Note: This article is based on Elaine’s keynote presentation during the N.E.W.S.® APAC Summit last 14 May 2025.
🔴 What is the promising story in talent and leadership across various market segments and industries?
Allow me to share the current and future trends and priorities in talent and leadership, impacting various geographies and functions not just within Global Capability Centers (GCCs) but across almost all segments.
- Based on a survey by Ernst & Young (EY), 86% cite service expansion as their top business priority, with focus on transformation, innovation and knowledge-based capabilities.
- 69% of GCCs are driving enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives.
- The report also says GCCs are expanding their services beyond IT, Customer Interaction Services, Finance, HR, and Supply Chain, and are exploring domains like Marketing, Legal, and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance).
A promising story is that 25% of global company headcounts are now within GCCs, which emphasizes its growing strategic importance. However, GCCs have experienced an average attrition rate of 12.5%. In fact, 75% of the EY survey respondents expressed concerns that increased attrition, driven by the competitive talent landscape, continues to pose a high to medium risk for their business.
Let me share a few more interesting trends – focused on talent development – in APAC, from various research entities.
- EY: 77% of GCCs continue to operate on a hybrid model, balancing flexibility and productivity.
- KPMG: 70% of organizations view talent as a top priority, highlighting the need for strategic workforce planning.
- PwC: Technological expertise in AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity is a key focus.
- Deloitte: Average salary increment of 8.8% in 2025, reflecting a competitive talent market.
Now let’s look at trends in leadership development and future-ready skills. There are 3 that stand out:
- Human-centric leadership such as empathy, adaptability and continuous learning
- Digital proficiency – not a surprise in this day and age – including capabilities in AI, machine learning and cloud computing
- Succession planning is likewise important to ensure leadership continuity and sustainability
With these trends come opportunities and challenges.
- First the Opportunities: GCCs are evolving into innovation hubs, which is good for strategic positioning and opportunities. That said, GCCs can leverage the diverse talent pools across APAC.
- Second the Challenges: As previously mentioned, talent retention is an ongoing challenge (with an average attrition rate of 12.5%). There’s also a need to fast track the development of skills between current and future capabilities. Lastly, diversity comes with its challenge, such as cultural integration.
We reached out to HR and L&D leaders from across the region to hear their unfiltered views — on how GCCs are evolving, what talent trends they’re seeing, and what leadership needs to look like in the next phase.
What you’ll see next are not just insights, but real signals — patterns that are already shaping the future of global capability centers in this region.
Across the board, leaders are saying the same thing — we can’t run on old talent models anymore.
- 90% of them are pushing for a move to skill-first hiring — which means less focus on credentials, more on capability.
- They also see a huge need for building robust learning ecosystems — not just one-off training, but continuous re-skilling built into the flow of work.
- And interestingly, many talked about cultivating an ‘infinite mindset’ — that idea of always growing, evolving, and staying ready.
🔴 What’s Changing?
When asked about trends for the next 2 years, everyone mentioned the same 3: hybrid work, upskilling, and emotional intelligence. This isn’t hype — it’s becoming the new baseline.
On this last item – interestingly, with more AI comes a need for more EI.
Now when we asked them to look ahead, the message was clear — the role of leadership needs to shift, fast.
Most leaders said GCCs need to empower teams to take risks — and create a space where it’s okay to fail, learn, and try again. At the same time, they want environments that are flexible, aligned to purpose, and truly future-ready.
For L&OD, the top priorities are also changing: reskilling is non-negotiable. But it’s also about retention — people want growth, purpose, and velocity in their careers.
And culturally, navigating HQ expectations vs. local talent realities is still a big one — whether that’s around work-life balance or leadership style.
Looking ahead, what are the biggest innovations GCCs (and any global company) are betting on? AI-powered learning, immersive development models, and stronger mental health and DEI practices.
So we’re not just talking about skill — we’re talking about wholistic well being and sustainability too.
We recognize that these are big key themes – and we hope that our panel discussion can bring these themes and topics to more practical and tangible ideas and actions, from which we can gain insights to learn from, act on and grow.
So as we navigate through our continuously changing times, let us share insights and best practices, and learn from each other to seek answers to the main question:
🔷 How can GCCs effectively align their talent strategies to not only drive operational excellence but also to become centers of innovation and leadership within the APAC region?