Companies across sectors as diverse as banking, manufacturing and power are signing up students for profiles ranging from finance to marketing and strategy, consultants and placement officials said. Apart from impressive pay, many companies are also offering support for higher education, in an attempt to retain them for longer durations.

Starting this year, Tata Power Ltd will recruit graduates and diploma holders beyond its regular intake of B-school graduates and engineers under its Cadre 2.0 strategy.

“These are not only a defensive mechanism of managing attrition, but we need to build talent relevant for us. If we can enable them to pick up higher qualifications, higher skills, awareness and experiences in our context, it will be win-win for both,” said Himal Tewari, chief human resource officer, Tata Power.

From a company’s perspective, grooming talent becomes easier when the employee joins from a young age. This also helps to retain them for a longer period than the two to five years that many employees nowadays stick around for. And, many younger workers stay for even shorter periods.

Several banks conduct online programmes for undergraduate students in collaboration with universities, and those who complete these courses receive cash rewards. HSBC taps the alumni pools of colleges such as Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi, NMIMS and St Xavier’s in Mumbai, and Christ University with campuses in Bengaluru and New Delhi.

“As a robust talent acquisition engine, we approach various avenues to hire talent to cater to business requirements. Rationale behind this was to infuse young minds into roles across lines of business yielding specific outcomes and help build a pipeline of young talent working on key initiatives,” said Archana Chadha, head of human resources, HSBC India.

Mint spoke to placement teams of several undergraduate colleges, who reported interest from established companies as well as startups.

“This year so far, the highest salary has been ₹35 lakh, and in 2022, it was ₹30.6 lakh. We have received a similar number of offers in the first phase (August to December) when the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and consulting companies troop in,” said a member of the SRCC placement team. Among companies who were visiting the campus for the first time was Aon, a consulting company. The company did not respond to Mint’s queries.

A student at an undergraduate college in Delhi said students from commerce, economics, statistics and mathematics are in demand for positions as research analysts. Last year, the average salary offered at this college was ₹9.5 lakh, and the highest was ₹40 lakh. Placements are currently on for the batch that graduates this year.

Lady Shri Ram College’s (LSR) website says that for last year’s batch, the companies that hired included McKinsey & Co, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Co, Kepler Cannon, Accenture, Dalberg, Trinity, Deloitte, EY and KPMG, for roles in consulting, finance, marketing and sales, media and research as well as auditing.

Companies of a similar profile also visit business schools for recruitments, and the salaries offered are not very different, though in some cases, the profiles for the senior students may be more complex.