Consulting

NAICS

Human Resources Consulting Services (541612), Management Consulting Services (54161), Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services (541611)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Management Services (8741)

akta.pro primary industry

HR Service Delivery, Shared Services & HR Operating Model Advisory (BPACAJAE)

Keywords

• Organizational transformation consulting
• Change management services
• HR advisory consulting
• Aptitude diagnostics assessment
• Leadership development consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Organizational Consulting Services: Professional consulting engagements including organizational transformation, HR advisory, competency assessment, and leadership development. Projects are contracted individually with fees based on scope and hourly rates. Monthly interim invoicing based on work progress.
2. Event & Venue Rental: Rental of conference facilities at their Berlin location including a conference hall (50qm) at €500/day and Beletage (ca. 110qm) at €845/day, plus per-person day rate of €15 for catering.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

HRpepper is a Berlin-based management consulting firm that delivers organizational transformation, HR advisory, evidence-based aptitude diagnostics, and learning and leadership development services to enterprise and government clients. Engagements are contracted individually at hourly rates and delivered by teams of consultant-psychologists using a human-centered methodology grounded in neuropsychology and organizational psychology, anchored in a collective owner-operator model in which all employees hold equity.

Product overview

HR Pepper is a consulting firm, not a software product company. The company offers a portfolio of organizational transformation and HR advisory services structured around five core consulting offerings: (1) We Shape Organisations & Culture for transformation consulting, (2) We Transform HR & People Experience for HR advisory, (3) We Assess Competencies & Potential for aptitude diagnostics including Assessment Centers and Management Audits, (4) We Enable Development & Leadership for learning and development including Leadership Development and Corporate Academies, and (5) C-Level-Coaching for executive leadership. The company also offers AI-focused executive training (KI für Führungskräfte), hosts events including the annual Hoffest, and operates a WooCommerce-powered webshop for publications. Services are delivered through a self-managed organizational model with steering groups rather than traditional hierarchy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• We Shape Organisations & Culture Transformation consulting service helping organizations secure future viability and find answers to complex challenges related to organizational design, culture, and change management.
• We Transform HR & People Experience HR advisory service supporting the People function in actively shaping workforce transformation within client organizations.
• We Assess Competencies & Potential Aptitude diagnostics and assessment services combining excellent personnel diagnostics with adaptable transformation support, including Assessment Center, Development Center, Management Audits, and Competency Models.
• We Enable Development & Leadership
• C-Level-Coaching Executive coaching services for C-level leaders navigating technical and organizational-psychological challenges of AI transformation.
• KI für Führungskräfte (AI for Executives) Executive training program accompanying leaders through both technical and organizational-psychological challenges of AI transformation.
• Location & Räume (Venue Rental) Rental of conference facilities at the Berlin headquarters including a conference hall (50 sqm) at €500/day and Beletage (approx. 110 sqm) at €845/day, plus a per-person day rate of €15 for catering, all plus VAT.
• Webshop (Publications) E-commerce platform powered by WooCommerce for selling publications, whitepapers, and other consulting materials, with PayPal as the online payment service provider.

Quantifiable outcome

• 70% of change initiatives traditionally fail - HRpepper positions itself as the partner to beat this statistic
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ThanksCoachminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThanksCoach is a leadership coaching platform that HRpepper connects clients to as part of their leadership development offerings. This appears to be a recommended resource for leadership coaching services.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Mercer: Global HR consulting firm offering workforce transformation, talent strategy, and HR advisory. Direct overlap with HRpepper's HR transformation and people experience services, but at much larger scale with broader service portfolio.
• Korn Ferry: Global organizational consulting firm offering executive search, talent assessment, and organizational consulting at much larger scale. Competes in the same enterprise HR/organizational transformation space but with a broader portfolio and global footprint.
• Deloitte Human Capital: Big 4 advisory practice covering HR transformation, change management, and organizational design for global enterprises. Competes for the same large enterprise clients on multi-year transformation programs.
• Heidrick & Struggles: Global executive search and leadership consulting firm with overlap in C-level coaching, leadership development, and organizational advisory. Comparable premium positioning with similar enterprise client base.
• Egon Zehnder: Global leadership advisory firm offering executive search, board advisory, and organizational consulting. Comparable in serving premium enterprise clients with sophisticated leadership and organizational needs, though at significantly larger scale.
• Bain & Company Organization Practice: Global strategy consulting firm with an established Organization Practice covering operating model design, change management, and culture transformation. Competes for the same premium enterprise transformation engagements, though at much larger scale.
• Spencer Stuart: Global executive search and leadership advisory firm with strong overlap in leadership assessment, executive coaching, and organizational advisory services. Comparable premium brand positioning with enterprise clientele.

Direct peers

• hkp/// group: Frankfurt-based HR consulting firm specializing in compensation, performance, and organizational transformation. Comparable boutique scale and DACH focus, with overlapping service lines in HR advisory and executive remuneration.
• Kienbaum: German HR and management consulting firm with comparable boutique positioning, offering organizational transformation, executive search, and HR advisory services to enterprise clients across DACH. Closest direct competitor in the German HR consulting market.

Regional players

• Combine Consulting: German boutique management consultancy with similar size and DACH focus, offering organizational and strategy consulting to enterprise clients. Comparable boutique scale and competitive positioning in the German market.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hrpepper-gmbh-&-co-kgaa
• Xx.com/hrpepper_

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments3 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HR Pepper