India: TMI Network

Polaris

Candidate Evaluation and Screening

THE BRIEF

Polaris, a key player in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance industries, has over 4500 satisfied employees in 13 countries-with 6 software engineering centers in India. They are also rated among the top 25 employers in India. Recently, they needed to hire new IT graduates for 300 programmer and 100 system analyst positions. Given the Indian talent pool, which flourishes with new graduates from professional institutes, this represented a phenomenal effort.

THE SOLUTION

TMI created the ad, conducted walk-in interviews all over India, evaluated candidates and developed a mini-Web site for screening the talent pool. The ad needed to impact the audience, while being cost effective. Typically, this target audience is bombarded by ads, which literally promise them the stars. TMI was NOT going to make any unsubstantiated promises. The strategy entailed a down-to-earth ad that called out to graduates who yearned for continuous learning, with a headline that read "You can Bank on us for 360° learning, 365 days." They merely promised to satisfy the urge to learn all the time and to transform that learning into valuable work experience. This was in fact true, since Polaris provided such an environment.

THE RESULT

About 50,000 resumes poured in from all over the country, including responses from IT graduates and postgraduates, as well as engineering graduates and postgraduates. The resumes were then electronically separated into relevant categories with TMI's Response Management software. Selected candidates were invited to take a written test, which if approved, was followed by one-on-one interviews.

TMI's initiatives and multifaceted screening processes allowed Polaris to hire the cream of the crop! The ad worked, and the company received over 50,000 responses from fresh, energetic candidates looking for a real learning opportunity. The written test then narrowed the list to 10,000, of which 1000 were selected from the final interviews. Polaris made offers to approximately 300 candidates. While these efforts are indicative of the high selection criteria set by the client, this scenario also demonstrates the staggering number of responses that organizations receive in India.