Mayank Sharma — Managing Partner, Element MEA
Updated: Aug 27
Mayank Sharma is Managing Partner of element MEA. He works with founders, boards and leadership teams when the organisation has outgrown informal people management but does not need another layer of generic HR activity. The work is to make the people system operable: clarify the decision, establish ownership, design the control and leave managers able to run it.
His practice sits at the point where organisation design, leadership, workforce decisions and recurring HR operations meet. Typical mandates include building or repairing an HR operating model, defining roles and decision rights, establishing performance and workforce-planning disciplines, leading a fractional people mandate, and structuring confidential executive appointments.
Areas of practice
HR operating models and outsourced HR governance
Organisation design, roles and decision rights
Workforce planning and performance management
Fractional people leadership
Executive search and leadership transitions
For board, C-suite and critical leadership appointments, Mayank leads element MEA’s executive-search work: mandate definition, market mapping, structured assessment and confidential appointment support. The emphasis is on the leadership outcome and the authority required to deliver it, not only the vacancy description.
How an engagement is led
1. Frame the business decision
The first task is to define what must operate differently. A request for “HR support” may actually concern unclear accountability, a management-capability gap, an unreliable operating rhythm, an unowned workforce risk or a critical leadership appointment. The engagement begins by naming the decision, the consequence of delay and the executive who owns the result.
2. Establish the evidence
The diagnostic uses the evidence already produced by the organisation: organisation charts, workforce data, role documents, operating calendars, management reports, process records and interviews with the people who make or carry the decisions. Practitioner judgement is kept separate from statutory guidance and from external market benchmarks so leaders can see what is known, what is inferred and what still needs testing.
3. Design the operating answer
The output is not a collection of slides. It is a workable operating design: decision rights, named owners, management routines, service standards, measures, escalation routes and the minimum documentation needed to sustain the change. The answer must fit the organisation’s stage, leadership capacity and risk profile.
4. Install, test and transfer
Where the mandate includes implementation, element works inside the operating rhythm until the controls are being used. Leaders and managers need to understand what they own, what evidence demonstrates completion and when an issue must escalate. The work is successful when the client can run the system with less dependence on external advice.
Choosing the right intervention
Use HR consulting when the leadership team needs to diagnose a defined organisational problem, design the operating model or make a high-consequence people decision.
Use embedded HR outsourcing when the business needs recurring ownership, management cadence and reliable execution after the decisions and controls are clear.
Use executive search when a board or CEO needs to define, map, assess and appoint leadership for a critical mandate—not simply fill a vacancy.
Current decision tools
Selected external commentary
Gulf News, 21 May 2026 — Senior attrition tax: UAE family businesses are quietly paying. The article examines the hidden operating and balance-sheet consequences of losing long-serving leaders in founder-led and family businesses.
Gulf News, 14 July 2026 — UAE mid-market firms face rising WPS, gratuity and Emiratisation risks. The article argues that fragmented ownership—rather than an absence of activity—is the control weakness behind recurring people-risk exposure.
Both pieces are published by Gulf News with Mayank identified as the contributor; the July article lists him as Managing Partner of element MEA.
Selected element analysis
Connect
For a business enquiry, brief element on the decision, operating constraint or leadership mandate rather than sending a generic request for HR services. Mayank can also be followed on LinkedIn for new practitioner analysis.
Last reviewed: 27 August 2026. Review cadence: quarterly.
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