NEW DELHI, Date January 14, 2013: Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon plc (NYSE:AON), announced the results of its 2013 edition of the Campus Study.

The economic slowdown hardly seems to have deterred employers from actively pursuing candidates through on-campus recruiting programs. Study findings reflect a stable hiring outlook with majority of surveyed organisations reporting no change in the campus hiring numbers planned for 2013.

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.

Organisations who did report a revision in hiring trends were primarily from the Financial Services and Hi-Tech sectors. 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.

Sandeep Chaudhary, Partner - Talent & Rewards at Aon Hewitt India commented: “Campus hiring trends are a lead indicator of the general market sentiment towards hiring. The study results are clearly indicative of the somewhat optimistic, yet cautious sentiment of India businesses. While it may be some time before India witnesses a growth rate of 8-9% again, for now corporate India surely is keeping its head high and planning for the long term.”

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. For management graduates, on an average organisations reported offering 11 PPOs to interns and 19 PPIs for the 2013 batch. In comparison, B.Tech/B.Es average numbers of PPOs and PPIs were much higher with organisations offering 44 PPOs and 66 PPIs on an average for the 2013 batch.

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. The difference on total costs to the employer is even starker due to the high variable component offered by these Investment Banks. The Consumer sector projections are 9 % above the pan-India median for Tier 1 campuses.

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.

About the Aon Hewitt Campus Study: The Aon Hewitt Campus Study 2013 which covered compensation and hiring trends across different tiers of Management and Engineering campuses received participation from over 170 organisations. This makes it the largest study of its kind in India.

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.

Sandeep Chaudhary concluded: “Youngsters today want to understand their career progression right from the start; work with managers who are inspiring and act as mentors; have a fun workplace with rules that are relaxed to suit their style of working”. Many business leaders and HR practitioners are leveraging this knowledge of generational difference and rethinking their rewards strategy to attract and retain this group of “Gen Z”.

About Aon Hewitt

Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human resource consulting and outsourcing solutions. The company partners with organizations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance. Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies. With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees. For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com/india.

About Aon

Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 65,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative and effective risk and people solutions and through industry-leading global resources and technical expertise. Aon has been named repeatedly as the world’s best broker, best insurance intermediary, reinsurance intermediary, captives manager and best employee benefits consulting firm by multiple industry sources. Visit www.aon.com for more information on Aon and www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon’s global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United. 

Annexure :

*TCC defined as Total Fixed compensation plus Variable Pay (Not including LTI)

Figures in INR

Source: Aon Hewitt Campus Study 2012-2013

*TCC defined as Total Fixed compensation plus Variable Pay (Not including LTI)

Figures in INR

Source: Aon Hewitt Campus Study 2012-2013

Media Contact:
Sushil Bhasin
+91 9810068426
sushil.bhasin@aonhewitt.com