The findings of Aon Hewitt Campus Study 2013 gives an indication of stable hiring outlook. It seems that that the economic slowdown has not deterred employers from actively pursuing candidates through on-campus recruiting programs. The study covered compensation and hiring trends across different tiers of Management and Engineering campuses received participation from over 170 organisations.
Hiring Trends
- Mainstay sectors like Consumer, Engineering/Manufacturing, and Automobiles reported a stable outlook with a majority reporting no change in hiring plans. For these sectors, the hiring pattern is dependent more on the sectoral performance and not so much on the macro economic conditions.
- Within Financial Services, while some organisations reported a negative revision on account of weak global indicators, there were a few who reported revising their tier mix to meet the current talent demand.
- The Hi-Tech industry known to hire more than 2 00,000 engineers, year on year, reported a mixed trend. While some organisations reported a downward revision due to a large number of employees being on the bench already, others reported a revision upwards to meet an increase in business demand.
- The study findings revealed that there has been a steady flow of Pre-placement Interviews & Offers (PPIs and PPOs). In a year where concern about final placements has been high, the PPOs and PPIs offered at campuses gave some respite with many organisations using it as a strategy to spot and retain talent ahead of the placement season.
Compensation
- With regards to compensation offers, majority of organisations reported no plans of increasing the fixed compensation for the 2013 batch of management graduates. Of the ones who did report an increment, the average increase was 9% both for Tier 1 and Tier 2 campuses.
- The Consumer Products and Financial Services sectors continue to be the top paying industries year on year. The Financial Services sector is mainly influenced by the Investment banks which reported paying almost two times more than the pan-India median compensation level.
- Hi-Tech, ITeS, Services and Manufacturing sectors on the other hand reported numbers 5 to 10 % lower than the pan India median for Tier 1 campuses. A similar trend was observed for Tier 2 management campuses.
- The Compensation offers for Engineers seem to be plateauing after seeing a year on year increment over the last three years with most organisations reporting no plans of an increase for the 2013 promotion. For the ones who did report an increment, the increase ranged from 3% to 14% with an average increase of 8% for Tier 1 campuses.
- Tier 1 Engineers get paid at least 70-75% more in comparison to their Tier 2 counterparts. The difference in compensation between Tier 2 and Tier 3 engineering campuses is not as stark with both Tier 2 and Tier 3 campuses being viewed as catchment grounds by IT organisations who hire large number of engineers year on year.
New Trend – Joining Bonuses
- Study results also revealed that organisations are paying large joining bonuses as a strategy to compensate for the flat increases at campuses this year. Tier 1 Management campuses can expect to get joining bonuses in the range of INR 1 lacs to 3 lacs. Similar trend was observed for Engineering Tier 1 campuses which reported a range from INR 50,000 to INR 3 lacs. Most organisations choose to make the payment upon commencement of employment.
Besides compensation, more and more organisations are looking at providing accelerated development, roles that offer varied experience and flexible work arrangement to campus hires.
Project benchmarks on offer compensation for campus hires in 2013:
Source: Aon Hewitt. You can refer to / download the Aon Hewitt detailed release.