IT cos in off-campus hiring binge now

Gearing up for new projects

- Large firms already began 2nd phase of off-campus hiring

- Mid-tier IT cos opting for this route of late

- Attrition over 20% in Q2 became a daunting issue for IT firms

- Moreover, surging offshoring puts pressure on IT firms over talent retention

- TCS and Wipro also launched national level tests to provide fair chance to all candidates irrespective of their colleges

Bengaluru: Indian IT services companies are not only relying on aggressive campus hiring to overcome the rising attrition problem. Rather, many companies are also ramping up their off-campus hiring process to keep the supply side ready for executing new projects.

HR experts and company officials are of the opinion that at a time when demand for talent is very high, off-campus hiring provides the flexibility to bring in qualified talent at a faster pace. The onboarding of such hires is also faster than on campus recruits wherein companies have to wait till the candidate completes his graduation.

Recently, Tata Consultancy Services' CEO, Rajesh Gopinathan had stated that off-campus employment is expected to reduce campus visits, improve their reach and prevent the institute from serving as a quality benchmark. The Tata group company had done its first phase of off-campus hiring in September and registration for the second phase of such hiring is currently underway. Apart from fresh graduates, candidates with a work experience up to two years can also apply for the job. TCS is planning to hire 77,000 freshers in the current financial year.

Not only large firms, but also mid-tier IT companies are opting for this route in recent time. "Some of the freshers have come on board both from campus and off-campus. In calendar year 2021, we have brought in more people through off campus route, which is more than 280 freshers so far," Venkatraman Narayanan, Managing Director & CFO of Happiest Minds Technologies, told Bizz Buzz.

Attrition has seen a rising trend in the September quarter with many companies witnessing more than 20 per cent attrition rate. As offshoring has seen an increase in recent quarters and Indian IT firms aggressively hire freshers to overcome talent shortage. The top four IT services companies-

TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies & Wipro- are planning to hire around 160,000 graduates from campuses this fiscal year, which is higher than the earlier projection of 120,000.

However, a majority of the new recruits will join their respective companies next year after completion of their final examination. Also, it takes two quarters for making these resources productive.

"Off-campus hiring is nothing new in Indian context. Whenever demand is high, Indian IT firms have resorted to such hiring method wherein they can recruit candidates with 2-3 years of work experience or without it. There are distinct advantages in this method. Firstly, off campus recruits join faster and come with a relevant work experience many of the times. It democratises the whole process as big firms don't go to most colleges. So, candidates coming from tier-II & III colleges don't get a chance to apply for jobs in reputed firms. This process changes those dynamics," said a HR consultant who works with many Indian IT firms in their recruitment process. In recent years, companies like TCS and Wipro have also launched their national level tests to provide fair chance to all candidates irrespective of their colleges. TCS' National Qualifier Test (NQT) & Wipro's Elite National Level Talent Hunt (NLTH) are the national-level tests being conducted for hiring fresh graduates based on merit than on colleges.