Dear Readers,
We have seen that campus hiring is increasing year after year and there is an inceased focus on hiring fresh engineering graduates straight from the campus.
In this context the following Questions emerge :
1. What is CHO ?
2. Why should we outsource Campus Hiring
3. What to outsource in CH
4. We hire large numbers (100 + every year) should we outsource or insource ?
5. We hire occassionally and few in numbers ( less than 50 or so ) what do you suggest outsource or insource ?
The following article gives a brief idea of how to go about CHO activity.
Happy Reading,
Raghav
Founder HRinIndia
raghav@hrinindia.in
9880080321
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Trends in Campus Hiring
We all know of Business Process Outsourcing(BPO) and we are also aware of Knowledge Process Outsourcing(KPO). The latest kid on the block these days, is Campus Recruitment Outsourcing(CRO).
Its about time we asked ourselves – Why is it happening? , and Why is it essential?
The 'Why is it happening' question has a pretty straight forward answer: The rising war for talented professionals and the corresponding boom in the recruiting industry has kept HR professionals and strategists on their toes to maintain a competitive edge. With recruitment consultants today becoming as common as the traditional mom and pop stores in our neighborhood – innovative hiring methods, attractive recruitment ads and efficient response management have become the key differentiators to success. One of the most exciting trends in these developments is – Companies outsourcing their campus recruitment needs to specialist recruitment consultants, or in other words – Campus Recruitment Outsourcing(CRO hereafter).
The 'Why is it essential' question needs an in-depth understanding of the recruitment process and a fair bit of foresight. CRO is where the recruitment industry is headed and the first ones to cash in on this trend will benefit the most, recruiters, college managements and recruitment consultants alike. Let us first understand the role of recruitment consultants in the CRO set up.
Pond vs Sea Mindset:
In Recruitment, just like in Fishing, a good catch will be ensured if the simple rules of the game are adhered to. Having a clear understanding of “What” to catch is as crucial as understanding “How” to catch it. The most important aspect however, and one that often tends to get overlooked is the “Where” to catch aspect.
Fishing in a pond is quite simple. For a small catch, a regular fishing line would do the job and in case of a bigger catch, a small group of people with a fishing net will suffice. Eventually, to meet greater demands, the fisherman would have to look at fishing in the vast sea and this is a different ball game altogether. It requires a great deal of planning right from timing the exercise (at the right time of the year) to going into sea with the right set of fishing gear. What works in a pond will not work in a sea and vice-versa. Going into the sea with the limited knowledge of fishing in a pond can only be devastating to say the least.
Recruitment is no different. Most organizations often fish for talent in the small pond of pedigreed institutions. More often than not, it does not meet the demand. The growing demand for talented professionals and the perceived shortage of talent calls for tapping the vast sea of talent in Tier II and Tier III institutions, and just like in fishing, it requires a great deal of planning and execution. The shortage is only perceived and not real because organizations get so caught up in looking for talent in the small pond that they are not able to visualize the larger sea of talent.
Exit the top 100 of the pedigreed institutions to look at the vast sea of talent and the need to broaden our perspective becomes evident. Here is why:
The top 7 trends in the Engineering / MBA Talent Pool
The number of enrollments in the 3 groups – MBAs, Engineers and Other Graduates – has increased dramatically between the years 2000 and 2006.
A large number of these enrollments are happening in private institutions.
New Engineering Colleges are now springing up across a wider geographical spread – away from the metros and into district headquarters and Tier II & Tier III cities.
Given the varied Lead Times in graduate pass outs(MBA – 2 Years, Other Graduates – 3 Years and Engg – 4 Years) there is a great surge in the number of pass outs, owing to the sudden increase in the number of engineering colleges in the past 4 years.
Campus brands are established at the Corporate level by the alumni. It takes about 10-15 years for it to happen and in essence, it takes that long for a new campus to feature in the 'Preferred List' of institutions for campus hires.
Media rankings of educational institutions are very restricted and sometimes biased and contradictory. The data on which these rankings are generated are proprietary to the respective publication and hence they cannot be validated by a third party.
Moreover, these rankings cover only the top 100 institutions and in a few cases, the top 200. What about the rest? Are we to assume that the talent pool in the rest is not employable?
The reservation policy is driving good talent into private institutions.
So what does all this mean?
Key Drivers to CRO
1. Navigation
An essence of the above discussed points is that:
There is a huge pool of graduates due to the increase in graduate enrollments
This pool does not feature in the media rankings therefore does not get sufficient exposure
Talent can be tapped from this pool given the presence of talented individuals who enroll themselves in private institutions due to limited vacancies in government aided institutions.
Further to this, most of the engineering colleges set up in the past few years are not in the metros but in districts. The talent pool therefore is not restricted to the metros but dispersed across Tier II and Tier III cities and districts as well. Tapping talent from such geographic diversity requires focused effort.
The resulting difficulty in navigating through this pool of talent calls for the need of CRO. This is vindicated by the fact that the number of companies targeting just the top 100 institutions has increased dramatically over the past few years. This is simply due to the difficulty in identifying and reaching the rest of the talent pool. The difficulty in navigation or the lack of it drives CRO.
Given below are some statistics of the CRO drives conducted by us:
CLIENT NO: OF POSITIONS NO: OF CAMPUSES TARGETED NO: OF LOCATIONS TARGETED NO: OF MAN-DAYS ALLOCATED
Tata Chemicals Ltd 87 40 12 12*6*2 = 144(Explained Below)
TCE Consulting Engineers Ltd 158 53 13 13*2*2 = 52
ICICI 2500 700 64 64*3*2 = 384
Calculation: 12*2*2 = 12 Locations * 6 People per location * 2 Days Per Location
Similarly for others
The manpower is inclusive of all back end support staff who work full time to support the teams on the field.
These 3 case studies establish the fact that, on an average, we need to visit one engineering college to recruit 2 engineering graduates.
The basic driver for CRO is therefore the physical impossibility to reach the widespread talent pool. Some of the constraints on organizations in the process are:
The number of man-days required for the exercise.
Given the number of campuses to be visited, parallel visits have to be planned in order to reduce the cycle time, else they will be targeted by competitors before us.
The candidate engagement process has to be elaborate(Typically a 6 stage process) to ensure effective assessment.
Thus, the dedicated approach and expertise of recruitment consultants is called for.
2. Academic Performance and Evaluation is not Benchmarked
Owing to the diversity in academic performance and evaluation techniques in campuses spread across the country, it becomes almost impossible to draw a common selection platform. We therefore have to rely on our evaluation process like a common written test. However, given the huge number of campuses, the process has to be made transparent and tamper proof.
The Role of CROs
The 5 primary things that CROs do are:
1. Assist in selecting the campus
2. Set up the selection process
3. Execute Campus Recruitment Process end-to-end, within budget and timelines
4. Prepare an MIS on effectiveness of the process for review as well as for future feedback and assessment
5. Guarantee the integrity of the process
T. Muralidharan
Rohit KN Shenoy
Source : TMIfirst.com
