‘BASTIONS OF STABILITY AND HIRING’

completed by then.

Cost pressures in the US and Europe are also driving firms to expand their workforce in India, as compensation is lower than their global counterparts. This is likely to increase demand for talent, consequently leading to more exits.

There is significant demand for midlevel data science, cybersecurity, and UI/ UX professionals, especially with 4-10 years of experience—a prime target group for poaching activities. Besides, demand for women professionals are also on the rise. Companies are also increasingly becoming aware of the need to enhance diversity quotas, which is further driving demand, said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Bengaluru-based staffing firm Xpheno.

According to a study by Aon, while GCCs, like the rest of the IT sector, have witnessed an overall decline in attrition from 19.5% during the hiring frenzy of 2022 to 13% in 2023, industry watchers said it may start inching up again.

“In Bengaluru and Hyderabad, where most GCCs are located, average attrition remained steady at 18% since the postcovid peak of FY21-22 which should be considered high,” said Karanth.

Retaining top performers will be a challenge, given that top GCC talent will receive 1.73 times the compensation of average performer, as per Aon. Besides, GCCs recruited a significant number of (non-IIT) engineering students from tier 2 and 3 cities, when IT service firms had introduced stringent hiring requirements.

Balasubramanian Sankaranarayanan, president and chief executive of Thryve Digital Health LLP, emphasized the importance of offering long-term incentives to top performers across hierarchies to help “ringfence their top talent”. Despite maintaining attrition in lower teens, a GCC with over 4,000 employees, must “enhance the compensation offered to niche skilled profiles” to retain them.

AROUND 1,500 GCCs, and 1.66 mn global professionals, contribute to the $46 bn market.