You are reading Part 2 of the series. Also read
Part 1 – How are IIM placements planned, how the placement committee is elected
Pre-Placement Talks
Most regular recruiters conduct
pre-placement talks on campus in the December to February period. The
pre-placement talk is an important medium for the top management of the
firm to gauge the interest level of students in their firm. They also
make a quick assessment of the overall quality of the batch through the
quality of the questions that they ask a this at times may influence
their choice of campuses to participate in, or the numbers of students
they plan to recruit at that campus, if their recruiting requirements
are likely to be less in that year. The recruiting firm usually gets
alumni of the immediate senior batch of that IIM to join the team for
the pre-placement talk. These alumni usually reach campus a day before
and interact with the students at large to generate greater interest in
the firm. They also informally answer questions about the firm that may
not be appropriate to ask in the formal interaction with top management
during the pre-placement talk. To attract more students some firms
provide snacks and collectibles to those students who attend their
pre-placement talk. The placement representatives interact with the
visiting top management team to resolve any issues related to
placement. Some firms make their presentation material available to all
students through emails or links to their websites.
Major
recruiting companies are usually interested in extending their
relationship with the IIM that goes beyond recruiting. In some cases,
IIM faculty are invited to interact with the visiting team to discuss
matters of mutual interest a such as research projects and case
writing. Other interaction modes can take range from giving talks to
students and faculty, to conducting workshops in their areas of
expertise, initiating research projects and instituting research chairs
at the IIM. These initiatives help the firm in creating a larger
presence on the IIM campus that may indirectly influence student
choices of the firm as a potential employer over time.
Processing Resumes
Once
a firm confirms its participation, the student placement
representatives collect single page resumes in a common format from the
interested students and these resumes are forwarded by the placement
chair to the company. Some firms require web based applications but
students are also required to register their application with the
placement office. Resumes are crosschecked by the placement
representatives to ensure that the grades stated by students match
official records and that all students have documentary evidence to
support every statement that is made in their resume. This ensures that
students do not exaggerate any record or achievement on the resume to
improve their chances of being shortlisted at the cost of other
candidates who may have better achievements. This processing is
time-consuming but is essential to ensure fairness in the process.
The single page resumes in a common format helps in faster processing
before dispatch and also considerably reduces the time taken by the
company to shortlist candidates for campus interviews. The resumes are
carefully designed by students to be effective and each batch provides
considerable help to their junior batch to make sure that every resume
in their batch is as impactful as possible.
Shortlists
Once
the applications are received by the recruiter, they announce their
shortlists as well as their recruitment process requirements and this
information is used to schedule their recruiting activity within their
allotted time slot. Recruiters differ significantly in the short
listing process that they follow. They need to maintain a balance
between the number of students they shortlist and the time that they
can devote to the interviews and other selection processes. Several
firms recruit simultaneously in a time slot but offers can only be made
at the end of the allotted time slot. The time slot is usually adequate
for all firms to comfortably complete their process. Some firms
shortlist primarily on IIM academic performance while others include
prior experience and prior academic performance. In general consistent
performers and all-round performers find themselves in multiple
shortlists. Some firms even shortlist on the basis of feedback from the
IIM alumni who have joined their firm in the previous year – this may
result in some of the friends of the alumni being shortlisted. Some
firms may give a higher weight to some factors and release a list that
is substantively different (with low overlap) from other firms in their
slot. This eases their process as many of their shortlisted students
are not engaged in processes of other firms in their slot. The short
listing process adopted is often a contentious issue as many promising
and interested students may never get a chance to interview with the
firm of their interest. If there is a clear mismatch or the short list
is too short, the firm is given some feedback and requested to revise
their list or add more names to their list.
Slotting Process
Once
all the pre-placement talks are concluded, the student placement
representatives conduct a survey of the graduating batch – asking them
to rank the participating firms that they have applied to in descending
order of priority on their individual interest in joining the firm.
Based on this survey and factoring in the number and quality of offers
made by the firms in the past, their acceptance rate in previous years,
and promised offers in the current year, the student placement
representatives prepare a slotting order for the firms that have
confirmed participation that year. This slotting is finalized in
consultation with the placement chair and the placement officer and
care is taken to balance the number of offers in functional areas
within a slot, so that students seeking specific functional
specializations are not left with very few options within a slot. Firms
that are slotted higher are the ones most sought after by all students
a and especially by students with relatively better prior work
experience and better academic profile, as well as firms that are
likely to make higher number of offers that get accepted. These slots
are relatively sticky across years and are usually consistent across
the IIMs except in the case of new recruiters. The recruiters are then
informed of their slots by the IIM, which is an important feedback for
them on their campus reputation. Firms may bargain for higher slots
than that given and some may opt out at this stage.
Roll Overs
While
an IIM student is not compelled to accept the first job that they get,
the slot system ensures that the more sought after students who get the
offer of their choice in an earlier slot, drop out of the process and
do not compete in the next slot with those students who have no offer
at that point. Fair choice for those with an offer in hand of lesser
preference is achieved through a system of “roll-overs” that apply to
all students in the process. A student who gets his/her first offer (or
gets a first set of simultaneous offers) in a slot can either opt out
of the placement process with his/her offer of choice, or has the
option of keeping that offer in abeyance and “rolling-over” to the next
offer with a select set of firms in the subsequent slot. The
aroll-overa option is given only on the condition that on getting the
next offer, the student automatically forgoes the previous offer that
is being held in abeyance. Thus, the “roll-over” system does not
restrict any student from interviewing with select firms in the next
slot, even if he/she has an offer on hand. However, it creates a strong
disincentive for the student to go further in the process, unless
he/she clearly prefers the next slot firm over the current offer on
hand. Less preferred overlapping offers have to be rejected at the end
of a slot so that the waitlists can be activated. No student in the
process can hold more than one offer on hand while moving to the next
slot. A pre-placement offer from the summer placement firm is counted
as a firm offer that is activated in the slot of the firm making the
offer during final placements.
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Lateral Placements
The
lateral placement process at the IIMs allows firms that are only
interested in candidates with substantive experience (over two years)
to recruit them for higher than entry level positions at during
January-February in advance of the final placements in March. The IIMs
usually have about half to a third of the two year postgraduate program
batch with two to five years experience who participate in the process.
The lateral process is more relaxed than final placements a since fewer
firms are on campus at any time and the firms can also invite the
candidate to visit their headquarters for a final interview round.
Lateral offers are usually activated before the start of placements and
this is a deterrent for non-serious candidates from receiving an offer
and thus losing a aroll-overa. This often results in fewer but more
serious applications to firms participating in lateral placements. Some
firms that offer both entry level and higher level jobs may opt to skip
lateral placements and appear only for final placements where the
entire batch is available.
The IIM final placement process is
best suited to the requirements of the graduating students of the two
year post graduate program. However in some IIMs the lateral placement
process has been used to place participants of the one year executive
post graduate program who usually have substantial prior work
experience of over five years. This has had mixed results at some of
the IIMs. A benefit of this clubbing has been that more firms
participate in lateral placements as each firm potentially has more
candidates with substantive experience to choose from. However given
the higher experience of executive post graduate program participants
at the IIMs, often in a limited range of industries, fewer firms may
find them suited to their requirements. Also conflict of interest
cannot be avoided among participants in the one year executive programs
where each batch has to handle its own placements. Also they may lack
the transfer of know-how from their senior batch.
Reducing Job Losses
Since
students who get an offer in an earlier slot can roll-over to take an
offer in the next slot resulting in a wasted offer a or a “job-loss”,
the placement representatives are keen on ensuring that the more sought
after firms in the batch are clearly slotted above less sought after
firms. Since simultaneous offers to the same student within a slot also
creates “job losses”, the placement representatives are keen on
ensuring that too many firms and too many similar firms are not slotted
together. Thus the attempt is to maintain the job acceptance to job
offer ratio as close to one as possible. More offers not accepted,
reflects poorly on the placement representatives ability, rather than
on the availability of greater choice for students in the process as is
usually reported in the media. Job losses are typically more expensive
in the earlier slots where the firms may be more selective and better
offers may be lost. In the later slots, job losses are less expensive
and are sometimes inevitable in the last slot as the last few students
in the process secure multiple offers.
Firm often bargain for
a better slot and may opt out of participation if they do not get the
slot that they believe they deserve. However, they are usually
persuaded to agree on the ground that if they participate in an earlier
slot, they may find most of their offers refused by students who may
get better offers from their more preferred competing companies in that
slot. This is counter-productive for both students and the firm and
results in wasted efforts on both sides. However, in their appropriate
slot, the company interviews only those students who do not have an
offer as yet, or have “rolled-over” to their company because they
prefer it over the offer they currently have. In either of these cases,
the company is less likely to waste its time with candidates who will
eventually not join. It also has a better chance of getting selected
candidates to join them and stay on in their company – since they have
already tried their chances with their higher preference firms, if any,
in the previous slots and failed to secure an offer. When firms are
slotted appropriately and the slots truly reflect the cumulative
student preferences, the IIM placement process tends to benefit both
firms and students. Sometimes firms dispute their slot and refuse to
participate. Acceptances of offers in a slot are usually communicated
after the placements conclude, unless all students offered by the firm
have clearly accepted or rejected the offer and not held in abeyance
for a aroll-overa.
Campus Placement Logistics
The IIM
campus placement requires complex logistics to ensure that required
candidates are available in time for their recruitment process with the
firms that have shortlisted them. Placement logistics are entirely
handled by the placement representatives and student volunteers of the
senior batch in summer placement and of the junior batch in final
placements. Placements are usually arranged in a single complex so that
students in the process do not have to walk too far between interviews.
The volunteer students are divided into teams a one that handles
reception and centralized allocation of recruiting teams to rooms in
the complex, one that updates the data on offers, acceptances and
sign-outs, one that tracks students within and outside the complex and
one that arranges for refreshments for the recruiters as per their
requirements. Recruiting slots run for twelve to fifteen hours at a
stretch and these volunteer teams operate continuously for this period.
Each recruiting team also has a student volunteer with them for the
entire duration of the slot. Floor and room tracking of candidates is a
task that is best done by student volunteers who know their junior or
senior batch by name and face. The core team leaders and tracking team
communicate with each other on walky-talky sets in broadcast mode so
that every student can be located within the placement complex. IIMs
are also exploring technologies such as an RFID tag on each student to
enable their tracking as the pass scanners. During final placements,
students who are placed early or have accepted their pre-placement
offers, get involved in organizing and managing placements for the rest
of the batch. They also counsel and support their batch mates before
and after interviews.
Closing Placements
The IIMs have
over the years been able to place their entire graduating batch during
the final placement week. This is a remarkable achievement across
business schools worldwide and is even more remarkable in the years
where the demand for graduating students is low. The closing of
placements is not an easy process since the last few students are
facing the last few recruiters who may not find the match that they are
looking for. In a good year, there are more recruiters at IIM than
available students and recruiters typically do not like going back
without making offers. Thus even the last few students may have
multiple offers to choose from. In a bad year, the regular recruiters
may be fewer and they may make fewer offers. To cover the shortfall,
the IIMs seek to draw more recruiters from a wider range of industries
to recruit. Typically these firms are those that have dropped out of
the IIM placements over time since they did not get the required
candidates but see an opportunity to recruit again in a bad year given
the lower competition in that year. Sustained efforts to draw more
recruiters to campus in a bad year has helped in ensuring that all IIM
students are eventually placed, but it may result in some of last few
students getting offers that are below expectation. However a bad year
typically creates lower expectations among students, and having a job
in hand through campus placements helps these students to eventually
move to firms that match their expectations either immediately or later
when the job market becomes buoyant.
Part 3 – How companies save HR costs by recruiting from IIMs