Bangalore: In both employability and salary package factors, PhD degree holders have many cheers as PhD students hired from campuses receive 26% higher salaries than bachelors in engineering graduates, finds Zinnov, a leading management consulting firm. Zinnov today released its annual benchmarking study titled the ‘India Global In-house Center (GIC) Campus Compensation Study 2017’.
Guaranteed Cash is a key benchmark considered by all organizations while planning for Campus Hiring, with PhDs receiving 26% higher salaries than Bachelors in Engineering. Average annual total guaranteed cash for PhD students stand at Rs 8 Lakh per annum in campus hiring. Similarly, for master degree candidates average package (guaranteed cash) is Rs 7.10 lakh. For Bachelors in Technology/ Engineering candidates, Rs 6.34 lakh is offered in campus hiring.
The report has revealed that Bangalore has the largest undergraduate talent base whereas Chennai tops the list for postgraduate talent. Cost to Company (CTC) in Tier 1 institutes is 2 times more than that in Tier 2, emerging and Tier 3 institutes owing to sizeable Joining and Retention bonuses.
Zinnov’s campus compensation report is leveraged by R&D GICs to design compensation and benefits packages for BE/BTech, MBA and Non-Engineering campus hires and Interns across various tiers of Indian institutes. In 2016, 35 GICs participated from Software, Semiconductor and Engineering Services Industries. Compensation offered is measured per recruit across four key salary anchors – Total Guaranteed Cash (TGC), Total Cash Compensation (TC), Total Rewards (TR) and Cost to Company (CTC).
The study indicates that GICs still perceive that the quality of talent in Tier 1 colleges are of high calibre and pay a premium to on-board them with 2 times higher compensation than those from other institutes. The Average Total Guaranteed Cash paid to BTech graduates from Tier 1 institutes is about 10 Lakhs, 50% more than that in Tier 2 institutes.
Speaking about the findings of the study, Anand Subramaniam, Engagement Manager and Delivery Head (G.A.P), Zinnov, said, “The permeance of software and fungibility of skills across industry verticals is forcing GICs to increase their emphasis on campus compensation and engagement to gain a competitive advantage in attracting fresh talent.”
70% of the organizations have detailed salary components such as Guaranteed Cash, Variable Pay, Retirals, Monetized Benefits and Stocks for campus hiring. However, only 20% of the study participants offered Stocks to the campus recruits. On an average, GICs offer 1.5 lakhs as joining bonus which is disbursed to students after completion of 12 or 18 months. For outstation students, it is a common practice to provide accommodation in a serviced apartment for an average of 16 days. Most GICs allow new hires to claim relocation allowance based on the actual amount spent or fix a cap on the maximum amount and provide it in the 1st month’s salary.
Anand Subramaniam, Engagement Manager and Delivery Head (GAP), Zinnov, said, “Product Management and Product Development roles command higher salaries in campuses compared to Quality roles. In addition, GICs tend to hire for Quality and Support roles more from Tier 2 and 3 institutes across the country.”
The study also highlighted that converting interns to FTEs is one of the preferred mechanisms of recruiting fresh hires at R&D GICs. Internships enable companies to showcase the quality of work to candidates and increase brand penetration in campuses. 70% of the GICs offer internships for a period of 3 to 6 months and provide an average stipend of INR 25,000 per month to engineering students.
