The Buddha Way

Employment Bond is a form of surety bond for Employers who use it to hedge the risk of an employee leaving the company after undergoing an expensive training. As has been pointed out by many friends of mine, there have been numerous cases where a new joinee has actually left the company just after getting trained by the company, then is it not fair, if the organisation makes the employee sign an Employee bond? Employers actually spend lakhs on training and development but what is the guarantee that the employee will stay in the company after the training period. They might use their new found skills to get a better paying job. A company spends huge amounts of rupees to recruit and train people and so it is unfair if we expect them to let go of their employees easily. Our company never had any bond and because of this some new employees left as soon as they were trained and the company could do nothing as the concept of Employment bond was not encouraged in the company, with the senior management holding the opinion that the company should have employees who stay on their own and not through force. This sort of view has to be complemented by creation of a work environment which attracts and retains talent.

In simpler logic, it makes sense to use an Employment bond to reap the benefits of the training imparted. Employment bonds do have a darker side and that is basically from an employee perspective. An employee feels tied down as he is unable to utilise better opportunities. The bond binds him to the company in case he is not able to pay the amount. In India many people take a sabbatical from work to study and in case the bond duration is not over, then the employee has to pay his way out. In such cases Employment bond does prove a hindrance. Another case might be if a person needs to shift to a place where his current employees do not have presence due to some unavoidable circumstances and then in case he falls short of the bond free duration, then again he has to pay up. Thus, such kinds of bonds do curb the freedom of employees’ right to choose his employer. So the best approach is to adopt a middle path.

An employment bond should exist but for a minimum duration possible which can help the employers get returns of the investment in training and development. It should not be for a term like 3 years which some companies enforce. Employment bonds should only be enforced on new employees fresh out of college and on new employees who have undergone some special unique and expensive training. Such bonds are, as I said before ways, to ensure return on investment for the companies.