What is Attracting Talent to GCCs in India?

Global corporations that have established or are in the process of setting up their Global Capability Centers in India are aware of the wealth of talent that the country has to offer. Hiring the right candidate has never been more important, as a company’s ability to recruit skilled talent directly impacts their success in meeting business growth objectives. To harness this vast pool of talent effectively, many global corporations are now exploring the concept of “Talent as a Service,” which enables them to access the right skills and expertise on-demand, further enhancing their agility and competitiveness in the dynamic business landscape.

Over the years, GCCs in India have evolved from being merely cost saving centers to global innovation centers employing digital technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity etc. The availability of talent skilled in these technologies have led to GCCs working in tandem with the home offices in areas of new product development and upgrading to the latest platforms. As companies vie for top talent, Indian GCCs must find ways to gain a competitive advantage in attracting talented applicants across domains such as technology, analytics, digital and business functions.

High quality of work

In order to hire the right talent, GCCs are setting themselves apart from other companies in several ways.

“GCCs bring in work which is clearly business impacting, core, complex, strategic, and challenging. Typically, this kind of work does not get outsourced and is not available with third-party service providers.”

“GCCs represent major global corporations and aspirational brands from a career perspective,” says Lalit Ahuja, CEO of ANSR. “Global Capability Centers bring in work which is clearly business impacting, core, complex, strategic, and challenging. Typically, this kind of work does not get outsourced and is not available with third-party service providers.” This limitation is being used by GCCs as an opportunity to attract high-quality talent. Coupled with the chance to garner specific industry domain and business knowledge, this is something that hugely helps attract talented individuals who want to take their career to the next level.

Company culture, collaboration, and world-class work environment

GCCs typically reflect the culture and work environment of the parent company. This augurs well for GCC employees as world-class workplaces encourage productivity and foster high levels of engagement. GCCs also make sure that they are attracting the right talent and their people policies are conducive to enabling an optimal work-life balance.

The teams within a GCC are physically separated from their counterparts working from another part of the globe as distributed teams. However, a culture of open communication and collaboration ensures that the business objectives of the company are met by working seamlessly as a single cohesive unit. As an added advantage, this leads to a thorough understanding of the entire business context and also provides the global perspective to what the GCC-as-a-service hopes to eventually achieve. These global enterprises attract the right talent and give them an opportunity to witness firsthand how their work directly impacts the business and the company’s overall growth, and in return how they stand to gain monetarily and professionally.

Benefits in compensation and perks

“GCCs typically maintain parity between the home office, other global locations, and offshore locations from a compensation and benefits perspective,”

By offering benefits ranging from health and life insurance, transportation facilities, and swanky cafeterias that dish out healthy and wholesome meals, to allowances for their personal and professional development, Global Capability Centers are going the full mile to win over talent. “GCCs typically maintain parity between the home office, other global locations, and offshore locations from a compensation and benefits perspective,” says Ahuja. “Therefore, they tend to offer compensation that is around 15-25% more than other companies.” This obviously tends to tip the scales in favour of GCCs.

To attract the right kind of talent, leading global companies are leveraging GCC-as-a-Service while trying to outdo each other by providing intangible benefits that appeal to the career growth of talented professional, such as the development of leadership skills. The global nature of these businesses open up several travel opportunities to employees, be it visiting the company’s headquarters or touring service points such as retail stores. Such global exposure is seen as attractive by those wishing to further their career and GCCs-as-a-Service is certainly capitalizing on this aspect in onboarding the best talents.

Presenting the value of an established brand

In a connected world, the possibility of a brand or company being completely unknown is almost negligible. It is also a given that only a credible organization would set up a GCC. Having said that, a company desiring to establish a GCC in India must fulfill the fundamental requirement of building a compelling employee value proposition that encompasses several aspects – the work and how it impacts the business, the extent to which the GCC is integrated and mainstreamed with the broader enterprise, the kind of career opportunities available, and the compensation, benefits and incentives offered etc. It is the quality of work, however, that should be the highlight of the pitch. ANSR’s extensive experience in delivering GCC-as-a-Service helps global organizations in setting up GCCs and streamlining GCC operations. In today’s competitive landscape, where talent as a service plays a pivotal role, ANSR’s expertise not only ensures the establishment and optimization of Global Capability Centers but also facilitates access to top-tier talent through innovative talent-as-a-service models, thereby enabling companies to stay ahead in the talent game while achieving their global business objectives.

Positioning GCCs as preferred employers

Being associated with an aspirational brand, gaining a gamut of industry domain experience, and working as cohesive units while operating in distributed teams with global peers are some of the aspects that differentiate a GCC from other companies such as service providers working via intermediaries. As the war for attracting the best talent becomes fiercer by the day, global companies with established GCCs or in the midst of setting one up need to leverage these advantages to the maximum.

Increasing their presence at campus recruitment drives should not be neglected by GCCs wishing to scale up their workforce. However, this can be undertaken at a later stage, once the GCC has established itself. At inception, a GCC typically looks at hiring lateral talent. Once the GCC has matured and has enough to demonstrate in terms of the quality of work, it can start tapping fresher talent. Ideally, between the end of year 3 to year 5 is a good time to explore the possibility of hiring talents from campuses.

Can GCCs benefit by partnering with startups?

An interesting shift in the way GCCs-as-a-Service operate in India is their increasing openness to partnering with startups in lieu of building a capability or innovation in house (known as a Global In-house Center). As startups in India are generally powered by some of the smartest, most creative minds in the industry, GCCs would be at an advantage by leveraging this talent pool to provide services for global markets. India is teeming with startups working on out-of-the-box products and innovative solutions. They serve as an ideal platform for GCCs to collaborate with.

GCCs represent the future of jobs in India

Global Capability Centers have significantly changed the employment landscape in India. With strategic work being shipped to India, talented professionals don’t have to necessarily look outside of the country to fulfill their career ambitions. GCCs have addressed not just the issues related to the quality of work, but also compensation and long term benefits.

“India is in the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to the future of jobs. We can find the best global jobs right here in our backyard as a result of the existence of GCCs.”

They help match talent to build global teams and are proving to be instrumental in checking the brain drain that India has been witnessing over the years. Ahuja rightly sums it up by saying, “India is in the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to the future of jobs. We can find the best global jobs right here in our backyard as a result of the existence of GCCs.”