Here’s what eCommerce companies are doing to get ‘tried and tested’ talent on board

As the stage is all set for students of India’s top B-schools to get placed, eCommerce companies, too, are eying the best talent this year. As per an Economics Times report, the top B-school graduates, this year, are in receipt of offers, which are double as compared to what was on platter a year ago.

The pre-placement trend is followed by the summer internship program, which generally starts in July-August and continues till December. Companies like the Boston Consulting Group, Amazon, Godrej and Vodafone are following the trend aggressively to get tried and tested talent on board.

Gurgaon-based Management Development Institute has received 31 offers so far. The offers are from the companies including PepsiCo, Aditya Birla Group, Vodafone, IBM, Reckitt Benckiser and the Boston Consulting Group. It’s important to note that the current offers witness a major hike as compared to 2014.

Kanwal Kapil, the placement chairperson of Management Development Institute, said, "We are expecting e-commerce firms and major investment banks to hire extensively through the PPO (pre-placement offer) route."

Another one in the lineup is IIM Bangalore. This institute too is expecting the numbers of PPOs to go up this year. Sapna Agarwal, head of career development cell at IIM Bangalore, says, "Last year was an exceptionally good year for us, with more than 30% of our batch getting placed through PPOs. We got 137 PPOs last year and we expect the number to go up this time.”

IIM Kozhikode is also expecting a rise of 10% in the numbers, informed AF Mathew, the placements chairperson of this prestigious institute.

This year, the Boston Consulting Group has made 47 pre-placement offers from across B-schools, which is 47% more than the last year. "We have had substantial growth over the last many years and in line with our growth we hired 95 students through campus recruitments," said Suresh Subudhi, partner and head of recruiting. At IIMs, the firm offers a base salary of Rs 20 lakh, in addition to a variable bonus.

The campus hiring requirements has gone up to 20% at Godrej this year. "Today, our businesses have a growing global presence. This kind of expansion has meant that new roles are created across businesses and countries. So far, we have concluded our summer internships for the year and have offered 20% PPOs as part of that," said Sumit Mitra, head-group human resources and corporate services, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies.

Godrej offers pre-placement opportunities to students in the summer, autumn and winter sessions of Gurukul during the internship program. In 2014, 91% of the company’s management trainee came through Gurukul. As part of the two-month program students get to work on live projects across businesses under close mentoring from senior leaders.

IIM Indore too, is expecting a high number of PPOs from the eCommerce industry as compared to previous year. Companies who have released PPOs at IIM Indore so far are BCG, HUL, Philips and Vodafone.

Raj Raghavan, director, human resources at Amazon India, said, "Our intern hiring numbers have seen a steady rise over the last few years. Our conversion percentage has been improving significantly and today around 25% of our total MBA hires come through PPOs."

Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi has received 21 offers this year, compared to 17 last time round, from Accenture, BCG, HUL, L'Oreal, Pepsi, Philips and Vodafone.

Ashok Ramchandran, director, HR at Vodafone said, "Greater hiring is expected across all domains, primarily in e-commerce and FMCG marketing. Consulting companies are also expanding their talent pool," said a spokesperson from the institute.”

Ramchandran further added, “The conversion rate from summer internships to PPOs has increased 22% at telecom operator Vodafone this year. Vodafone made 100 summer internship offers in 2014. Of these, 58% received PPOs from the company across B-schools, law schools and engineering colleges. "We continue to hold similar focus in hiring and rigor in building our talent pipeline through our flagship management trainee program called Discover."