Talent Radar · May 2026 — GCC hiring slows in BFSI, AI roles up 14%.

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You're benchmarking against the wrong number.

Survey medians tell you what roles were paid last year, blended across markets that don't compete with yours. We tell you what your role pays right now in your city and sector, drawn from the offers we've actually closed. That's the Compensation Index, built from 2,350+ placements into India's GCCs.

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Compensation Index · Live
Compensation-benchmarking studies run for GCC clients
35
The level step that drives the most senior attrition
IC4→IC5
The Problem

The market repriced this role. Your survey hasn't caught up.

A compensation survey is a photograph of last year, blended across cities and company types that have nothing to do with the person you're about to lose. By the time it's published, the band has already moved, sometimes by a quarter.

So you set an offer against a number that felt safe, and the candidate you wanted takes a counter you didn't see coming. The brief was fine. The benchmark underneath it had gone stale.

What you actually need is narrow and current: what this role pays in Bengaluru versus Pune, in a pharma GCC versus a product company, for someone with the exact profile you're chasing. Survey medians can't see that. Real offer data can.

The survey was a photograph; the role moved.
From the Compensation Index, India GCCs.
Our Approach

Three workstreams. Sequenced.

A benchmark is a data problem before it's a budget one. We anchor the role to real offers, find where your bands sit against the live market, then tell you what to do about it.

01 · Anchor
The role, priced to real offers
We map your role to the exact comparable in the Compensation Index: same city, same sector, same seniority, same scope. The number you get is what people at that profile have actually signed for, not a survey median three markets wide.
02 · Compare
Your bands against the live market
We lay your current bands over the live market and show you exactly where you're under, where you're over, and where the step between levels has drifted. Fixed cash, variable, and equity, broken out, because the gap is rarely where you think it is.
03 · Advise
What to move, and what it costs to wait
We tell you which bands to correct first, what it costs to close each gap, and what it costs to leave it open in attrition and failed offers. A read your CHRO and your CFO can both act on, with the data behind every line.
A Typical Engagement

How a benchmark comes together.

Four phases. A focused benchmark on a single function lands in about three weeks, a full-centre review of every band runs to six to eight.

Phase 01
Week 1
Scope
We agree the roles, the cities, and the comparator set. You tell us where it hurts, an offer you keep losing, a band you suspect is stale, and we frame the question against the Index.
Phase 02
Weeks 1–3
Benchmark
We pull the real offer data for each role and build the band, fixed, variable, and equity, against your sector and city. Where the Index is thin, we say so and widen the comparator rather than guess.
Phase 03
Weeks 3–5
Diagnose
Your bands laid over the market, gap by gap, with the cost to close each one and the cost of leaving it. The level steps that have drifted get flagged first, that's where the best people leak out.
Phase 04
Weeks 5–8
Act
A sequenced correction plan your CHRO and CFO can sign off, plus live offer support on the roles that can't wait. We stay close through the next hiring cycle to see the bands hold.
What This Changes

The numbers that move.

Aggregates across benchmarking engagements, 2024 to 2025. Not promises, what tends to happen once the bands are priced to the live market and the offers go out against real data.

35
Compensation-benchmarking studies run for GCC clients
Benchmarking engagements to date
82%
Offer-acceptance rate on the mandates we run
Offer-to-acceptance
2 wks
To a defensible benchmark on a single function
Typical turnaround
Client Outcome

When the band was quietly losing the hires.

See all case studies
Case Study · Tech GCC · Bengaluru
Engagement
Full-centre benchmark · engineering & data · 2024

"We thought our packages were generous. Recruise showed us the IC5 step had fallen behind the Bengaluru market, which was exactly the level we kept losing. We'd been blaming the brand."

VP
VP, Total Rewards
Fortune 500 Tech GCC · Bengaluru
35
Comp studies run for GCC clients
82%
Acceptance once the band was reset
2 wks
To a defensible benchmark
Read the full case study
Other Services

If this is part of a bigger problem.

A benchmark is sharper when it's tied to a hire, a build, or a wider intelligence picture. Most comp reviews either fed or followed one of these.

Intelligence & Advisory
Talent Availability Mapping
Once the band is right, find out where the people you want actually work, who they'd move for, and what the trigger points are.
Explore Mapping
Intelligence & Advisory
Strategic Workforce Planning
When the comp question is really a build question, the workforce the centre needs over two to three years, sequenced against supply and cost.
Explore Planning
Placement
Executive Search
When the benchmark is set and the role is senior, a retained, off-market search with the same placement data behind every name.
Explore Executive Search
Managed Services
GCC Set-Up & Transformation
Standing up the centre from scratch? The pay architecture is one of the first things to get right, before the first offer goes out.
Explore GCC Set-Up
Intelligence & Advisory
Build Brands that Win Talent
When the pay is competitive but the offers still stall, the picture senior candidates hold of you is usually the next thing to fix.
Explore Employer Branding
Read the Thinking

Intelligence on what roles pay.

The reports, the weekly read, and the data behind every benchmark we build. All free to read.

Report
What senior GCC roles actually pay, by city and sector
The live read on bands and level steps across India's GCCs, drawn from the offers we close. The headline number is rarely the one that wins the hire.
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The Signal
The counter-offer you could have priced in advance
A weekly read on how senior pay is moving across India's GCCs, and where the bands are drifting before the surveys catch it.
Subscribe to The Signal
Pay & Compensation
Where the IC4 to IC5 gap really sits in 2026
The level step that drives the most senior attrition, broken down by sector and city, with the data behind every band.
Read Pay & Compensation
Frequently Asked

Questions we get asked.

If you don't see what you're looking for, the form below is the fastest route. Most enquiries get a response within one working day.

How is this different from a salary survey we already buy?
A survey reports self-declared pay, blended across markets, lagged by a year. The Compensation Index is built from offers we've actually closed, so we can price your role in your city and sector at this seniority, with fixed, variable, and equity broken out. We use surveys too, as one input, but the anchor is real placement data.
How current is the data behind the benchmark?
The Index refreshes as we close placements, so the bands you see reflect what the market is paying now, not what a survey captured a year ago. For fast-moving functions like data and AI, that gap matters, and we'll tell you how recent the comparable offers are for each role.
Can you benchmark a niche role with few comparables?
Yes, with a caveat we state up front. Where the comparable set is thin, we widen it deliberately, adjacent cities, adjacent sectors, and we show you the confidence behind each band rather than presenting a thin number as if it were solid. You'll always know how much data sits under the figure.
What does a benchmarking engagement cost?
A single-function benchmark is priced as a fixed fee against the scope. A full-centre review of every band is priced separately and sized to the centre. We quote once we understand the roles and the cities, we don't publish a rate card because the work isn't standard.
Do you only benchmark senior roles?
Our depth is in the senior band, Director through CXO, and the IC levels that feed it, because that's where our placement data is richest. We can benchmark below that line, the comparables are just broader, and we'll be clear about where the data thins out.
Will the output stand up in front of our CFO?
That's the point of it. Every band is sourced to comparable offers, every gap is costed both ways, to close and to leave, and the correction plan is sequenced so finance can phase it. You get the working behind every recommendation.
Start a Mandate

Tell us the band you think is losing you people.

Give us the role, the city, and the offer you keep losing. We'll come back with a read on where your band sits against the live market, even if we don't run the full benchmark.

Tell us what to benchmark.
We'll only use this to come back to you. Privacy · DPDP
Thanks, we'll come back within one working day with a read on the band, regardless of fit.