Campus placements: IIMs to follow IIT model

Talks are on among some of the top B-schools in the country, including Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, MDI Gurgaon, XLRI Jamshedpur and IIFT Delhi to form an all-India placements' committee on the lines of the one that exists for the IITs. The discussion was part of the agenda at 'Maitri', an annual conference of placement committee members. While the first conclave was held at IIM-A last year, the event this year took place at the IIFT Delhi.

Being conducted by student representatives this time unlike last year, the conference also saw discussions on sharing recruiter experiences and best practices adopted by the top B-schools. "One of the agendas of Maitri 2018 was to discuss the formation of an all India B-school placements' committee which would perform a function similar to the existing All-IITs Placements Committee (AIPC),” the IIFT placement committee's communique stated. The IITs already share their best practices and undertake a joint placement process under the AIPC. What's more, the top B-schools have also decided to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard.

"The B-schools decided to abide by an MoU to collectively take action in the interest of the students and adapt best practices from fellow B-schools to improve overall efficiency of the recruitment process," IIFT further stated. According to one of the placement committee members at IIFT, this year's MoU is unlike that of last year which revolved around aligning the placement calendar with international trends. The panel added that it would take a couple of months before things take concrete shape.

The top B-schools also deliberated on the steps to be taken in the case of different recruiter scenarios. "Some recruiters come to recruit but don't make offers or come up with less number of jobs while some give one job description but come to campus with another. The discussions revolved around how to deal with companies that don't keep their word. However, last year we didn't come across major recruiters not honouring their word," the placement committee member told Business Standard. B-schools have also witnessed cases where certain companies bypass the placement process by conducting their own competitions.

This puts students who participate in such competitions at a disadvantage in the final placement process. The recent conference saw deliberations on how to monitor such recruiters on a case-to-case basis to prevent students participating in such competitions from missing out on the placement process. “Usually, placement committees don't share ideas. However, since employability of students is becoming a concern, it was decided to share the best practices. Discussions also revolved around additional skills required for new and emerging sectors,” the member added.

With the B-schools coming together, there will be repercussions across campuses if recruiters do not honour their commitments. While company and student specific data will not be shared, B-schools will reveal how they are conducting the placement process. As of now, it is unclear whether more b-schools would be a part of Maitri.