Aon, a professional services firm, has announced the findings of its Campus Study Report 2024-25. The annual report, now in its thirteenth year, is based on the responses of over 250 organisations surveyed about their campus recruitment practices. It covers in-depth analysis of the campus hiring landscape across various sectors and qualifications and offers valuable insights into the recruitment and onboarding experiences of campus hires.
Business sentiment looks positive for India, with 69 per cent of organisations expecting a high to moderate growth. The sectors driving this growth are financial institutions, life sciences and consumer goods.
Despite a positive business sentiment in India, the study found companies are taking a cautious approach to campus hiring, with several organisations implementing hiring freezes and reducing hiring volumes. However, internships, lateral hiring and hiring for niche qualifications such as Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) continued to see growth. Hiring volume for CAs and CFAs increased by 47 per cent in the fiscal year 2024, followed by interns at 46 per cent and lateral hiring at 40 per cent, while 38 per cent of MBA graduates and 30 per cent of diploma holders including those who have completed vocational courses saw the least increase compared to the fiscal year 2023.
“Campus hiring is a strategic opportunity for organizations to build a diverse, skilled and future-ready talent pipeline. However, the campus hiring market in India is undergoing a rapid transformation due to the changing expectations of the candidates, the evolving skill requirements of the organizations, and the impact of the global slowdown,” said Roopank Chaudhary, partner and Head of Reward Solutions in India for Aon. “Furthermore, there is a direct correlation between company culture and performance, and organisations therefore must have policies and frameworks in place to align culture with employee expectations to ensure stickiness of the new hires.”
The compensation trends for campus hires remained largely stagnant across the tiers and qualifications, with some pockets seeing a dip in total fixed pay. Organisations are focusing on performance incentivisation through variable pay, which ranges between 11-13 per cent. MBA graduates are typically seeing a combination of incentives with more than 90 per cent of organisations offering a joining bonus plus variable pay.
Also, there has been an increase in hiring volumes of interns with more than 80 percent of organisations offering pre-placement interviews or pre-placement offers to promising candidates upon successful completion of an internship, with the highest prevalence for graduates of master’s in technology. However, the study revealed that early attrition is a cause of concern among MBA and bachelor’s in technology graduates, the top reason being competitive pay.
Diversity beyond gender is still not a focus area for those surveyed, with 85 per cent of organisations not hiring interns from diverse communities. However, 49 per cent of organisations are investing in health and wellness, continuous feedback, learning and development, and rewards and recognition programmes to drive wellbeing and performance.
