Placement conversion rate high this season

CHENNAI: While the number of students hired has always been a key observation point across campuses, this season, placement conversion rate (number of students recruited against the total number of eligible candidates) seems to be the flavour, with colleges reporting high figures.
Many colleges have reported a higher rate this year compared to previous years and they say that it is indicative of the quality of placements as it gives a larger context when compared to studying recruitment numbers alone.
In SASTRA University, of the 1,670 eligible candidates who appeared for TCS placements, more than 1,300 students were recruited, registering to a conversion rate of 78%. This is the first time that the campus has recorded such a high rate by one company.
Other universities, too, recorded a higher rate. Of the 1,502 candidates who appeared in Sathyabama University, a total of 903 students were placed leading to a conversion rate of 60%, a jump of 8% from last year. The university's placement cell also stated that this was the highest conversion rate at the end of their first phase of placements.
Placement co-ordinator of Sathyabama University, John Bruce, said companies were recruiting in larger numbers this year as industry expectations are also climbing. "One reason is that organisations can roll out training programmes for larger numbers at one go. Some companies are also offering internships much ahead of placements to absorb an existing trained talent pool of graduates. Hence, recruitment numbers shoot up," he said, adding that a few companies were also increasing salary packages this year.
S Vaidyasubramaniam, dean (planning and development) SASTRA University, said a high conversion rate is an indicator of recruitment productivity. "Companies find that hiring freshers and training them is an economically better option. Due to high rate of attrition in companies, recruiters prefer to leverage on fresh talent who are adaptive to work culture," he said.