Current Recruitment Practices in India
Source: Harish Batra
Indian scenario when looked at from the point of higher level recruitment in terms of recruiting managers (MBAs) or engineers is quite different when compared with rest of the world. In India the college which the person will join is looked upon as a placement agency which will connect the student with the companies willing to hire fresh graduates. The average package/median package is seen for the last year to have a fair idea as to what is the return on investment that the person/student can expect once he graduates from the college. The practice has been very common and has been prevalent since decades in India.
Recruitment is a very important part for any company because recruitment not only helps the company expand but also brings in fresh and competitive ideas and improve efficiency of the operations of the company. A wrong candidate could be harmful to the company’s goals and retard its progress.
The recruitment is done on campus and off campus. On campus recruitment means that the companies go to specific colleges spread across the country and hire according to their needs. The college placement cells are the connecting link in case of on campus recruitment and thus it is really important for the college placement cell to maintain good relations with the HR departments of the companies, who visit the campus regularly to hire graduates. On campus recruitment is mostly done by the private companies.
When it comes to government recruitments or PSU recruitments the preferred mode followed is off-campus recruitment in form of advertisement in the newspaper inviting applications for a particular post which may be followed by a written test and finally the personal interviews. The equal opportunity required of the PSU and other government bodies prohibits them to focus on particular colleges and give chance to each and every graduate in the country.
Public Sector Banks adopt a different method of recruitment. These PSBs organise special test for banking recruitments which is conducted twice a year and then the selection is made on the basis of test scores followed by a round of interviews.
Companies like Infosys and TCS have been the hiring giants in India, which hire more than 2,00,000 graduates each year. Thanks to the outsourcing boom which has come to India technical hiring of software and computer engineers has been on an all time high in India.
The present economic scenario doesn’t bring too much of good news with all the companies cutting down on recruitment costs. There have been layoffs by some of the MNCs signalling the effects of the global turmoil, which are taking its toll on Indian opportunities. The economy has been downgraded, industrial production is at all time low and numerous other measures are affecting the Indian economy.
All hopes are now on the fiscal policy of the government which may bring cheer for the graduates looking for jobs and also for the companies, which have no option but to stop or slow down recruitments under this circumstances.
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