IIM-A, other top B-schools moot IIT-like joint placement committee

IITs share their best practices and undertake a joint placement process, and student- or recruiter-specific decisions under All IITs Placement Committee

Talks are on between some of the top B-schools, 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 B-school Placements Committee on the lines of the All IITs Placement Committee.

The discussion was part of the agenda at Maitri, an annual conference of placement committee members. Held at IIFT Delhi in its second edition, Maitri's first edition was held last year at IIM Ahmedabad.

Being conducted by student representatives this time unlike last year, the conference also saw discussions over sharing recruiter experiences and best practices between the top B-schools.

"One of the agendas of Maitri 2018 was to discuss the formation an All India B-School Placements Committee which would perform a function similar to the existing All-IITs Placements Committee," the IIFT placement committee's communique stated.

IITs already share their best practices and undertake a joint placement process, and student- or recruiter-specific decisions under the All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC).

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 actions 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 placement calendar with international trends, while adding that it would still take couple of months before things take more concrete shape.

The top B-schools also deliberated over steps to be taken in case different recruiter scenarios.

"Some recruiters come to recruit but don't make any offers or in lesser number, 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 any major recruiter not honouring their word," the placement committee member told Business Standard.

B-schools have also witnessed cases where certain companies bypass 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 case to case basis to prevent students participating in such competitions from missing out in the placement process.

As part of the joint placement committee, B-schools are likely to share their best practices as well as placement process challenges with each other.

"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 the new and emerging sectors in the market," as per the member.

With the B-schools coming together, if recruiters do not honour their commitments, there will be repercussions across campuses. While company and student specific data will not be shared but B-schools would share how they are conducting the placement process.

As of now, it is unclear whether more B-schools would be part of Maitri.