A GCC’s entire value case rests on the people it hires. The compliance layer around employment exists to protect both them and the parent’s IP, not to slow hiring down, provided it is built correctly before the first offer letter goes out rather than reconstructed after the fact.
State-administered, not national
India’s core labour compliance for a GCC runs through the state’s Shops and Establishments Act, which means the correct contract template depends on where the entity is registered, not on a single national standard. A Bengaluru GCC and a Pune GCC file and register differently, and a generic pan-India template is the single most common gap we see in employment paperwork drafted before local counsel is involved.
IP assignment is a sequencing decision, not a clause
Assignment language that routes anything an employee creates on the job back to the parent has to be decided at the structuring stage, alongside the entity and IP-ownership decisions covered in our Entity & Structure page, and then drafted into every employment contract from the first hire. Retrofitting this after a team has already shipped work product turns a one-line contract clause into a much harder ownership question.
Statutory benefits that scale with headcount
Provident Fund (PF) registration with the EPFO becomes mandatory once an establishment crosses 20 employees, though most GCCs register earlier since candidates expect it as standard. Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) applies based on a wage threshold rather than headcount. Gratuity accrues once an employee completes five years of continuous service under the Payment of Gratuity Act, but the provisioning for it should start from the first hire for accounting purposes, not from year five. A POSH Internal Committee, including a mandatory external member, becomes a legal requirement once the entity crosses 10 employees under the POSH Act, 2013 — and is worth setting up before that threshold is crossed rather than scrambling once it is.
Where location and hiring decisions meet
Where you hire from is as much a location decision as an HR one. Our Location Strategy page covers how city choice maps to the kind of talent pool — engineering-heavy, BFSI back-office, or manufacturing-adjacent — a given function actually needs, which is the question that should come before the employment framework is finalised, not after.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice for your situation. Speak with a qualified adviser before acting.