Most young MBAs (the HR stream), early on joining their employers,  spend close to 80% of their time in Talent Acquisition, through Recruitment& Selection. The teaching and training on the theoretical concepts/techniques of Recruitment, happens quite well at Business Schools. However, what remains not so well taught is the ‘hands-on’ experience of actually hiring individuals, at  different levels of Management.  While the expectation  of organisations from their  fresh Management Graduates(  HR  specialisation) is that the latter  would/should  demonstrate   good understanding of the process and be able to assist/actively add value. However, in reality this expectation is not fulfilled . In  many instances, the fresh HR recruits fall short of displaying the necessary competence and finesse.

Recognising this gap, IKYA Human Capital Solutions Ltd, one of India’s largest diversified HR Services providers,  collaborated with  Prin L.N .Welingkar Institute of Management Development &Research, Mumbai ( WeSchool) , a leading B School in the country , to design  a program  to address, enhance and certify  the recruitment skills of  aspiring HR professionals.

The program  comprised of Instructor-led Sessions, Workshops and ‘Live Environment’ activities and was delivered by senior leaders from IKYA, along with   Prof:Vijayan, Dean, HR and his team  from  WeSchool. The program was initially conducted as a pilot for the HR Batch of WeSchool ( 11-13) in 2012. On  incorporating the learnings from the Pilot, the upgraded Program has been completed for the 12-14  Batch of 41 students. The students have been  certified as Recruiters- based on their class-work, assignments and hands-on experience-  over a 30 hour program, spread over a period of 4 months.

At the Certification Awards Ceremony held at WeSchool recently, the Chairman and Managing Director of IKYA, Mr Ajit Isaac, presented the Certificates to the 41 successful participants along with Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Isaac emphasized  the importance of competence in recruitment, one of the key constituents of Talent Acquisition, the hidden costs of wrong hires and the business imperatives. “Align yourself with a company that you join for a long work stint. More attrition does not always bring more business for recruiting firms. Develop knowledge, learn to grow in different directions, and improve the quality of assessment as Hiring is important!” were his words of advice to the team of HR Professionals of future.

Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool, while complimenting the students -on enhancing their capabilities- and IKYA, for collaborating to strengthen the quality of recruitment in industry, said  “WeSchool and IKYA decided to collaborate because the latter’s thought processes matched with our core philosophy of Triple A : Acquisition of Knowledge, Application and Assimilation.  IKYA gave you a wonderful opportunity to actually apply the knowhow learnt in classrooms and assimilate it through the immersion experience provided in their office. WeSchool looks forward to a long-term, sustainable relationship with IKYA”
Mr Marcel Parker, Director and Chief Mentor of IKYA, who had conceived and driven this initiative, through the senior executives in his team said ,”IKYA is committed to ‘ giving back’ in different ways as a responsible corporate citizen” . He opined that this Program  was  a unique way of benefiting GenNext HR practioners to meet expectations from the industry and raise overall standards.