Bonding issues !

Employment/ Service bond as means to deter employee mobility are rarely effective. As it has been correctly pointed out by many other participants, these bonds or contracts are not recognised in the Indian law and thus litigation in this respect is primarily a futile effort.
Though employment bonds cannot be validated by law, it may help in restricting employee movements to some extent. Taking a cue from my previous organisation, employees had to adhere to its clauses and pay the amount in case of a breach in order to avoid the hassles involved in obtaining the relieving certificates. Again, if the employee leaves the organisation without paying the requisite amount, the same was adjusted from the payment of the PF and other reimbursements due to the employee. Employees may also adhere to the clauses in order to avoid negative remarks about their conduct when background checks are conducted by prospective employers or organisations. Thus, even if these contracts cannot be implemented through litigation, organisations have these days devised other means to recover the investment done in training the new employees and protecting their interest when the employee plans to shift to a new job. But the organisation usually recovers the cost of training the employees from the projects/ assignments they avail. The investment done in setting up high training standards establish the credibility and position of the organisation which helps them to obtain projects at a reasonably high cost.
Thus, the solution to this impasse again lies in evolved management practices realizing that it is the age of employment at will and employee mobility cannot be restricted. Employee mobility can only be deterred by establishing rewarding incentives and a competitive environment. But at the same time some policies must be framed so that strategic employees impact the functioning of the organisation to a great extent by using separation as a mean to bargain for incentives at any point of time.