India’s GCCs lead in empowerment and inclusion, driving employee-centric growth: Deloitte India analysis

National, 4 September 2025: India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are redefining themselves as culture-driven, employee-first organisations, strengthening the country’s position as a global hub for advanced services and innovation. The Deloitte India GCC Culture Sensing Report 2025 reveals a strong Culture Index of 82/100, where nearly 95 percent of organisations excel in empowerment and inclusion through transparent policies, equal opportunities and robust CSR initiatives. Collaborative leadership, strong wellness programmes and flexible, supportive policies are helping GCCs build resilient, high-performing workplace cultures. The report underscores how GCCs are embedding diversity and inclusion, with wellness initiatives, supportive leadership and psychological safety enhancing engagement and workplace experience. This drives stronger talent retention and higher productivity and positions India’s GCCs as a benchmark for people-first sustainable growth.

The financial services sector is leading in providing robust learning opportunities, with 81 percent of GCCs offering strong skilling and development pathways. However, persistent challenges remain across industries, including favouritism, promotion biases, wage competitiveness and limited access to advanced tools, that continue to weigh on employee sentiment. Agility scores also average just 74, with only 23 percent of organisations demonstrating high adaptability, signalling resistance to change that could slow innovation and responsiveness.

These cultural strengths highlighted in the Culture Sensing Report, spanning empowerment, inclusion, ethics and innovation, are reinforced by Deloitte’s GCC framework, which positions India as a global epicentre of innovation and transformation. The framework projects India’s capacity to host up to 5,000 GCCs and generate millions of jobs, building on strong momentum with over 1,700 centres already operational by FY24, employing 1.9 million professionals, contributing US$64.6 billion in revenue and expanding into tier II and tier III cities with more than 82,000 roles.

The future of India’s GCCs will be defined by scale, efficiency and the strength of their people-first cultures. Sustainable and inclusive growth will hinge on targeted efforts to standardise wages, advance gender parity and accelerate workforce development. The report calls on organisations to adopt comprehensive compensation strategies and make long-term commitments to improving workplace conditions and career progression, particularly for India’s vast and critical workforce. This coordinated approach will maintain India’s competitive edge and ensure GCCs continue to drive the nation’s economic growth and innovation ambitions. 

About the survey:

The report provides a data-driven analysis of India’s Global Capability Centres ecosystem. It covers key industries such as financial services, consumer, energy, resources and industrials, life sciences and healthcare, technology, media and communication, featuring insights from 100 GCCs across the Fortune 500 companies. The pan-India study offers a comprehensive assessment of cultural drivers and workforce sentiment across regions based on over 130,000 employee reviews collected from multiple social media platforms over four years. This extensive research highlights emerging trends, challenges and priorities in financial services, consumer goods, technology, life sciences and energy sectors.

The report assesses the workplace across five key culture drivers, with culture scores highlighting progress and gaps. Empowerment and inclusion (89) ranked the highest, reflecting strides in diversity, mental well-being and collaboration, though HR processes and recognition need improvement. Ethics and sustainability (85) underscored GCCs’ commitment to responsible practices, even as trust in leadership remains uneven. Growth and learning (84) were strengthened by training and mentorship, but limited exposure to advanced tools and promotion biases restrict progress. Performance and results (76) exposed concerns around pay competitiveness, leadership quality and support. Agility and innovation (74) scored lowest, as bureaucracy and resistance to change slow adaptability despite strong intent to innovate.