Employees as Brand Ambassadors

Interesting article about how software and BPO companies are using alumni in the various presentations they make to the undergraduate colleges.

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.'

Using alumni to showcase your company has been the norm on B School campuses. However seeing that it is happening at the undergrad level shows how much competition is on at that level too.

One more interesting bit in the article was:

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.

It also shows how the cost of hiring fresh engineers is going up:

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.