The Curious Case of the Employment Bond (posted by Nishit Ganatra u109031)

Talking about the current day scenario of the triangular relationships between the employer, the employee and the employment bond, it is quite evident that the employment bond movement has gained in a considerable momentum. I would like to give you an IT company’s perspective of it (though I understand it’s quite shallow on my part to narrow it down to just the IT sector but for this my work-experience is to be blamed).
These bonds are the order of the day in Indian IT Companies. The purpose that these serve is dual: act as a hurdle for the employee who is thinking of switching early in his career and therefore restores security in the minds of the employer about employees. Modern day’s competitive business practices has made these bonds even more popular and enhanced their significance but there is one issue which makes me uncomfortable. Employment bonds have transited from being a defensive tactic to being an attacking one at least as far as the employer is concerned. These bonds are becoming the weapons to restrict the mobility of the employee even if the intention is ethical and consequence would benefit the employees. Meaning that even if an employee has available higher growth opportunities, his/her mobility is restricted by the virtue of him/her having being signed the bond. Talking about the various reasons for which one might want to leave the organization, higher studies also forms one of them. Many organization, it seems, have relaxation in their norms on these grounds. Frankly speaking, some organizations still are indifferent towards such and other genuine reasons and it is their indifference which complicates or bitters the relationship.
From the employers’ perspective, they have spent a considerable big training cost on the employee. So when the employee exits, these become sunk costs and therefore hurt the employer and so must be recovered. But another issue which pops up, at least as far as the IT Industry scenario is, is the fact that in these companies one cannot leave the organization until and unless he has transferred most of his knowledge to the one replacing him. This is christened as KT (Knowledge Transfer) in this jargon-savvy world of ours. So, considerable efforts are being made to detach or retain the human capital back from the outgoing employee. Hence the norms can be relaxed if the reasons are genuine.
On the other hand the vice is also in the minds of some of the employees who use organizations as a bait to progress in their career. Some use it to get On-site opportunities and some use it to just get a brand-name. Hence the presence of such a hurdle acts against their intentions. A parallel can be drawn from the field of sports (Football) where in Clubs spend enormous amount of money to acquire a player and thus make a contract with him which to an extent restrict his mobility till a certain time.
This is a practice followed worldwide and thus if fairly implemented by both the parties involved, might prove to be beneficial else the repercussions can be striking.