Off-campus placements see uptick as companies opt for quality over quantity

HYDERABAD: Finding jobs through the campus recruitment route may have been an uphill task for the 2024 batch of engineering grads, but in what is sure to be good news for them is the uptick in off-campus placements this year.
According to staffing firms, off-campus hiring of freshers has seen a jump of at least 30-50% and could surge further this year.“Off-campus hiring is expected to grow by 20-30% this year, with 15-20% of fresher hiring now occurring off-campus,” said Krishna Vij, business head, TeamLease Digital.

Aseem Marwaha, CEO of talent assessment platform eLitmus Evaluation Pvt Ltd, estimated that off-campus fresher hiring is already up at least 50% over last year.
And these figures, he said, could even go up by 125-150% this year, as compared to last year’s off-campus fresher hiring figures, which were very low as most companies had overhired with the 2023 batch of engineering grads.
“Not too many companies hired on campus last year with the 2024 batch as they had made campus offers to the 2023 batch expecting high drop out rates like they saw with the 2022 batch. But in 2023, post Covid, fresher joining rates went up, saddling companies with a higher fresher workforce. This resulted in much lower off-campus recruitment as well as low campus recruitment numbers,” Marwaha explained.
Explaining why IT companies that traditionally focused on campus hiring are now expanding their recruitment efforts to include off-campus hiring, Vij said: “In an environment marked by uncertain demand, cost pressures, and strategies to reduce discretionary spending, companies are looking to minimise hiring costs.” According to Marwaha, companies are focused more on the just-in-time supply of talent due to the unpredictable demand situation on the projects front. Vij added that in a bid to address the unpredictable demand situation, companies are looking for a more diverse talent pool and want to mitigate the impact of seasonal hiring cycles.
“Companies are preferring immediate hiring over incurring bench costs or risking the inability to honour offers, thereby reducing onboarding delays and improving past experiences. With low attrition rates and a focus on maintaining optimal employee utilisation levels, large IT services companies are yet to finalize their campus hiring plans for this year,” said Vij.
While the staffing industry had initially estimated that about 10% of the nearly 15 lakh engineering students graduating in 2024 would be able to find jobs via the campus recruitment route, industry estimates suggest that campus placement numbers turned out to be much lower, in the 5-6% range.
This was because quite a few IT services companies, who are mass recruiters and account for a chunk of the jobs offered on campuses, decided to either stay away from campuses or came to campuses late. For instance, IT giant Infosys, which kept away from campus hiring for nearly three quarters in 2024, indicated earlier this year that it would be hiring more than half its quota of fresher workforce off campus.
With focus more on quality than quantity, the off-campus selection process is becoming more stringent with a clear focus on skill sets, job readiness, and competencies such as aptitude, communication skills, and logical reasoning, staffing firms said.