Over the last fifteen years, Global Capability Centers have moved beyond a cost arbitrage to become strategic engines that shape product roadmaps, customer experience, and enterprise outcomes. This new construct not only delivers operational excellence, but product improvement along with enhanced customer experience; with the customer not only being the parent enterprise, but the enterprise’s clients as well.
At Mercer, this evolution is reflected in two complementary strengths: India HR Consulting capability that partners with GCCs from startup mandate to global scale and the
operational transformation of our own Global Service Delivery (GSD).
The India consulting team has actively supported 100+ GCC at different points, from start up to scale journeys, right from site selection and right talent pool mapping to right
organization structures for sustained growth, competitive rewards and compelling
employer value propositions (EVP) to pivot GCCs in growth orbit. Most established GCCs today consider Mercer as their talent partner.
Since Mercer’s GSD inception in India in 2006 through a build-operate-transfer model, it
has transformed from a modest team into a dynamic global capability powerhouse. Fuelled by world-class talent, it consistently delivers impactful client solutions at scale, driving significant growth and innovation for the firm.
Mansee Singhal, Partner & India Business Leader — Mercer India Consulting
The strategic levers which have driven this shift and guide how we work with GCCs across India include:
- Talent and capability architecture: Work composition in GCCs has decisively moved up the value chain from full-stack and cloud engineering, AI/ML, data
engineering, product management, cybersecurity and specialized healthcare disciplines are now core capabilities. This change has reshaped organizational structures from a pyramid to a diamond, with mid-career specialists and
experienced individual contributors forming the backbone of delivery.
To operationalize this, GCCs have adopted a skills-first operating model—role mapping, assessment-led learning journeys, internal academies and defined career pathways—that accelerates internal mobility and succession. Mercer India
consulting teams help clients design pragmatic talent roadmaps for clients to
enable the startup to scale journey through multi-faceted hiring pools (from product
and services companies and other GCCs), and calibrating pay and talent economics for competitiveness and retention.
- Innovation and product orientation embedding automation, AI and product engineering into delivery converts efficiency into differentiation. Our flagship
transformation programs institutionalize automation and responsible AI adoption, moving work from repetitive tasks to client-facing, outcome-oriented engineering.
Thousands of users across Mercer already leverage AI-enabled tools; for GCC
clients, our India consulting teams co-design innovation roadmaps, pivoted on work design principles, and transition traditional role-based structures into skills and domain first structures.
- Strategic evolution in work is supported by evolving rewards strategy towards intentional differentiation basis value delivery and focus on segmentation and understanding the personas one manages within GCCs. We partner with GCC
leadership to establish operating models, along with effective EVPs, Service Level Agreements (SLA), Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) and Total Rewards frameworks that balance investment with return on investment (ROI). In addition to this, total rewards and employee experience are also strategic levers that are moving from uniform pay bands to persona- and skill-cluster frameworks that combine cash, short-term incentives and long-term incentives to align leadership behavior with transformation goals. Location is also a strategic decision. India’s value extends beyond Bangalore; to Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and other select tier two or tier three cities like Ahmedabad and Trivandrum, each offering role and industry specific advantages. Our hub-and-spoke diagnostics help clients identify optimal mixes that balance talent depth, domain fit and ROI.
- Responsible growth underpins everything that GCCs expect to deliver. Mercer India integrates ESG into employee culture and strategy through skills-based
volunteering, pro-bono consulting, and community programs focused on health, livelihoods and financial literacy, co-designed with GCC clients to ensure local relevance and measurable outcomes.
In the future, GCCs will be defined less by size and more by significance, and their ability to shape products, improve customer outcomes and drive measurable enterprise
performance.
Mercer’s combined capability of GSD’s delivery excellence and India HR Consulting’s strategic advisory helps GCCs cross that threshold by building talent architectures,
embedding innovation responsibly, operationalizing governance, and designing rewards and location strategies that sustain growth.
The true impact of this journey is witnessed when clients are able to engage with the best-in-class talent, grow their talent from within, invest in rewards with clear ROI, all while delivering on the promise of being a true value partner for the enterprise.
We are pragmatic about the journey ahead. By accelerating capability building and
disciplined governance, there is an unwavering commitment to purposeful innovation that will determine which GCCs move from efficiency to influence. At Mercer, we are building that bridge by combining scale with strategy, and capability with conscience so that GCCs can deliver the outcomes that have a long-lasting impact for both the enterprise, its customers, and the communities they serve.
