The Hindu Business Line : Employee as brand ambassador

Technology companies are increasingly "showcasing" employees as brand ambassadors during undergraduate campus placement presentations. And it helps if you are alumni of the targeted institution.

Chaitanya Nadkarny, Director, Human Resources (HR) and Recruitment, ThoughtWorks Technologies, asks his technical colleagues — developers and analysts — to make placement presentations. They talk about hands-on experience and this leaves a mark on their juniors, he says.

At Aricent (formerly Flextronics Software Systems), employees are part of the corporate film shown during the presentation. They also travel with the recruitment team to campuses. "We inform candidates of career and salary growth through the alumni's progress in the company," says Indrajit Sen, Director, Recruitment, Aricent.

HCL Technologies too brings alumni on campus and Ajuba International has over 40 `campus ambassadors.'

Other additions

Brand ambassadors are one of the many new additions to corporate presentations in recent times. In the last few years, the format and content of presentations have changed. From drab ones detailing company history, industry environment and job roles, today's presentations focus on marked differentiators. Srinivas Kandula, Vice-President and Global Head-HR, iGATE Global Solutions, says his corporate presentation emphasises iGATE's expertise in the banking and financial services space.

Scope International has moved away from projecting itself as a Standard Chartered Bank subsidiary to leveraging its `six-vertical advantage'.

"We recently used campaigns such as `Shift Jobs without quitting' and `Join one business. Explore five others'," says the Chief Executive Officer, Sreeram Iyer.

HCL Technologies focuses on defining current roles and their growth paths. "We also give students an in-depth understanding of our future outlook," says D.K. Shrivastava, Senior Vice-President, Corporate HR, HCL Technologies.

Maveric Technologies hands out leaflets detailing career growth in addition to its presentations. "We have also started having a day's gap between the presentation and the selection process so that students have time to evaluate their career option," says N.N. Subramanian, Director and Co-Founder of the company.

Tell and sell

One significant addition to all presentations has been the disclosure of less positive issues in the technology business. iGATE tells students that work pressure and challenges are as much a reality as rewards. Aricent details out its evaluation methods giving a clear picture of the hard work needed to grow in the company and HCL Technologies emphasises the need to update knowledge.

Communication spends up

With all these additions, communication spends have been soaring. "Though our presentations are crisper now, the total communication spend has been rising and is a little under Rs 1 crore now," says Sameer Walia, Managing Director, The Smart Cube, a knowledge process outsourcing company focusing on customised business research and analysis. Ajuba now spends about Rs 2 lakh per college campus against the Rs 1.5 lakh, 3-4 years ago.

As companies look at more colleges, communication spends are bound to go up. "But this has not been proportionate," says Sen of Aricent, which uses the `cost per hire' benchmark to measure effectiveness of hiring. "Corporate films, alumni ambassadors and direct marketing have cost us a bomb and increased the cost per hire," he says. According to HR consultants, the cost per hire used to be about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 five years ago. Now it is between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000. Ambrish Kanungo, Senior HR Manager, Impetus Technologies, says sponsoring college fests, alumni meets, merit scholarships and exchange trips have increased communication spends considerably in the last 2-3 years.

Yielding fruit

But have these efforts paid off? Shankar Narasimhan, Director-HR, Ajuba International, says selling the idea of a `long-term BPO career' through presentations has helped improve the offer to joining ratio and reduce attrition among freshers. Rajkumari Achtani, Head, Human Resource, Rapidigm, a Fujitsu Consulting company, says she now has a more focused group to hire from. S Nagarajan, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of BPO company 24/7 Customer, says recruitment evaluation has become more stringent. "In addition to assessing the candidates' skills, these presentations also help us assess their emotional intelligence," he says. K. Balakrishnan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Servion Global Solutions, says such presentations have resulted in students looking out for challenging and well-defined job roles. "Remuneration or brands alone do not influence them anymore," he says.

What students want to know

What questions are students asking these days? Global presence is a definite question one can expect, says Anuj Kumar, Assistant Vice-President, Human Resources, Computer Sciences Corporation India.

Technology intrigues them. They want to understand the difference between a `project' and a `product' company, says Shikha Khullar, Manager-Human Resources, MPS Technologies. Avenues for higher education, is another common question. Loan facilities, career counselling and guidance, availability of courses that can add value to one's qualifications are some other areas dwelt on extensively by students in recent times.

Some also want to know about the company's anticipated revenues for the next couple of years and service offerings in the pipeline.

archana@thehindu.co.in

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