Why off-campus hiring works – and how to get the best out of it

Campus hiring has been a beneficial practice for decades now with medium and large-sized organisations. The payoffs are many:

• Employers get quick access to a large talent pool
• Fresh graduates are enthusiastic, quick learners, and eager to please
• Retention rates are higher among recruits fresh out of college
• Companies and educational institutions develop a mutually beneficial partnership

Sounds good, right? But, as any experienced HR team will tell you, campus hiring comes with challenges too. It is a time and resource intensive exercise. The logistics of criss-crossing campuses located across cities is daunting. Importantly, there are thousands of applications to be screened and hundreds of interviews lined up over a few days. The huge volumes and repetitive work often leads to exhausted recruiters. The result? Gaps in their hiring targets by the end of the campus hiring season, both in terms of numbers and difficulty in filling specific skill gaps.

   

To avoid this, it makes sense to also have an off-campus strategy in place. During the pandemic, when heavy restrictions on direct interactions were mandated, companies had to adopt digital hiring processes for recruitment. The initial discomfort with remote screening processes soon wore off and more and more businesses realised that there were strong benefits to off-campus hiring. Some advantages to off-campus hiring that are now widely recognised are:

Better reach: Companies can reach out to students nationwide, bringing in underrepresented candidates from Tier 2 and 3 cities.

More diversity: Better reach translates into access to diverse student groups from smaller towns.

Eliminates bias: The focus is now on a wide range of skills rather than being confined to applicants from preferred Tier-1 city institutions.

Technology that powers off-campus recruitment

Adapting to market needs, recruitment agencies now provide customised solutions for off-campus hiring. These are essentially AI-enabled processes and assessment methods. Here is a quick look at some of these new age tools and what they deliver:

• Virtual placement sessions and online job fairs offer a convenient, no-cost opportunity to draw students from varied locations, including those who missed out on campus placement drives.
• Pre-placement activities such as company overview enable shortlisted candidates to gain a reasonable understanding of an organisation’s work culture and other activities.
• Remote interviews and group discussions can be scheduled according to candidates’ convenience.
• Skill assessment platforms can be used to design assessments on the basis of job roles. This helps to address the gap between the competencies of fresh graduates and the skills required for specific job roles.
• With AI-based tools doing the grunt work, recruitment managers can focus on other priorities.

Finding candidates where they are

It is a truism that the best way to find and meet today’s job seekers is to go where they are present most of the time – on social media. Companies who maintain an active social media presence as part of their recruitment strategy stand to gain a lead in attracting –   and maintaining –  the interest of a wide pool of job seekers, both during campus hiring drives and when exploring off-campus recruitment options. Digital channels are ideally suited for companies to showcase their ethos and what they can offer to young people starting their careers.

Teaming up with a reputable recruitment agency can give companies a strategic edge with access to their vast database of graduates skilled in a range of disciplines.

Professionally run RPO companies offer a suite of services and can handhold employers across hiring activities ranging from campus liasoning and video interviewing to post-offer follow-up and onboarding support.

At Careernet, we offer a comprehensive solution to your off-campus hiring needs, enabling access to a vast network of Tier I/II/III colleges across India. Our reach empowers you to tap into a 1.5 lakh+ database of top talent, spanning engineering candidates, MBA graduates, and a wide range of highly skilled graduates.

What sets Careernet apart from the rest? We deliver a 53% lower turnaround time, enabling you to accelerate your hiring process and secure the best talent before your competitors. Our offer-to-joining ratios are 28% better than the market average, ensuring a smoother transition from offer acceptance to successful onboarding.

Additionally, we offer customised domain-based assessments to ensure you evaluate

candidates’ skills and potential accurately. Our comprehensive suite of services includes campus liaisoning, video interviewing, post-offer follow-up, and onboarding support, making your off-campus recruitment journey seamless and hassle-free.

REFERENCES:

• www.financialexpress.com
• blog.imocha.io
• hrshelf.com