COVID-19 Outbreak: Impact on Campus Placement Offers

In the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country, students who got campus placements are left in a lurch as some companies have begun delaying offers, while some have withdrawn their offers. However, there are other companies that are ready to honour all job offerings. Read more here…

In the light of rising concerns about the COVID-19 spread, many companies have put hold on their placement process. Colleges in India are facing a tough year ahead with disruptions in their campus recruitments as the pandemic affects businesses worldwide. Generally, most business and engineering schools conduct campus placements between December and April every year. While many students have been placed already, some still struggle to find a good job offer.

However, due to the prolonged lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, few companies are deferring the offers made, while some have withdrawn offers made already. Still, there are companies also that are honouring the offers made to students and will not cut any salary. Let’s read about them below.

Companies honouring offers made to students

Many large companies including technology giants such as TCS, Google, Wipro, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, Accenture, PepsiCo, PayU are honouring their job offers made to campus hires despite weak revenue outlook caused by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual onboarding across the world is working well for some companies. The senior leadership is continuously monitoring the situation and leveraging technologies like telepresence and video conferencing to ensure business continuity. 

Other than technology companies, FMCG majors like Godrej, Pepsi-Co, Biocon, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), consultancy firms Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company, and McKinsey, and banks like ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Citi and Axis Bank are also honouring their job offers.

Cognizant will bring on-board 20,000 freshers this fiscal. However, the company said that the onboarding dates will depend on various factors, including the actual completion of the academic programme and the business impact of the ongoing lockdown.

Companies like Flipkart have assured its employees that it will not slash salaries and honour all the job offers extended, including those for internships, even as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses worldwide. “A crisis is a great time to show your statesmanship, commitment and character. This is the time to contribute to nation-building. We are honouring all commitments, campus placements and also looking at innovative ways of virtual inductions and onboarding," said Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy in its quarterly townhall conducted virtually.

A number of global companies with a large presence in India have assured employees that there would be no or insignificant layoffs while the lockdown continues. Some have taken a 90 day no lay-off pledge while some have put a stop to all layoffs for this year. Some of these companies are SAP, Morgan Stanley, Salesforce, Palo Alto Networks, PayPal, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Bank of America and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Companies delaying offers made to students

Sectors including banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, logistics (delivery) where a lot of frontline-hiring takes place are likely to witness delay in offers made to graduates. More companies will now depend on technology as an alternate channel to continue with the same pace of productivity.

"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, companies have been cancelling interviews. We expect 60-65 per cent interviews getting dropped or delayed as there is lockdown across the country and people are encouraged to stay at home to curtail the spread of the virus," said TeamLease Services Business Head, BFSI and Government vertical, Amit Vadera.

According to a tweet posted by a graduate of IIM-Udaipur, a UAE company that offered a job through campus placements has delayed the joining indefinitely due to the rising concerns of COVID-19.

Companies withdrawing offers made to students

With countries closing borders and entering into lockdowns, recruiters, especially MNCs, are revisiting their hiring plans and are either revoking offers or delaying the joining. Uber has revoked job offers extended to the management graduates at premier b-schools like Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), Management Development Institute (MDI) and S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). Oilfield services provider Petrofac has rescinded five placement offers and an Andheri-based banking and financial services firm has withdrawn one offer at IIT-Bombay. As stated by Business Standard, Gartner, WorkIndia rescinded its final placement offers as well as those for internships at IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad. The institute is trying to contact them to find an agreeable outcome. According to Indian Express, Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil-field-services company, wrote to the IITs on April 6 that it had decided to “reduce and withdraw some internship and graduate job opportunities” in a bid to adjust to the “sudden reduction” in “customers spend”.

A leading US-based consultancy rescinded its offer to 11 students across IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madras and six at IIM-Calcutta due to coronavirus outbreak. This puts a question mark over jobs secured by the graduating batch of these top engineering and business schools. The lockdown and the looming economic distress could force many more companies to rethink their placement offers, fear the IITs and IIMs.

Witnessing this, V Ramgopal Rao, Director, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi) posted a tweet requesting corporates, who are thinking of withdrawing the job offers now due to current situation, to honour their promises made to graduates. The image of the tweet can be seen below:

Keeping in view the current pandemic situation, the human resource development ministry (MHRD) has asked the 23 IITs to arrange for a special recruitment drive for those students who may have lost or may lose their jobs due to the pandemic. This will be tentatively scheduled for August this year.

A decline is also seen in general or non-campus hiring post-COVID-19 pandemic. Companies like Microsoft sees nearly 46 per cent drop in the hiring activity in the ongoing year.

As companies continue to withdraw their job offers, several students are posting about this along with their CVs on LinkedIn seeking job. Students are welcome to share their placement related experiences in this situation and any inaccuracies in the comment section below.

Read More:

• IIT Placements – Know Highest Salary Package & Placement Process
• IIM Placements - Highest Salary Package & Top Recruiting Companies
• Form task force to ensure placements are not affected due to Covid-19: HRD to IITs