National Qualifier Tests & Why TCS might have started a trend?

This article is written by Rajesh Kumar, Co-Founder of FACE, UpSkilly and FACE Nxt.

This September 2nd and 3rd, one of the largest employers in the country is going to conduct a National level qualifying exam to recruit talent. The first of its kind by a private company in India.

TCS said that it wants to recruit talent in the most inclusive way, hence it has come up with this idea. But, as someone who has watched the campus placements from close quarters for the last 10 years, there is a lot more to this.

TCS might have kicked off, what we funnily call here at FACE as TALENT WARS. And, this might lead to other companies in following this path, here’s why:

a. Fear of missing out:

Companies have always competed among each other to attract the best talent.

Initially, when campus placements trend was picking up, there was enough pie for everyone. But, as companies requirements increased, they started pushing for day-1 slots by promising more numbers or higher packages. Then, companies started visiting limited number of colleges but started hiring good numbers from that college. However, this has restricted the talent pool from which the companies can choose from. And, companies are feeling that they are missing out on talent.

TCS has just gained an upper hand in this entire scenario by announcing a national qualifier test which is open to anyone.

Now, the other major recruiters will have a fear of missing out and they are bound to follow suit in conducting a similar sort of National level qualifier tests.

b. Quality precedes quantity:

There are no market or other indicators, which suggest that the hiring is going to be on the up this year. Hiring numbers are mostly going to remain the same. But, then what changed? Why might companies conduct such large-scale examinations if at the end they want to recruit same number of students?

One of the common trends in corporates these days is Just in Time hiring. Companies are hiring people, to immediately fill up the roles rather than to train & develop them. And this can be observed in the changing recruitment patterns as well. In the last few years, companies have made their selection exams tougher. The focus is more towards programming & functional skills of the students.

And, companies are looking to hire highly skilled candidates from the overall talent pool rather than from just a few colleges.

c. Better retention rates:

Here’s an interesting research that we found about the retention rates of employees among the top 100 major recruiters in India for freshers. As the stats suggest, %ge retention drastically falls down after 2 years especially in the Set A & Set B. This has been attributed to attractive opportunities at other companies & higher education opportunities. By conducting National Qualifier tests and recruiting talent from Set C & D, which was otherwise not happening, TCS wishes to negate this effect and improve their employee retention rates.

In conclusion, there is a strong suggestion that TCS has started a new trend in the campus placements. With the fear of missing out on the talent pool, more companies will start following this path.

So, Will you gear up your students for these talent wars? Will you make your college successful by increasing the placement numbers?

Or will you let go off this golden opportunity?

The ball’s in your court.

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