Balancing Employee Study Time: How to Handle Unrelated Higher Education Requests?

Dear All,

I would like to have the solutions for the following issue: My Company's employee strength is 50 in a Private company in the field of Biometric. Currently, 3 employees require permission for 1 hour, half an hour, and more than an hour every day for their higher studies and programs. I prefer not to cut the salary; instead, I have suggested that the company can have an agreement with the concerned employees to work in our company for a certain period. This will be useful in case the higher program is beneficial for our line. Also, they can't compensate for their working hours in a month. But if the higher studies are not useful for our line, then what can be done?

Regards,
Ramya.R

Hi Ramya,

First of all, look at their performance on an individual basis. Secondly, try to figure out whether their higher studies are relevant to the job profile. You can also have a genuine counseling session with them.

Regards,
Raj

Dear Ramya,

I believe strongly that quality contribution is more important than working hours. However, we need to adhere to the rules, regulations, and norms of the organization.

1. You can talk to them and pose the question to them: "If the company gives permission, as they require, and doesn't deduct the salary for those hours, how are they going to compensate?" Wait for their response and analyze their answer.

2. If they perform well and are good employees, there is nothing wrong with allowing them, but ensure that it should be a special case.

3. Discuss with them whether their course of study would be beneficial for the organization.

4. The organization must also prioritize staff welfare and their upward mobility. Again, it should be within the norms.

5. Perhaps you can ask them to work on holidays to ensure they compensate.

I am sure you can find a good solution while considering the staff requirements, organization's position, and your abilities.

Best wishes always,

Senthil Raj

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Dear Ramya,

It is better that you think of developing a policy towards helping your employees pursue higher studies. Otherwise, you will be constrained to make clear-cut decisions in the event of more employees approaching you for similar concessions. You need to talk to your top management to understand their view on this. The policy will, of course, need to reflect this view. Develop some criteria for approving such requests.

I would strongly suggest that you do not take the burden of implementing the agreement you have in mind. Keep your ground clear of such complications that may arise in the future. Your intentions today may be good. But be careful not to enter into a messy situation later. Therefore, it is better to avoid any such agreement unless the higher studies are directly supported financially by your company.

Govardhan

Dear All,

Thank you for your inputs. However, the higher studies are not related to our company's requirements. Additionally, they are willing to compensate, but we do not require it since they are at a junior level. Supervision during office hours or beyond office hours will not be adequate.

Can you suggest how different companies handle this situation? Also, could you provide insights on what policy could be framed for this?

Regards,
Ramya.R

Dear Ramya,

An employee must take permission from his employer to pursue any external course, or the employer may sponsor an employee for any professional course that will be useful to the company. In the latter case, usually, a company makes an employee sign a bond stating that the employee will stay with the company for a certain period of time.

Therefore, during the time of giving permission, the company must spell out the terms and conditions clearly to the concerned employee.

In the absence of the above, I personally do not recommend people going for studies at the expense of the company's time. It creates a lot of administrative as well as manpower problems.

Regards,
SC

Dear Ramya,

It is really a difficult situation wherein your top management can also have a dilemma.

You have the following options-

1. You simply refuse, stating that when you recruited people, you expected them to serve the company for a certain number of hours per day as per rules, and no concessions in working hours could be permitted for a few people as per the company policy. What is the guarantee that someone else will not ask for permission on a daily basis for some other reason - for example, medical treatment like physiotherapy, attending yoga classes, dropping children at school, paternity leave, learning music or driving, swimming, doing social service, etc.? There could be more genuine reasons for permission compared to higher studies. You may have to rank which reason is more genuine for granting permission.

2. Put up a notice asking how many employees would like to pursue higher studies at the cost of company hours in the next three years if the company decides to permit. If you receive an overwhelming response, you can quote this to those three employees and have justification to reject their request and potentially affect the dreams of all the applicants. You may say that since the response is quite unexpected, it will take an indefinite amount of time for your company to address the issue.

3. Tell them that you would permit, but if they don't obtain a minimum of 90% in all the exams right in the first semester or year, then salary deductions will be made for the working hours lost with retrospective effect. This way, you can prove yourself to be more caring for them than they expect.

4. Ask those three employees to provide in writing how your company would benefit while they pursue their course of study. If someone says there would be no benefit to the company, then you have a very good reason to convince the employee that you have no interest in permitting them. If anyone says that the company would benefit in certain ways, ask for the benefits starting from the first month, and if they are not realizable, then start deductions from the next month.

5. You can ask your management for such permission yourself, shock them, and get shocked by their response. Then you will have an idea of how to respond to those three employees.

6. Ask one of your relatives or friends in a junior position to ask for permission in their companies for higher studies; their feedback will help you formulate your own policy.

Regards,

Govardhan

Hi Ramya,

The issue can be looked at from different angles. You need to answer certain questions before coming up with a decision.

1. Your company being a small company, can you at this point of time permit your employees to take up studies during working hours?

2. What is the benefit to the organization in allowing the employees to take up higher studies?

3. What is the guarantee that the employees will stick around once they complete the studies?

4. What would be the reaction of the rest of the employees if you allow these three employees to take up studies during working hours?

5. If there is an automatic attendance system, how will you adjust the loss of one hour?

We had faced a similar issue a few months back. Certain Diploma Graduates wanted to take up BE, and the course timings were such that it included the last one hour of the work time. These employees requested to allow them to go an hour earlier to study. We allowed them to study during the working hours on two conditions:

a) They were to compensate the loss of one hour by putting in an hour's work in the same day in some other shifts and

b) to sign a bond for two years.

The difference in the situation was that these employees were taking up higher qualifications that were beneficial for both the organization and the employees themselves. Also, the organization was on a project mode (construction phase) which allowed far more flexibility on work timings.

Regards,

Gautam