n Code Gladiators 2016: PAGE 6-9

India’s biggest coding arena

n Interview: PAGE 12
MD-HR, Accenture India
VOLUME-VI I ISSUE 6 I JUNE 2016  www.content.timesjobs.com

More power to campus

recruitment

Number of organisations with dedicated campus

recruitment strategy has increased by 25 per cent in the last
two years, shows the latest TimesJobs.com survey

Find TimesJobs.com’s career articles, expert advice and tips @www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, Jobs & Career section
 2

TimesJobs.com Study

Campus Recruitment 2016:

Campus hiring gains pace,
dropouts biggest challenge
The good news is that number of organisations with a dedicated campus
recruitment strategy has increased by a whopping 25 per cent since 2013. The
bad news, however, is that we are still where we were in terms of roadblocks
Apeksha Kaushik,

I
TimesJobs.com
n a recent survey by TimesJobs
nearly 65 per cent of the
organisations claimed to have a
comprehensive and ingenious
campus recruitment programme in
place. There has been an increment of 25
per cent in the number of organisations
with an inclusive campus placement
strategy since 2013, according to the
study which saw participation of over 600
employers.

Do you have a formal campus

recruitment programme in place?

We’re in the
process of
drafting one
25% Yes
65%

No
10%

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 3

Campus recruitment is a great tool to important by 50 per cent organisations,

Which colleges/universities get fresh, innovative minds on board according to the TimesJobs study.
would you prefer? to fill large number of positions at a
comparatively lower cost. The new
graduates often provide valuable insights
What are the gaps
While campus recruitment is picking
to strengthen and grow as they have
pace, there are challenges that need to
different perspective than those who are
be addressed to make it a success in the
already in the business.
Indian job market. One of the biggest
One of the biggest advantages of roadblock lies in the lack of employability
campus hiring is its cost-effectiveness, as of candidates.
mentioned by nearly 40 per cent of the
40% 60% surveyed organisations. About 35 per
Only renowned Upcoming cent organisations said it’s a great brand
B-schools institutions (rank has building tool and 20 per cent felt it is
nothing to do with talent quality)
effective in improving retention.
With so many organisations investing in
building a campus hiring programme, it
is imperative for institutes and students
What companies seek
to leverage the opportunity.
The 2016 Campus Recruitment Survey
and how they select
by TimesJobs suggests that with respect
to industry focus on campus hiring,
What are the top qualities you
organisations are better off than what look for in candidates? What is the biggest challenge
they were two years ago. The industry is Good communication skills
in campus recruitment?
focussed on quality talent and thus 60
per cent organisations are open to going
34% Employability quotient
Team work skills
to lesser known and upcoming institutes
30% 40%
for placements. However, 40 per cent Joining ratio/drop-out rates
Domain knowledge
organisations still won’t go beyond top
B-schools to search for talent. 28% 30%
Training cost
Analytical skills
20%
Why campus Creativity
22% Budgetary allocations

recruitment 15% 10%

Leadership skills
What is the biggest 12%
advantage of campus *Multiple choice questions
Campus recruitment is largely done
recruitment? to build the bottom line. Hence hard-
working candidates who have good
communication skills and strong domain
knowledge are preferred over others.
According to the TimesJobs study,
34 per cent organisations give maximum
weightage to good communication skills How many candidates do you
during campus recruitment drives while
30 per cent look for team work skills. interview during campus
In terms of candidate selection, placements?
Cost effectiveness co-curricular activities have equal Up to 50
40% weightage if not more. Group discussions
followed by one-on-one interview 5 %
Brand building 50-100
sessions are the preferred mode of
35% selecting candidates in campus hiring. 30%
Improves retention 100-200
Behavioural and attitudinal assessments
20% are carried out to shortlist candidates, 55%
Saves time according to 45 per cent organisations. Over 200
5% Also, cultural fitment is deemed 10%
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 4

How many of the interviewed How many candidates who are

candidates get offer letters?
Up to 5%
15%
5-10%
65%
10-20%
15%
Over 20%
5%
About 40 per cent organisations feel
employability is a major issue while
hiring through campuses. Another major
concern is the dropout rates, as pointed
out by 30 per cent organisations.
According to the study, 55 per cent
organisations said they interview nearly
100-200 candidates during campus
placements. Of the total number of
candidates interviewed, 5-10 per cent
receive offer letters while only 5 per cent
actually accept the offers and join the
organisations, finds the study.
Contrary to popular notion, salary was
not the primary reason for rejecting a
job offer but high competition leading to
multiple job offers to a single candidate
offered jobs actually join?
Up to 5%
60%
5-10%
30%
10-20%
10%
Over 20%
0%
has been cited as the key reason for large
number of dropouts. Brand preference
and relocation are the other major
reasons for not taking up a job offer.
Conclusion
Despite its challenges, campus
recruitment, if done wisely, is one of the
best recruitment tools to hire prospective
talent which can bring innovation and
newness to the business and workplace
at large. Besides, it is one of the most
effective branding tools. These are some
of the reasons why nearly 80 per cent
organisations said they are willing to
recruit from campuses in the future.
ADVICE FOR STUDENTS
With the current
need to evaluate
candidates based on
technical competence and
understanding of various
technologies, companies need
to look at investing more in
competitions & hackathons. This
not only helps the employer
in identifying the technical
geeks but also helps the
candidate understand software
lifecycles better. Code and app
building competitions also help
employers identify candidates
who have good analytical
thinking and creativity.”
MV Chalapathy & Krithivasan S,
Associate Director and Lead
Consultant, India Campus Hiring,
VirtusaPolaris

How things changed over the year

2015
70% willing to recruit from
campus in future
34 % employers struggle with
lack of employability
45 % said only 0-5% of the
selected candidates actually take selected candidates actually
up the job
40 % organisations have a
comprehensive campus hiring
strategy
25 % organisations hired
10-20% entry level staff from
campus placements
2016
80% willing to recruit from Students need to be
campus in future
aware of the domain
40 % employers struggle with they are interested in
and they need to have the right
lack of employability
conversations with the right
60 % said only 0-5% of the people. Maybe their seniors,
who were placed in the previous
take up the job
season. Also, academia should
65 % organisations
focus on exposure to practical
application. Students lack the
have a comprehensive
campus hiring strategy opportunities to apply their
knowledge to solving real-world
30 % organisations hired problems. It is also important to
10-20% entry level staff from
campus placements
weave industry exposure into
the curriculum rather than only
during the final year.”
Shalini Nair, Senior Director-HR,
Communications & Branding and
Facilities, Amadeus Software Labs
India Pvt Ltd

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Compensation & Benefits Conclave 2016, Mumbai
India Inc evolving compensation
and benefits to suit employees
A
TimesJobs.com Bureau
mong employee
engagement metrics,
rewards and benefits play a
pivotal role for companies
to become employers
of choice. How well do benefits work
to bring employees to work? How do
companies view this aspect?
TimesJobs.com, in association with
Principal Retirement Advisors, organised
a roundtable on compensation and
benefits in Mumbai recently. Titled
‘Compensations & Benefits Conclave
2016: An Indian Outlook of Financial
Wellness at Work’ , this discussion saw
participation from HR leaders of top
companies.
Here are excerpts from the discussion:
n Megha Goel, GM-Compensation and
Benefits, Godrej Industries: “Financial
wellness is required for employees of
every age and they should be sensitised
about it. At Godrej, we keep evolving the
benefits offered to employees. We have
NPS apart from PF and we encourage our
employees to subscribe to this scheme.
This year, we want to work on sensitising
employees about the importance of
benefits.”
n Sharukh Vazifdar, Head-
Compensation & Benefits, Alkem
Laboratories Ltd: “We recently tied up
5
with a financial company to sensitise
employees about financial planning.
It has been an eye opener for many
employees. We realised that Gen X and
baby boomers had not planned their
finances that well.”
n Sanjeeva Maithani, AVP and
Head-Rewards and C&B, Zensar
Technologies: “For understanding, base
salary and incentive is compensation.
Anything other than that is benefit.
We have ‘9+2’ system of leaves, where
nine being fixed holidays available to
all and two being flexible ones which
an employee can take on their birthday
or wedding anniversary. Benefits are an
important segment of the employee
portfolio, especially for employees
working abroad, particularly in the US.”
n Sanchayan Paul, Head of
Performance, Rewards & Recognition,
Vodafone: “Unless people are happy
with their jobs, they will not be able
to give their best. That includes their
concerns about work, promotion and
salary. We have given special attention to
women employees via a ‘v-flex’ scheme
(offering non-paid leaves with insurance
and gratuity benefits), ‘week-flex’ (instead
of 5 working days, work 4 days only) and
‘time flex’ (work and get paid model).
n Arundhati Ganesan, Head-
Compensation and Benefits, Snapdeal:
“Benefits play an important role in
retaining right people. In fact, it is a
key factor for people to change jobs. At
Snapdeal, we offer an individual overall
opportunity, not just compensation
alone. We have things like birthday
leaves and extension of insurance cover
to parents and in-laws.”
n Ravi Natarajan, Head-Corporate
& Government Segment, Principal
Retirement Advisors: Benefits needs
to have a broader outlook i.e. ‘A Total
Rewards Package’ covering every single
investment that the organisation makes
on people and everything the employee
values. Even in an improving economy,
what’s emerging in a big way is financial
stress. Many people are outliving their
income and do not look at their finances
in totality. For employers, financial
stress translates into lost productivity,
absenteeism and higher healthcare costs.
Financial wellbeing should be seen from
employee’s perspective. In totality, it
should take into consideration changing
behavior and habits regarding finance
to make an informed decision. Second,
it should be personalised, holistic and
comprehensive, integrating everything.
Lastly it should be a process, not a
one time activity, leading to financial
freedom.
n Satish Mohapatra, Head-
Compensation and Benefits, Siemens
Ltd: “When calculating ROI of benefits,
employers need to think if they are
communicating the benefits in the right
manner to the employees. For example,
in Singapore, short videos are shown
to employees listing the benefits of
financial planning to employees.
n Harsh Bhosale, Head-HR, Essar Oil
Ltd: “Compensation to an employee
should not be looked at from the cash-
only perspective. Is it benefitting the
organisation’s culture? If we incentivise
things too much then are we going
away from the larger picture? Also,
companies need to evaluate if the
compensation strategy is aligned with
the organisational strategy.”
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 6

BREAKING RECORDS,
creating legends
With over 1,50,000 coders participating in India’s
largest coding contest, TechGig Code Gladiators
breaks its own record it set last year. Queue at the registeration desk as coders wait to enter finale arena

H
aving set the record as India’s Biggest Coding
Contest last year, this year’s Code Gladiators
event was even bigger with over 1,50,000 coders
(compared to 80,000 last year) having competed
for being proclaimed as India’s Top Coders. Of the
record-breaking 1,50,000 who participated – just 2,500 moved to
the semi finals. The battles got more grueling and only the Top
0.1 percentile made it to the Grand Finale that was held in Delhi
recently - making this one of the toughest challenges in the world.
Top Leaders from the Indian IT Industry gathered for the Grand Finale
of India’s Biggest Coding Arena.
India’s top coders battle for the coveted title
Anthony Thomas of GE Digital said, “The magnitude of this
event is huge. India has a large number of developers, but being
able to get them together, making them excited, keeping them
engaged and finally picking the cream from that is amazing.”
Rajeev Menon of Cognizant, said, “We believe, unless we are on
platforms such as TechGig we won’t have access to the right kind
of talent. We can go to job boards and work with social media
sites, but I don’t think you get access to the best coders unless you
participate in these events. From a talent acquisition perspective,
I think it’s important to participate in these contests if you want to
reach out and attract the best of the talent.”
Partha Ghosh of Sears said, “TechGig Code Gladiators is a
fantastic initiative to inculcate the spirit of healthy competition
among all the programmers we have across the country.
Competitions such as this build enthusiasm and zeal, and it is a
matter of huge pride to be able to compete at a national level.
Talent exists in pockets but it is hidden – getting that talent to the
surface is just tremendous.”
Other industry leaders also seen at the event were, Rohan Verma
of MapMyIndia, Jagannath C.V. of Citrus Payments, Akash Jain of
Rishabh Group, Vikas Deep Verma of TimesJobs, Subhendu Roy of
Here.com and Nilanjan Roy of TBS.
Coders have fun at Code Gladiators Photo Lounge

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(L-R) Code Gladiators 2016 Finale Winners: Rajesh Gawas (Third Runners-Up and winner of Payment Gateway Theme), Sumeet Verma (First Runners-Up), Prabhu Ravendran (Fourth
Runners-Up), Kruti Gandhi (Code Diva Award for Best Female Coder), Dilip Kasna (Second Runners-Up) and Ganesh Jaiswal (Winner of Code Gladiators 2016)
Jatin Patil from Infogain was the theme champion for the
Sears e-commerce track
And The Winners Are ...
After a grueling, non-stop 6-hour coding session, this year’s
top coders and the winners of Code Gladiators 2016 have
been declared
n Winner - Ganesh Jaiswal from
Mobikwik
He won Rs. 2 lakh in cash, a trophy and a
certificate plaque. As India’s Best Coder,
Ganesh Jaiswal, said, “I truly believe hard
work always pays off – I believe in karma
– focus on the task at hand – and don’t
think about the result or future. The finale
had the toughest questions, the second
problem was very lengthy, but I focused
and was able to solve it. I am delighted
to win this National Level event. I would
like to thank Mobikwik for the great work
culture, learning environment, feeling
of ownership and opportunities they
provide.”
n First runners-up - Sumeet
Varma
B.Tech student from DA-IICT proved that
age and experience are no barriers to
talent. Even after beating thousands of
coders with many years of experience –
he still regretted not having come first!
He won Rs. 1.5 lakh in cash, a trophy and
a certificate plaque.
7
Rajesh Gawas won the Citrus Payment Gateway theme Dhaval Thakkar from OpenSol won the MapMyIndia
track e-location theme champion award
n Second runners-up - Dilip
Kasana from Mobileum
Lokendra Singh of NTPC won the Cognizant Beat The
He won Rs. 1 lakh in cash, a trophy and a Leader track
certificate plaque.
n Third runners-up - Rajesh
Gawas from eQ Technologic
He won Rs. 75,000 in cash, trophy and
certificate plaque. Rajesh also won the
Payment Gateway theme track and was
awarded a further Rs. 1.5 lakh in cash, a
trophy and certificate plaque. Speaking
of his double victory, Rajesh said, “ Hard
work is the key to my success. I learnt a
Sopra Steria was first runners-up in the company round
lot about designing solutions and solving
technical problems. I practiced solving
problems of different difficulties to excel
in competitive programming track.
The theme rounds provided a stage for
people like me, who love to design and
create solutions, to present their ideas
and solutions at the national level and
compete with the brains from all over
the country. TechGig provides a great
platform to showcase your talent and
compete with the best people.” Akash Jain of Rishabh Group presenting Code Diva Award
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 8
Persistent Systems, truly India’s coding power house – winning the title for the third year in a row
Rohan Verma of MapMyIndia at e-location theme room
Jagannath C.V. of Citrus Payments at Payment Gateway theme room
Partha Ghosh of Sears Technologies at e-commerce theme room
n Fourth runners-up: Prabu Raveendran from
Inspace Technologies
He won Rs. 50,000 in cash, a trophy and certificate plaque.
n Code Diva Award for Best Female Coder
Kruti Gandhi from Cybage Software.
Kruti won Rs. 50,000 in cash, a trophy and certificate plaque as
the best female coder. She said, “The code diva award is like a
dream come true. I never thought of receiving such respect.
As the code diva, my message is that we as women need to
come out of our family zones, and give some of our time to
developing ourselves. I am studying M.Tech while at my job in
IT – but I managed to create a work-life balance and take part
in this competition. I urge all women to go and find where you
belong. Creating your identity gives you confidence to stand in
the society. Go and prove yourselves.”
In addition, this year introduced multiple theme tracks,
with each theme winner being awarded 1.5 lakh in cash, a
trophy and certificate plack. While Rajesh Gawas won the
CitrusPayment Gateway theme track, Jatin Patil from Infogain
was theme champion for the Sears e-commerce track, Dhaval
Thakkar from OpenSol won the MapMyIndia e-location
theme champion award and Lokendra Singh of NTPC won the
Cognizant Beat The Leader track.
Top IT companies participated in this contest – sending their
best and brightest minds to compete in India’s Biggest Coding
Arena. They included GE Digital, Verizon, Cognizant, IRIS,
HERE, Rishabh Group, Amadeus, MapMyIndia, Sears, Citrus,
Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Cybage, Optum, Tavant, Persistent,
Cvent, Xento and many more. Persistent Systems, rose to the
Code Gladiators challenge and proved to the nation that they
were truly India’s Coding Power House – winning the Title for
the Third Year in a Row. From the Best Coders based on the
combined performance of all the participants from all of the
companies that participated - Persistent Systems was declared
“The Company with the Best Coders”.

Guest column: Campus recruitment
Bringing competition to campuses
C
ampus hiring is one of
the most preferred forms
of hiring fresh recruits. It
has undergone a lot of
transformation over the
decades. These can be put as:
pre-internet, email and digital phase.
In the pre-internet phase, recruiters
had to invest many days for hiring
the right candidate. For example, if a
recruiter from Chennai intended to hire
a graduate from IIT Kharagpur, he would
travel for two days and spend one day in
the hiring process. It was during those
days, that the demand was huge and
there was limited supply.
That time, companies carried Overhead
Projectors (OHP) for the purpose of
presentations. Interview line-ups
happened through landline phones, fax
machines and VSAT Uplink.
From there, it moved on to email. This
phase gave birth to all major job search
engines. By sharing resumes, database
and connecting with placement
officers the process got simpler but the
methodology used to recruit candidates
was still a herculean task. Employers
carried bundles of papers to administer
tests. The duration taken to announce
the results was long because of
administrative issues.
Cut to present age
In today’s digital world things have
changed drastically. Supply has grown
three fold but the demand is seeing a
downturn. In India, we have more than
3,000 engineering colleges, producing
nearly 1.5 million engineers every year.
However, only 25 per cent of these
graduates are readily deployable, as per
a recent NASSCOM study. Employers
enjoy the freedom to choose the right
talent since the resource is abundant.
Still the process of finding the right talent
continues to be debatable. Many colleges
opt to share the recruitment slots
with big corporations. Thus the option
available to top students continues to be
on the higher side with multiple offers to
choose from. This has a negative impact
10
on those who cannot make the cut.
Challenges galore
We are currently in the age of disruptive
technology but technologies being
used in the Indian recruitment space are
still outdated. There is need for highly
skilled and talented resources, and we
still continue to use an assessment tool
which does not solve the primary issue.
While a candidate might be good in
communication skills, he continues to
lack technical skills. On the other hand,
those ‘technical geeks’ may not have
good communication skills. Hence, the
need for identifying the right talent for
right work increases.
In this scenario, if the job does not
involve communicating with client
but only to code a project, then an
employer can invest in hiring candidate
with average communication skills. For
example, we introduced the ‘conditional
offer’ to candidates, who have shown
high technical competence but lack
communication skills. Their offer
confirmation is subject to clearing one of
the English exams like BEC or IELTS.
It’s time for companies to invest in
technology in order to tap the right
talent. It becomes difficult for the
employers to gauge the technical skills
through aptitude tests alone. The need
for using technical assessments and
code assessments plays a pivotal role.
Candidates have also started realising
the fact that, once onboard, they may
find it difficult to meet the ever-changing
demands of large corporations. Thus,
many candidates switch to alternate
careers or invest in additional training
programmes.
There is also a need for better ‘Train
the Trainer’ and faculty development
programmes so that campuses can
keep up with the changing needs of the
corporations. The academia will need
to understand the changing nuances of
the IT industry and prepare the students
accordingly.
For example, we have created Centers
of Excellence in some institutes across
the country. As part of this programme,
trainers are identified, technology
training the “IT way” is delivered and
trainer certificates awarded. In turn,
they start delivering the sessions to the
candidates, selected by us as part of
campus recruitment.
Future of campus recruitment
With the present need to evaluate
candidates based on their technical
competence and understanding of
various technologies, companies need to
look at investing more in competitions
and hackathons. This helps the employer
in identifying the ‘geeks’ and also helps
the candidate understand software
lifecycles better. Code and app building
competitions also help employers
identify candidates who have good
analytical thinking and creativity.
Investing in hackathons and app
competitions also helps corporations in
gaining more ideas that can help them
win bigger deals.
MV Chalapathy & Krithivasan S,
Associate Director and Lead Consultant,
India Campus Hiring, VirtusaPolaris
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TechGig.com Conversations, Noida
‘Email marketing backbone
of digital marketing’
T
TimesJobs.com Bureau
echnology is the main
driver of marketing today.
Consumers now spend more
time on digital medium
(mobiles, smart devices and
laptops combined) as compared to any
other medium. This requires marketers
to be constantly connected with them
using digital medium.
TechGig.com, in association with
SendinBlue, a leading email marketing
solution, brought together digital
marketing leads of India’s leading digital
companies for a boardroom discussion
on ‘New-Age Marketing Strategy
Conclave 2016’.
On agenda was the evolution of digital
marketing and how these companies
are leveraging its various elements,
especially email marketing, for their
business growth.
Here are the key takeaways:
n Manu Gupt, VP-Marketing & Growth,
UrbanClap: Four years ago, when we
started our digital journey with the
launch of a TV campaign, just four per
cent consumers were using mobile. Six
months later, that number was 45 per
cent. That is how major the shift has
been. It is not only purchases or doing
transactions on mobile. It is also about
where users are spending their time. It
is important for the companies to see
11
whether they are present in that space
and if they are able to take enough
mindshare of the users.
n Rajat Dayal, VP-Global Channels
and Marketing, Mahindra Comviva:
We are a B2B company operating across
130 countries. Traditionally, the model for
B2B involves conferences and customer
connecting events. The logistics and
expense of doing such activities in 130
countries is huge. For us, it has been a
huge shift moving to the digital model
with mobile being the key focus for
consumption. We use email marketing
and social media extensively which
is well targeted towards the desired
consumers.
n Akash Gupta, GM Marketing,
Mobikwik: We are an app-first company.
Any new innovation we do first happens
on the app and if accepted well, it is
applied elsewhere. We should look at
digital from the consumer perspective.
If I (as a consumer) get an SMS or a push
notification at the time of waking up, it
may not work well. However, if I get news
alert at that time, I may scroll through.
That is how brands should behave.
n Amit Sharma, CVP-Digital Marketing
and E-Commerce, Max Life Insurance:
Insurance is still experiencing most
consumer traffic from desktop
considering the nature of purchase.
Email marketing becomes an important
component of any chase strategy that
one might want to deploy. An effective
chase strategy is the core driver of any
business’ growth.
n Abhineet Sawa, VP-Marketing, OYO
Rooms: For us, the core competition is
the existing offline market. A customer
who gets out of a railway station and
takes an auto and searches for a hotel
is the customer we are targeting. That
customer goes by word-of-mouth. For
us, the core has been to figure out how
the offline channels work and to digitise
them to ensure that customer adopts
the platform. Once a customer utilises
our services, we can target him in future
through email marketing.
n Sameer Jain, Director-Onsite
Marketing, ShopClues: A major
challenge for us is to retain the customer.
If they are looking for a camera, they
don’t care about the website they are
purchasing it from as long as they are
getting a good discount. A good online
strategy will help us in retaining the deal.
Customers today are connected with a
company in many ways. Even after that
if we send them irrelevant emails, it will
distract the customer from us.
n Kapil Sharma, Cofounder and COO,
SendinBlue: Even when so many digital
marketing modes are available today,
email marketing still is the cheapest
and most convenient way to reach a
customer. It can easily define the type
of audience and can work very well
for brand awareness. A company can
connect with customer to understand his
specific requirements through feedback
about its services without bothering
them with messages or calls. In email
marketing, customer acquisition is
difficult but engagement with existing
customers for new offers and feedbacks
is important for brand building.
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Interview: Parag Pande, Managing Director, Human Resources, Accenture India
‘It’s important to engage with
campuses on long-term basis’
What is your campus recruitment
strategy and how do you keep it
relevant with changing workforce
demographics?
Accenture is one of the largest campus
recruiters in India. Entry-level talent is
a significant part of our new joinees.
Hence we invest a lot of time and effort
in identifying and bringing in the right
talent. We adopt a rigorous method
to choose the campuses we visit for
recruitment. Deep analytics, governed
by secondary research and a shortlisting
methodology that is driven by senior
leadership are at the core of campus
recruitment.
Workforce demographics are certainly
changing. Youngsters today are curious,
driven by technology and have many
options to choose from while making
their career choice. To keep up with
this, Accenture connects with students
through various online media, keeping
them engaged and informed. We are
also in the process of digitising our entire
recruitment process.
What are the essential things to check
when designing a campus recruitment
strategy?
There are multiple factors to keep in
mind while designing this strategy. We
have to consider our long-term business
vision and short-term business needs. It
is important to engage with campuses
on a long-term basis and showcase our
commitment to them. Hence we have
a very definitive strategy to choose
the campuses we recruit from. Other
factors include quality of students in
the campus, their positioning in the
marketplace, admission criteria they
adopt and the competition. Our focus
on ethical business practices is very
high. We choose campuses that follow
the same values.
What is your campus recruitment
employer branding highlight?
We are among the most recognised
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Campus recruitment
brings in young blood.
They are not afraid to
question, are quick
learners and push the
boundaries. This helps us
develop differentiated
strategies to address
business needs
brands in both engineering and business
schools in India. We continue to build
our brand through initiatives that are
beneficial to the colleges and students
alike. Our engagement programmes
range from training college faculty and
student on technology, management
and soft skills. We do this through both
online media (webcasts are a monthly
feature) and through on-ground physical
connects. We have partnerships with
prestigious global institutions like
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and we leverage these relationships
well. For example, MIT faculty visits our
offices every year and we ensure that
they visit campuses too and address
students as well. Competitions are a
big hit among students. We run ‘The
Case Study Contest’ for B-schools which
is a big hit. Another popular mega
branding initiative - among engineering
students - called ‘Accenture Innovation
Jockeys’ is launching soon for the fifth
consecutive year now. We also have
summer internship programmes for our
B-school students with the objective
of targeting them early, building their
skills and exposing them to Accenture
as a brand. Inclusion & Diversity are
key focus area for us and we take this
message to campuses as well. We do
this through various initiatives and
training programmes specifically
targeted at women and other diverse
audiences. These programmes help them
understand the nuances of building a
career and prepare for the corporate
world. Our leadership and alumni play
a significant role in the campus connect
initiatives.
How has technology and social
media impacted the campus
recruitment strategy?
There is no doubt that world has
benefited tremendously from
technology, particularly from Internet,
social media and now the mobile
platform. From an employer perspective,
earlier they had information of only
what the candidate provided on paper
resumes. With the advent of social media,
employers now have access to much
more candidate information than before,
including personal interests, social
interactions and even previous work
samples. From a job seekers standpoint,
social media has made the task of finding
a job easier. It helps to streamline job
search by allowing people to search
jobs across hundreds of sites to find
opportunities that meet their specific
abilities.
(As told to Neha Singh Verma)