Bonds....do they really help?

These days most of the companies make you sign an employment bond at the time of joining. With the growth of the IT sector, employment bonds have been a matter of concern both for the employers and employees. Employers cannot do without it due to the rising attrition and employees tend to be disgusted with the company even before they join it. Many companies make it mandatory especially for fresh graduates to sign the bond. I remember during the placement season in our engineering college a company even asked the selected candidates to deposit a sum of Rs. 75000 as a joining amount. Most of my friends who were selected started looking for other options and some of them also joined other companies. Bonds do work in favour of companies in most of the cases but at the same time build a sense of mistrust between employers and employees. Instead of focusing on the bonds companies should try to address the reasons why employees leave the organizations. As in my previous company, most of the software engineers left the organization to pursue higher studies. Companies also value these professionals after their post graduation but employees seldom get enough opportunities within the organizations to pursue their career interests and so they quit. Employers should have tie ups with top rank colleges providing post graduate degrees so that employees can find options of higher studies through the organization. Companies could fund the education and offer higher positions to the employees on completion of the course. This would not only reduce attrition rate but also make companies more employee friendly.

One of my friends had to face a lot of hassles for her release as she was going for higher education before the completion of 1 year bond period in the company. Though she was not allocated to any project, she was still made to pay an amount for breaking the bond. Finally on the last day when she had an exit interview with the HR, on being asked that whether she would join the company again in future, her answer as expected was, “Never”. This shows how such bonds sometimes create unnecessary hassles for employees and can also damage the employment relationship.