Corporates use internship programmes to boost talent pipeline

Internship programmes are fast emerging as a key platform for staff hiring and talent acquisition by companies and many giants like Coca-Cola, Infosys and Pearson are adopting this as a key HR strategy.
Companies generally recruit people from the campuses for internship programs and based on their performance and inclination, induct them for full-time roles in the company at a later stage. HR experts are increasingly seeing this as an important tool to build talent pipeline for an organisation.
Organisations like Infosys, Coca Cola, GHCL, Pearson, Yes Bank, Faurecia and Brands of Desire are some of the entities increasingly looking at internship as a key HR strategy.

"At Coca-Cola India, the campus hiring is done through the summer internship program called Mantra. It is an 8-week summer internship program that offers learning experience for students from the top premier B-schools in India.
"Through this, interns are hired each year and groomed through the various business critical functions," Sameer Wadhawan, Vice President - Human Resources & Services, India & South West Asia at Coca Cola India said.
In addition, the Coca-Cola University has a special capability development program for Coca-Cola India's Franchise Bottling partners, called 'Eagles'. Spread across six months, the Eagles programme includes classroom learning, e-learning, mentoring, coaching & feedback and fieldwork.

IT major Infosys also has a Global Internship Programme -- InStep -- for undergraduate, graduate and PhD students from leading academic institutions around the world.

Infosys hires InStep interns from over 100 universities and business schools across the globe for executing high-impact projects for the organisation. In FY 2013-14, Infosys hired 160 interns representing over 40 nationalities.
Automotive parts manufacturer Faurecia hires freshers from engineering backgrounds -- a minimum of 50 students each year -- who are then inducted into an 'inbuilt groom' program.
According to experts, companies are now looking at internship program as a talent management strategy and for creating a talent pool for future growth.

"We have a healthy percentage of 80 per cent and above when we consider the number of interns being retained in our organisation. After completion of their training, we look forward to identify the real talent and accordingly measure their abilities which serve the organisational goal," GHCL Limited Vice President & HR Head Rajesh Tripathi said.
Saurabh Uboweja, CEO, Brands of Desire, Asia's leading brand consultancy, also said that a good internship program helps in building the talent pipeline of an organisation.
"We hire interns from the leading business schools like the IIMs. On an average, we consider about 20 per cent of our interns for a full time role where we see the right long term fit," Uboweja said.

Learning solutions giant Pearson also has an internship program wherein it hires talent from top institutions.
Similarly, private lender Yes Bank has Y-PEP as its institutionalised talent acquisition program and is led by the Yes School Of Banking. It hires management professionals directly from premier B-Schools in India and select foreign Universities.