Bonding - an Indian IT sector perspective

I would like to focus on the Indian context and IT companies in particular as majority of the students are either from that sector or will be going there.

TCS

In TCS, the term bond is replaced by service agreement to avoid the negative connotation. Although the Hr personnel in the company say that bond is not an anti-attrition measure, it indeed one of the ways to temporarily stop the turnover of employees. The recovery rate on bonds by TCS is very dismal with many employees preferring to abscond rather than to pay up Rs. 50,000. If TCS says that the bond amount is to recover the expenditure on training, then I believe through my experience that the entire training is an eye wash. TCS pays around Rs. 20,000 for trainees in the training period and teaches them on virtually what the trainees already know before the training which I can definitely say through my experience.

HCL

HCL is focused on on-the-job training and thus reducing their expenses on formal training. So, there is no bond as such signed with new hires. Also, HCL follows the policy of eliminating the opportunistic candidates at the time of hiring.

Cognizant

There is no bond policy but rather it tries to bond the employees with the system through its excellent HR practices. It has also got one of the lowest attrition rates thanks to the many on site opportunities available in the organization.

WIPRO

To avoid the hiccups of TCS’ bond policy, WIPRO gets a Rs. 75,000 bond deposited during the start of the employment.

Suggestions

1. If huge expenditure on training is the concern, companies can change the recruitment policies by selecting only the skilled people and eliminating much of the training costs.

2. If attrition is the concern, then companies should develop a culture where people are bonded in their minds with the organization. The individual project mangers play a very important role with respect to the new hires as was in my case.

3. If companies still want to form a legal bond then it can form a policy where some amount is deducted from the salary for about 10 months from the start of employment.

4. Companies can follow a policy of informing NASSCOM in case an employee does not pay the required bond amount so that the future employers can get an idea before recruiting.