Business Strategy · People-Centered Leadership · Nonprofits & Mission-Driven Organizations
WSP provides fractional people leadership for small and mid-sized organizations, multi-site businesses, customer-facing specialty firms, and nonprofits — helping leaders strengthen manager capacity, enhance operational processes, reduce employee risk, and build teams that perform.
Whether you operate across locations, serve customers through specialized teams, or advance a mission with limited internal capacity, WSP brings practical people strategy that improves consistency, accountability, and sustainable growth.
Modern Strategy | Human Core | Total Success
Not sure where to start? Schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call →
Now applied to organizations that need senior judgment without enterprise overhead.
How We Engage
Project-Based
Focused work on a specific challenge or initiative, start to finish.
Fractional Leadership
Senior HR expertise on a part-time basis — without the full-time executive cost. WSP embeds within your organization — learning your business, your culture, and your people — and owns the HR function alongside you.
Retained Advisory
Ongoing strategic partnership with a dedicated advisor in your corner.
Sized for 5 to 5,000 employees · Scaled to fit your complexity and budget
WSP Is Especially Effective For Organizations That Are
Growing beyond informal people practices and ready to build the foundation their next stage demands
Operating across more than one location, department, or specialized team — and experiencing the friction that comes with it
Experiencing manager inconsistency, recurring turnover, or employee issues that keep landing on the leader's desk
Seeking senior people leadership without adding a full-time executive — and needing a partner who embeds, not just advises
Preparing for expansion, a leadership transition, new operating complexity, or a significant people decision
Navigating mission and budget pressure that makes it impossible to justify a full HR team — but impossible to go without strategy
Growing organizations do not always need a full-time HR executive — but they do need experienced, practical people leadership. WSP works with small and mid-sized organizations, multi-site businesses, customer-facing specialty firms, and nonprofits to create stronger managers, more consistent team practices, and a workplace foundation that supports both performance and growth.
01
When manager practices vary, employees receive mixed messages and leaders spend too much time solving preventable issues. WSP helps organizations clarify manager expectations, strengthen day-to-day leadership capability, improve coaching and accountability, and create more consistent practices across teams or locations.
Relevant Outcomes
02
Turnover, unclear roles, and uneven onboarding create disruption that affects both employees and customers. WSP helps leaders improve role clarity, onboarding, retention, team communication, and growth-ready people practices — so employees know what is expected and teams can perform with greater consistency.
Relevant Outcomes
03
People risk rarely shows up as a single policy gap. It appears through inconsistent decisions, unclear expectations, weak documentation, unresolved conflict, or managers operating without appropriate guidance. WSP helps leaders identify and prioritize people-related risks, strengthen decision-making practices, and establish practical employee-relations processes. WSP provides strategic HR guidance and works alongside employment counsel when legal advice or review is needed.
Relevant Outcomes
04
In customer-facing organizations, the team experience becomes the customer, patient, guest, donor, or community experience. WSP helps multi-site and specialized organizations connect people practices to operational consistency — including manager routines, communication across locations, staffing readiness, and accountability structures that protect service quality. For organizations with location-based, hourly, or shift-oriented teams, WSP also helps leaders assess scheduling and workforce-practice considerations, including Fair Workweek implications where relevant.
Relevant Outcomes
After more than 20 years leading HR within the highest levels of enterprise — from $2B+ national operations to a global luxury brand reporting to Rome — Anita Watkins kept seeing the same thing: the organizations that needed great people strategy the most were the ones least able to access it. Small businesses navigating growth. Nonprofits doing critical work on impossible budgets. Mid-market companies caught between startup informality and enterprise complexity.
For Anita, the nonprofit piece is personal. As an active board leader at two nonprofit organizations, she has sat on both sides of the table — as the strategic advisor and as a governance leader navigating the exact resource constraints and mission pressures her clients face every day. That lived experience shapes everything about how WSP shows up for mission-driven organizations.
WSP was founded to close the access gap — bringing the depth and rigor of Fortune 500 people strategy to the organizations that rarely have it within reach.
In an era of artificial intelligence, automation, and relentless change, organizations have more tools than ever — yet the ones that win never lose sight of their greatest opportunity: their people.
"A modern business is not a machine to be programmed, but an organism to be cultivated."
Whether you're navigating a workforce challenge, a leadership transition, or the complexity of organizational growth, WSP brings the strategic depth to move you forward — with your people at the center.
Most of our clients couldn't justify a full-time Chief People Officer — but they face the same organizational complexity as companies that have one. WSP closes that gap — bringing Fortune 500-depth HR leadership to the organizations that need it most but have rarely had it within reach.
The Architect
"She is the kind of advisor every leader hopes to have in their corner — a trusted thought partner who combines wisdom, integrity, and real-world experience with a sincere commitment to helping people and organizations succeed."
— Priscilla Lee, Former Vice President of Human Resources · Bloomingdale's
Forward-thinking frameworks that move your business with intention and precision.
People-first design that preserves culture, builds trust, and drives engagement.
Firsthand experience leading within a global enterprise — representing North American markets and partnering with international stakeholders at the executive level.
Measurable outcomes that align human strategy with revenue and performance.
From strategic HR transformation to culture scaling, WSP's services are built for organizations navigating real complexity — with lean teams, high stakes, and a leader who needs a trusted partner, not a vendor.
Particular depth in luxury retail, hospitality, nonprofit, and professional services organizations — with hands-on experience navigating the unique workforce dynamics, labor environments, and cultural complexity each demands.
Deep familiarity with NYC and NYS employment and labor law — including Fair Workweek, Pay Transparency, Earned Safe and Sick Time, and the NYC Human Rights Law — for organizations operating in one of the most regulated labor markets in the country.
WSP works with organizations at every stage — from project-based engagements to ongoing advisory retainers — scaled to fit your complexity and budget.
Transitioning HR from a cost center to a value creator. Navigating digital transformation, operational efficiency, and complex workforce strategies.
Developing the emotional intelligence and human muscle required for modern business command. Talent development and performance management at scale.
Building agile structures for a future-forward enterprise. Structure analysis and succession planning for organizations navigating complex change — including cross-border and global stakeholder environments.
Preserving the "heart" of your company during rapid global growth. Equity, inclusivity, and employee engagement as strategic infrastructure.
Luxury retail and business operations expertise that moves your enterprise forward. Labor relations, negotiations, and client acquisition built on trust.
High-level, ongoing strategic partnership for C-Suite leaders. Subject-matter expertise on labor relations, DEI council leadership, and aligning national workforce strategies with profitability plans.
Purpose-built HR strategy for mission-driven organizations navigating the intersection of lean budgets, high service demand, and the need to retain passionate, mission-aligned talent. We bring enterprise discipline to nonprofit scale.
The WSP Difference
High-Risk & Complex Employee Relations
Sensitive, high-exposure situations handled with precision, discretion, and the experience to know what's at stake.
Labor Contracts & Union Negotiations
Multi-union experience and negotiation strategy at the enterprise level — brought to organizations of every size.
C-Suite Advisory & Business Partnership
Strategic HRBP to CTO, CFO, and CSO/EVP of Stores — fluent in the priorities, pressures, and language of every seat at the leadership table.
Business Operations & P&L Ownership
Direct oversight of a $110M business across five locations and 300+ employees. Not HR adjacent to business leadership. Actually in it.
HR expertise built from the inside out — as a strategic partner to the C-suite and a business driver in her own right. Anita doesn't just understand your challenges. She has lived them.
Anita's conviction that strategy must serve people extends beyond her client work. Her board service reflects the same values that define WSP — equity, governance, and the belief that strong organizations lift whole communities.
From co-leading governance strategy for a nonprofit's first major NYC real estate acquisition, to advancing economic inclusion and inspiring the next generation of young women — this work is not separate from the mission. It is the mission.
Founding Board Member · Vice Chair
New York-based nonprofit advancing economic inclusion. Co-led enterprise governance strategy creation and oversaw end-to-end legal due diligence for the foundation's first major NYC commercial real estate acquisition.
Board of Directors
National nonprofit inspiring girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Contributing strategic leadership and people-centered governance to advance programming that builds confidence and opportunity for young women.
The current nonprofit landscape is one of the most challenging in recent memory. WSP was built to help mission-driven organizations navigate it — with the same strategic rigor we bring to enterprise clients, at a scale and cost structure designed for yours.
Nonprofit leaders are often managing the complexity of a mid-size enterprise — without the budget, staff depth, or HR infrastructure to match it. You need a strategic partner who understands both the boardroom and the community room.
Anita Watkins brings executive-level people strategy — the same depth she's applied to multi-hundred-million-dollar operations — sized and priced for organizations where every dollar must serve the mission.
Start the ConversationFractional HR Leadership
Senior HR expertise on a part-time or project basis — giving your organization C-suite-caliber people strategy without a full-time executive cost. Ideal for organizations scaling programs or navigating leadership transitions.
Culture & Compliance Infrastructure
Building the HR foundations that protect your organization and your people — policy frameworks, governance structures, employee relations protocols, and compliance systems designed for mission-driven environments.
Talent & Engagement Strategy
Attracting and retaining mission-aligned talent in a competitive market. Workforce planning, total rewards design, and engagement strategies built for organizations where purpose is the most powerful retention tool you have.
Board & Leadership Alignment
Strengthening the relationship between executive leadership and the board — governance strategy, succession planning, and leadership development that keeps your organization stable through transition and growth.
Nonprofit economic vise statistics sourced from WSP research on the current nonprofit landscape.
Anita is the person you want in the room when the stakes are high. She can sit comfortably with the most senior executives while never losing sight of the people on the front lines. She doesn't arrive with a pre-packaged playbook — she builds strategies that fit the culture, goals, and challenges of the business in front of her. Any organization that has the opportunity to work with Anita will gain far more than a consultant. They will gain a trusted partner who is deeply invested in their success.
Priscilla Lee
Former Vice President, Human Resources · Bloomingdale's
Working with WSP has been transformative for SquashWise. During a period of rapid change and growth, Anita offered steady guidance — not only to me as the leader, but to our entire team. She helped us grow into a more professionalized organization with better planning and vastly improved systems for HR, people management, and culture. I can't recommend WSP highly enough for any organization — especially a nonprofit — ready to take the next step as a more strategic institution.
Abby Markoe
Executive Director · Baltimore SquashWise
One of Anita's superpowers is her ability to see between spaces — the gaps in culture, the bridges others miss, and the untapped gifts in the people around her. She didn't just assess our needs, she coached our team and reframed our strategy.
Dr. Pei Desrosiers
Founder & Executive Director · The Stanfield Desrosiers Foundation
Additional references from C-suite leaders, nonprofit executive directors, and board partners available upon request.
Organization
Multi-location customer-facing business
Challenge
Growth required consistent leadership and people practices across multiple locations, including navigating the complexity of the NYC/NYS labor environment.
WSP Contribution
Strengthened multi-location leadership and people practices through manager coaching, employee-relations support, and practical guidance for operating in the NYC/NYS labor environment.
Result
More consistent leadership decision-making and people practices across locations, with a stronger foundation for team performance and operational continuity.
Organization
Specialty professional practice
Challenge
Needed stronger structure as the team and operating needs evolved — including role clarity, manager capability, and a retention strategy for high-demand talent.
WSP Contribution
Supported role clarity, manager capability, communication priorities, and compensation and career progression strategy for high-risk talent retention.
Result
Greater leadership clarity, reduced executive time spent resolving recurring people issues, and a compensation and development strategy to decrease turnover.
Organization
Mission-driven nonprofit organization
Challenge
Needed people strategy aligned with mission, governance, and operational needs following a period of significant organizational change and growth.
WSP Contribution
Assessed team dynamics, resolved operational friction, and built a roadmap for stronger systems and leadership capacity aligned with the organization's mission and growth trajectory.
Result
A practical foundation for greater organizational stability, staff alignment, more consistent operations, and a clearer path for people and organizational growth.
Client details anonymized. Attribution available upon request with client approval.
70% of strategic initiatives fail — not because the data was wrong, but because the people didn't believe in the why.
In a race to be more global and digital, organizations have forgotten how to be human. At Watkins Strategic Partners, we close that gap — with strategy that sees both the data and the heartbeat behind it.
Whether you're a growing business, a mid-market enterprise, or a nonprofit navigating today's economic vise — if your people strategy needs a partner, the conversation starts here.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute strategy call — no commitment, no pressure. Just clarity on where your organization stands and where WSP can help.
Book a Strategy Call →