How to plan recruitment for a capability centre in India

TL;DR

Recruitment for an India capability centre works best in a set order: hire the centre head and functional leads first, then fill the remaining roles in planned waves sized to how many interviews your hiring managers can realistically run, with clear reporting to every hiring manager throughout. The recruiting can sit with your own talent team, a setup or build-operate-transfer provider, or a specialist recruitment partner such as GoAsia Talent working alongside whichever employment vehicle you choose.

Key Overview

• India has 2,117 global capability centres (GCCs) operating across 3,728 units, generating USD 98.4 billion in revenue. The number of GCCs has grown 32% since FY2021 (Zinnov-Nasscom GCC Value Orbit report, FY2026, data to March 2026).
• The same report counts 506 Forbes Global 2000 companies running a GCC in India, alongside 583 mid-market and 504 private equity-backed GCCs.
• Six cities hold 92% of India's GCCs: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, NCR, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai (Zinnov).
• Notice periods of 60 to 90 days are common practice for experienced IT and GCC professionals. The period is set in each employee's appointment letter rather than fixed by a single legal standard.
• GoAsia Talent has made roughly 600 placements in India in the last three years and supports capability centre builds of 50 to 200 people.
• GoAsia Talent shortlists contain 3 to 4 candidates, each video-screened for 30 to 45 minutes. The first shortlist arrives in 3 to 5 working days as standard, and 89% of shortlisted candidates have been taken to interview this year.

Who recruits for a GCC in India?

Most US and European companies building an India centre choose between four routes, and many combine them as the centre grows.

In-house talent acquisition works well once the centre has its own HR and talent team. On day one, though, that team usually does not exist, and your home-country recruiters have no local network to draw on.

GCC setup and build-operate-transfer (BOT) providers handle the wider build, such as entity, workspace and operations, and often include hiring as one part of the package.

Large generalist agencies can cover a wide spread of roles, typically recruiting market by market and role by role.

Specialist recruitment partners focus on the part most buyers find hardest: finding and judging the actual people. GoAsia Talent is a specialist recruitment and executive search partner for companies, particularly from the US, hiring across Asia. It runs the search alongside your own entity or an employer of record (EOR), and does not provide EOR, incorporation, payroll or background-checking services itself.

Start before the location decision

Zinnov's setup sequence runs from capabilities to location, operating model, legal entity, leadership, talent strategy, infrastructure and launch. In practice, talent supply should shape the location choice rather than follow it, because the right city is the one where the roles you need can be filled at salaries you have planned for.

That is why GoAsia Talent is often engaged before the location decision is made, advising on salary benchmarks and market entry before any search starts. A realistic view of candidate depth and pay in each hub is far cheaper to get early than after a lease is signed.

Why companies look at Pune

Pune is one of India's six main GCC hubs. Zinnov notes that Mumbai and Pune bring sector depth in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and automotive, and that Pune and NCR are growing fast in digital, product and engineering work.

State policy adds momentum. Maharashtra's Global Capability Centres Policy 2025, approved in September 2025 and running until FY2029-30, aims to attract 400 new GCCs. Publicly announced builds reflect the engineering pull: thyssenkrupp Automotive Technology opened a Pune GCC in October 2026 with more than 120 engineers and plans to grow past 300.

Your first leadership hires

Centre head or site lead

WeWork India's setup guide describes the GCC head or India site lead as usually the first critical hire, and that matches how successful builds tend to run. This person translates between headquarters and the India team, sets the culture and becomes the most important interviewer for everyone who follows.

Look for someone who has built or scaled a centre before and is comfortable reporting into US stakeholders. Getting this hire wrong slows every wave behind it.

Functional leads, HR and talent acquisition

Next come the leads for each function the centre will run, such as engineering, data or finance, alongside an HR and talent acquisition lead and someone to own finance or operations locally.

These leaders do more than run their teams. Once in seat, they take a share of interviewing, which is what makes larger hiring waves possible later.

Planning hiring waves

Sizing each wave

Size each wave to the interview and onboarding time your managers actually have, not to the end-state headcount target. A wave built around one lead and their first team members is easier to interview, onboard and judge than a broad wave across every function at once.

Allowing for notice periods and offer dropouts

Indian notice periods mean an accepted offer often turns into a start date months later. Plan each wave so offers go out well ahead of the date you need people working, and stagger waves so one is joining while the next is interviewing.

Dropouts between offer and joining day are a well-known risk in India, particularly when candidates receive counter-offers during their notice period. Regular contact through the notice period, early introductions to the future manager and a warm reserve candidate for critical roles all reduce the damage.

Interview capacity: the hidden bottleneck

Interview time is where most builds stall. As an illustrative example, a wave of 20 roles at the shortlist size above means 60 to 80 first-round interviews before any second rounds, often spread across US hiring managers working against a large time-zone gap.

The fix is fewer, better interviews. Because GoAsia Talent screens every candidate on video before submission, hiring managers only meet people who have already been assessed against the role, and the shortlist-to-interview rate in the Key Overview is the practical test of that. It is the difference between quality of shortlist and volume of CVs.

If you are working out how many interviews your managers can absorb per wave, book a 30-minute intro call to talk through your plan.

Reporting across many hiring managers

A build with dozens of hiring managers needs reporting that each manager can read in minutes. Good reporting typically shows pipeline by role and stage, interviews booked and outstanding, offers made and accepted, notice-period end dates and any candidates at risk of dropping out.

GoAsia Talent provides bespoke reporting to hiring managers on capability centre builds, so each manager sees their own roles while the programme lead sees the whole picture.

Entity, EOR or BOT: where recruitment fits

Companies typically use one of three employment vehicles. Some set up their own Indian entity. Others use an employer of record (EOR), a third party that employs staff on the company's behalf. A third group uses BOT, where a provider builds the centre, operates it for a set period and then transfers ownership to the client.

The recruitment work stays largely the same whichever route you take; the vehicle mainly decides who issues the employment contract. GoAsia Talent partners with several of the major EOR platforms and stays neutral across them: it advises clients on the best fit for their situation and makes the introductions. Legal, tax and employment questions belong with those partners and your own advisers.

Common mistakes

• Hiring individual contributors before the leaders who will manage them.
• Setting wave size by the headcount target instead of available interview time.
• Treating an accepted offer as a finished hire.
• Choosing a city before checking candidate supply and salary benchmarks.
• Judging candidates on CVs alone in a market your team does not know.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who should we use to recruit for a capability centre in India?

It depends on how much of the build you want one provider to cover. If you want a single partner focused on finding and judging the people, a specialist recruitment partner such as GoAsia Talent, with Western management and 20+ years operating in Asia, works alongside your own entity or EOR.

What should our first hire for an India GCC be?

Usually the centre head or India site lead, followed by functional leads and an HR and talent acquisition lead. Leaders shape the team and share the interviewing load for later waves.

How long does it take to hire the first 50 people?

There is no single answer, because it depends on your wave plan, interview capacity and candidates' notice periods. Shortlists can arrive quickly as standard, but joining dates are usually set by notice periods, so plan offers well ahead of when you need people in seat.

Do we need our own Indian entity before we start hiring?

Not always. Companies typically choose between their own entity, an EOR or a BOT arrangement, and the search can usually start while that decision is made. If you would like an introduction to the right partner, speak to us and we can talk through how companies in your position typically approach it.

Should we talk to a recruiter before choosing a city?

Yes, if you can. Salary benchmarks and candidate depth vary between hubs, and that information is most useful before the location is fixed.

How do we reduce dropouts between offer and joining day?

Keep in regular contact through the notice period, introduce candidates to their future manager early and keep a reserve candidate warm for critical roles. Moving quickly from final interview to offer also helps.

Can one partner recruit for both India and the Philippines?

Yes. GoAsia Talent has delivery teams on the ground in both countries and recruits across 12 Asian markets, so a multi-country build can run through one relationship.

How is a specialist recruitment partner different from a GCC setup consultancy?

A setup consultancy typically covers the wider build, such as entity, location and infrastructure. A specialist recruitment partner concentrates on sourcing, screening and shortlisting the people, and works alongside whichever setup route you choose.

Planning a capability centre in India? Share your target headcount, key functions and launch date. We’ll talk through the leadership hires, salary benchmarks and hiring waves your managers can realistically support.

Book a conversation with GoAsia Talent about your India hiring plan.

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