Navneet Oberoi Launches ‘10K Challenge’ to Help GCCs Build Employer Brand Through Employee Experiences

Navneet Oberoi Launches ‘10K Challenge’ to Help GCCs Build Employer Brand Through Employee Experiences

Bengaluru, Aug 24

Employer branding expert Navneet Oberoi has introduced the ‘10K Challenge’, a framework aimed at helping Global Capability Centres (GCCs) build workplace culture through employee-led experiences rather than relying primarily on corporate communication.

Oberoi, Vice President, Employer Branding and Business Strategy at TrueBlue Advisory, said the initiative gives individual teams a budget of ₹10,000 to create, execute and document a shared experience. The resulting stories can then become authentic employer branding content.

From Communication to Experience

The initiative comes as India’s GCC ecosystem expands and competition for skilled talent increases. With thousands of professionals working across technology and other specialised functions, companies are paying greater attention to how they attract and retain employees.

Oberoi argues that employer branding needs to move beyond campaigns and messaging. “Employer branding is a design problem before it is a communication problem,” he said. “People remember experiences, not presentations. When employees create something meaningful together, the stories that emerge are more credible than any campaign written by corporate communications.”

According to Oberoi, the approach is particularly relevant for GCCs, where local teams often operate within cultures established by global parent organisations. Employee-created experiences can give India-based teams an opportunity to develop their own shared identity while remaining connected to the larger organisation.

₹10,000 Budget for Employee-Led Initiatives

Under the challenge, teams receive a modest ₹10,000 budget and a simple brief to develop an experience collectively. The amount is deliberately kept within the discretionary spending range available to many team managers, allowing ideas to move from planning to execution without lengthy approval processes.

The initiative is intended to encourage participation, strengthen team relationships and generate stories that employees genuinely want to share. Over time, these experiences could create a repository of what Oberoi calls “cultural proof”, demonstrating workplace culture through employee experiences rather than corporate claims.

The framework can be adopted across teams, business units and locations without substantially increasing the workload of central HR or engagement teams.

Oberoi, who has advised organisations across technology, GCCs, fintech, healthcare, engineering and manufacturing, believes employer brands ultimately depend on what employees experience and choose to talk about.