GCC hiringIndia hiring case studies, from executive search to RPO.
The work, told as it happened.
Mandates that closed, mandates that almost didn't, and what changed because of how we ran them across India. Where the client has approved, they're named. Where they haven't, the texture is real and the identity isn't.
Case studies
17
Sectors covered
6
12-month retention, since 2014
94%
Filter the record
The Record
Mandates we ran, told as they happened.
Twelve recent engagements across the four sectors we publish on. Use the filters above to narrow by service, sector, or lifecycle stage — or browse the full record below.
9w
Search closed
Fortune 500 Pharma GCC · Bengaluru · 2,400 employees
Head of Translational Medicine, found in nine weeks.
The profile the client's previous firm said didn't exist in India. The mandate, the methodology, and what made the difference.
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75
Engineers in 3 months
Fast-scaling fintech · Bengaluru · 500–2,000 stage
Seventy-five engineers for a fintech in three months, without the roadmap slipping.
Backward-planned from the deadline, run as several targeted drives, and tracked metric by metric so gaps surfaced before they cost time.
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−50%
Director decline rate
Investment bank · Bengaluru · 4,200 employees
Senior offers kept declining. The compensation wasn't the problem.
EVP audit, candidate-side intelligence, and the leadership content programme that halved the decline rate inside nine months.
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12→180
Headcount grown in 18 months
European industrial group · Pune · pre-launch
From the first leadership hire to a 180-person ER&D centre in 18 months.
The talent runway plan we built before site selection, the first fifteen hires that anchored the rest, and what happens when the BOT clock runs out.
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30d
To fill a year-open role
Fortune 500 retail major · Bengaluru · 2,000+ employees
A niche identity-governance role, open a year, closed in thirty days.
A Fortune 500 retailer, two firms, twelve months, no hire. What a demand-supply analysis and precision mapping found that volume sourcing had missed.
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22%
Below market band
Mid-cap Pharma GCC · Hyderabad · 1,200 employees
The comp band was 22% below market — and the client didn't believe it until they saw the data.
A two-week benchmarking engagement, a difficult HQ conversation, and a hiring plan that started landing offers within a month.
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−38%
Cost-per-hire
European insurance major · Bengaluru · 3,100 employees
From 14 vendors to one RPO — and a 38% drop in cost-per-hire in the first year.
The transition was the hard part. How we ran it without breaking the existing pipeline, and what changed in month four when retention numbers started moving.
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3yr
Workforce model
Global SaaS leader · Bengaluru · 950 employees
The three-year hiring plan nobody had asked for — and that the CFO ended up presenting at the board.
Workforce planning grounded in placement data, not intuition. The ramp model, the cost projections, and the questions HQ stopped asking.
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95%
Interns kept as full-time
Multinational GCC · Bengaluru · 500–2,000 stage
Eighty campus interns in thirty-five days, and ninety-five percent stayed.
One end-to-end engine from campus outreach to onboarding, built so speed didn't cost quality. The conversion rate was the proof it worked.
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847
Profiles mapped
Singapore bank GCC · Bengaluru · 0–500 stage
Mapping the risk-tech talent pool in Bengaluru before opening a single role.
847 named profiles, salary distributions, attrition timing, and the four companies the client should be talking to first. Done in three weeks.
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BOT→3y
Build-operate-transfer, then handed over
UK fintech scale-up · Hyderabad · 0–500 stage
A 60-person platform engineering centre, built on a BOT and transferred in three years.
From the first hire to the transition handover. What made the BOT model work here, and what we'd flag to a similar client now.
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48
Clinical ops, 5 months
US biotech · Bengaluru · 500–2,000 stage
Forty-eight clinical operations contractors stood up for an FDA submission window.
Time-bound, regulated, no second chances. The team, the timing, and the conversion rate to full-time when the project closed.
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19→37%
Women's share of hires
Multiple GCC clients · Cross-sector · DEI programme
Doubling women's share of hires across a portfolio of GCC clients.
Diversity hiring run as a dedicated capability, not a one-off ask. Five fronts, sustained pipelines, and outcomes that held.
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5–6mo
Search closed on fit
Global technology advisory & analyst firm · Bengaluru · 500–2,000 stage
The transformation leader who barely existed on paper, found and placed.
A rare mix of strategy, transformation, and CXO fluency, in a location-locked pool. Why the timeline was the point, not the problem.
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5yr+
A returnship partnership
Top-five global investment & financial services firm · Bengaluru · 2,000+ employees
A returnship that brought experienced women back to the workforce.
A six-month returnship for women restarting after a career break, run for over five years across four functions. Built around capability, not a continuous CV.
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0→100+
Built from the ground up
Global sustainability-focused company · Bengaluru · pre-launch → 100+
A Bangalore development centre, built from zero to over a hundred.
Confidential leadership hiring before the brand was public, then the HR function and technical team from nothing to 100+. The full build.
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3mo
Tokyo Partner search, closed
Global healthcare analytics & research firm · Tokyo, Japan · 2,000+ employees
A senior Partner in Tokyo, one of the hardest markets in the world to hire in.
A Partner-level seat open for months, in a market known for its complexity. A research-led cross-border search that closed in three.
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No case studies match those filters.
The Mandate Desk
The intelligence behind the work, before it's public.
The placement data and salary signals that shaped the mandates above. Written for talent leaders, sent most weeks.
The thinking behind the work
Read the intelligence layer.
The reports, signals, and conversations that informed how we ran most of the engagements above. All free to read, and the new ones land in The Mandate Desk first.
Annual Report
The India GCC Talent Almanac 2026
Placement data, salary bands, attrition trends, and what we expect for the year ahead — the publication a CHRO can hand to their board without footnotes.
Monthly · The Mandate Desk
The Talent Radar — May 2026
Hiring velocity is up 18%, but the role mix has shifted — and most plans haven't caught up. Twelve charts, one observation page, and the data tables behind them.
Monthly · sector-rotating
The Compensation Index
What GCCsIndia centres actually pay senior talent — priced from live placements, not surveys. IT, Pharma, BFSI and ER&D in rotation.
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One subscription, both the reports and the newsletter. The Mandate Desk, for talent leaders.
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