Smaller campuses lose out in IT recruitment

Hyderabad: Though elite Indian Institutes of Technology managed to achieve the target number of offers amid economic downturn , small institutions got less number of offers as top Indian IT firms focused on top class institutes and reduced hiring from not so well-known campuses, reported The Economic Times.

There was a decline of 20 percent in the number of campuses visited by top IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Satyam Computers. Analysts see this trend as a result of economic crunch that has forced the IT majors to ensure hiring from a quality talent pool. "The order pipeline of these companies is slowing down due to the tough global financial situation. Unlike good times, they cannot afford to keep trainees on the bench in anticipation of huge orders. All these companies are looking at increasing their utilization rate. Besides, the overall hiring by IT biggies is also a tad lower than last fiscal, though most of them have decided to adhere to their hiring guidance," said, an HR analyst.

India's second largest IT firm Infosys has visited only 700 campuses this year as against 1,000 campuses last hiring season. The company is expected to hire 25,000 people this fiscal including freshers and laterals.

Wipro, it is learnt, has also decided to limit its campus visit to top colleges in the country. The company's overall hiring numbers are also expected to slow down this fiscal. "We are taking a cautious approach towards hiring rather than recruiting in droves. But this does not mean that global demand is decreasing. In fact, we are taking a non-linear approach to retain business growth," Pratik Kumar, executive vicepresident (HR, brand & corporate communication), had said in July. Last fiscal, the company offered jobs to 13,500 engineering graduates. But this year, it has made offers to only 8,000 engineering students. Last year, it has sent offers to 2,300 science graduates and it is expected to go up this year. However, Wipro officials declined to comment on the hiring projections. An email sent to the spokesperson remains unanswered.

According to SV Krishnan, global head (HR), Satyam Computer Services, the company had visited over 800 campuses last fiscal. "This year, we will be focusing on top colleges and there is 20% drop in our campus visits this year. Most of these colleges come under Tier II & III category," he said. The company had also scaled down its hiring forecast for this fiscal from 15,000 to 8,000-10,000.

Bucking this trend, TCS has decided to increase its campus recruitment. It will add 30,000-35,000 people in FY09 as against 35,672 people globally in FY08. "While last fiscal, around 45% of our India hires were trainees from the campuses, this fiscal they will account for at least 60% of our overall recruitment", said K Ganesan, vice president & head (global talent acquisition), TCS.

The company has made 24,649 campus offers from over 300 institutes in the current fiscal. These students will join in FY10. "Around 70% of technical campus hires every year are from Tier II and Tier III cities," he said.