Global Capability Centres (GCCs), once seen as simple cost-cutters, have evolved into strategic hubs for global talent. Ignore their growth, and you might miss out on the future of workforce development.
By 2025, the country is expected to have nearly 1,900 GCCs. In 2023 alone, 8% of these centres were projected to double their workforce, adding around 3,50,000 jobs. What’s even more interesting? A good chunk of these new centres—one in five—are popping up in tier II cities, according to CBRE, signaling a shift towards tapping fresh talent markets.
With GCCs expanding so rapidly, it’s clear that hiring strategies need to evolve, too. In this series, we’ll dive into how businesses can adapt their talent strategies to keep pace with the changing landscape, starting with how India became a key player in this global growth story.
Why India hits the sweet spot for global corporations
India’s emergence as a leader in the GCC space has been years in the making. Over the past seven to eight years, it’s been fueled by its unmatched talent pool, deep capabilities, and strategic advantages. With a large, skilled workforce and the ability to adapt to global companies’ evolving needs, India has become the go-to destination for these centres. The pandemic further highlighted India’s ability to quickly scale operations, establish data centers, and implement robust governance.
Offshore talents – talents working from outside the company’s home country – surged from 60-70% between 2011 and 2018 to nearly 80%, underlining the rapid expansion of GCCs. With its young talent pool and increasing adoption of local payroll models over expensive foreign packages, India is primed for continued growth.
If you’re interested in knowing more about how India makes the cut, watch the discussion below
Shifting gears: The need to focus on leadership hiring in India
With the expansion of offshore operations— operations outside of organisation’s home country —, there’s a clear shift in the roles being relocated to India, particularly senior leadership positions. This presents a significant opportunity for India’s talent landscape but also challenges recruitment teams to elevate their executive hiring strategies.
To keep up with this demand, recruiting teams must expand their focus to attract high-caliber leaders who can drive strategic initiatives on a global scale. With senior leadership roles now moving back to India, companies will need to have a plan of action that lets them tap into evolving talent market to hire top executives.
Partnering with business and talent teams: The power of scouting
Striking the right balance between internal (like IJP, shifting roles across teams) and external hiring (new hiring from outside the organisation) is crucial as companies grow rapidly.
An in-house talent pool plays a key role in preserving company culture, capabilities, and institutional knowledge. This ensures that the strategic roadmap stays on track during aggressive growth phases. Over-relying on external hires can throw this balance off, so getting the mix right is vital.
For recruitment teams, this means evolving beyond just posting internal job openings. They need to act as talent scouts – teaming up with business leaders and internal talent teams. The focus should be on proactively identifying high-potential talent, whether for short-term projects, long-term assignments, or permanent roles—especially on local payroll models. This collaborative approach ensures businesses can scale while maintaining their core strengths.
Tapping into the power of T-shaped talent
As GCCs continue to expand, one of the biggest challenges is scaling up sourcing capabilities. Traditionally, these centres haven’t operated within strict verticals or horizontals—they cut across multiple functions. As a result, recruiting teams must now prioritise finding talent that not only excels in product-specific expertise but also brings a broad functional skill set.
Professionals with both depth and breadth of expertise, often called T-shaped talent, are invaluable because they can seamlessly navigate different roles, whether in DevOps, product development, or beyond.
To attract this level of talent, recruitment strategies need to evolve. The focus should be on bringing in hands-on technologists and specialists who can function at both the tactical and leadership levels.
Crafting a compelling value proposition for these professionals is crucial. For instance, organisations need to convey that being a hands-on individual contributor, even at senior levels, is a dynamic career path that offers long-term growth. Shifting this narrative will make GCCs more appealing to skilled professionals seeking meaningful roles that make an impact.
From strategy to action: Reimagining the way hiring is done
While we’ve been talking about strategic shifts within GCCs, the real game-changer is how they’re being executed. With the expansion of these centres, it’s crucial to reimagine how hiring gets done.
Automation helps focus on the core functions of recruitment
One thing is clear—automation is already transforming the recruitment process by eliminating many repetitive, low-judgment tasks.
Tasks like interview scheduling and generating job offer letters, which used to consume hours of time, are now being handled by AI-powered tools. This frees up recruitment teams to focus on what truly matters—finding the right talent and making strategic decisions to support growth.
To keep pace with this shift, it’s essential to upgrade recruitment systems and fully embrace AI-powered platforms. While early attempts at using bots for sourcing and screening were met with challenges, technology is improving fast.
Moving forward, AI has the potential to reshape not just how we schedule interviews but how we assess talent, with innovations like virtual reality assessments already on the horizon. The landscape is changing, and adapting to these new tools will be key to staying ahead.
Social media sourcing: The next frontier in talent acquisition
Social media sourcing is becoming a powerful tool in recruitment. New social platforms are likely to emerge, changing how we source talent. To stay ahead, recruitment teams need to strengthen their data arsenal, using analytics to track candidate trends, skill gaps, and predict future talent needs.
The key question is: do talent acquisition leaders know their future hiring requirements? With GCCs set to hire in lakhs, agile workforce planning is crucial. Companies need to have capacity models that help them scale up or scale down as needed.
Step into tier – II and tier – III cities for more talent pool
As Tier-1 cities become more crowded and the war for talent intensifies, it’s time to look beyond the usual hotspots. The real opportunity lies in Tier 2 and 3 cities—emerging tech hubs that are full of untapped potential. By expanding recruitment efforts into these regions, GCCs can access fresh talent and ease the burden on already overpopulated urban centers.
In fact, we’re already witnessing an IT boom in Tier – 2 cities generating huge employment opportunities. It simply means that the future of hiring new talents lie in these growing hubs, helping organisations avoid over-reliance on talents hired from foreign locations.
D&I will expand to include the needs of Gen-Z
We’re already at the done of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). As we progress further, priorities around D&I are bound to evolve. In fact, as Gen-Z takes over the workforce, companies will need to rethink how they measure D&I success.
For example, the metrics will change from acquisition and retention rate to measuring opportunities of growth provided for talents from diversity and inclusion.
Organisational working models will also undergo significant change. Take the gig economy, that’s on the rise, for example. Gen-Z isn’t looking for the traditional 9-to-5, and businesses need to adapt to this evolving workforce landscape. Whether it’s hybrid work models, four-day weeks, or finding new ways to engage gig workers, the future of work will look different. And if companies want to keep up, their recruitment strategies will need to change with it.
Preparing for a GCC-driven world: What you must know
The rapid growth of GCCs is reshaping recruitment, and companies need to adapt quickly. It’s about being strategic—whether that’s leadership hiring or bringing in T-shaped talent. Automation is handling repetitive tasks, allowing recruiters to focus on what matters, while AI and data analytics help predict talent needs early on.
Even geography plays a key role. As tier 1 cities get crowded, tapping into tier 2 and 3 cities for talent is the next step. Diversity remains crucial. With Gen-Z and the gig economy changing how work gets done, flexibility—through hybrid models or gig roles—will be key to staying ahead.
Stay tuned! In the next series we’ll be talking about strategies you need to meet the speed and scale of hiring.
