How Do You Handle Employee Transfers Between Departments? Seeking Advice on Obligations

Hello CiteHR friends,

What is the procedure to transfer an employee from one department to another? What kind of obligations are required? Kindly suggest to me.

Regards,
ShailGiri

Hi Shail,

For departmental change, the following things have to be taken care of:

- Employee will speak with his/her Line Manager.
- Whether Line Manager is ready or not? State Valid Reason.
- If manager approves him/her for departmental change, then the employee will show the approval to HR.
- HR, after analyzing his/her past experience, will speak to the Department Manager/HOD, where the position is vacant.
- If the manager/HOD agrees, then HR will take the Interview, and the final interview will be taken by the Respective department Manager.
- If he likes, then the position is closed.

Note: To avoid the misuse of this process, you can fix a certain period for employees to stay in his/her existing position. Only after the completion of that period, the employee can show his/her interest in other department vacant positions.

Hope this will help you.

Regards,
Deepti

Dear Deepti,

Thank you so much for your reply to my query. The process is very clear to me now, but I am unsure about the forms, formats, or letters required during these processes. If you could provide me with guidance on this matter as well, it would be greatly helpful to me.

Regards,
ShailGiri

Hi Shail,

You can design a form which can have the following things:
Request Date:
Name of the Employee:
Date Of Joining:
Date of Birth:
Effective Date:

Current Designation New Designation
Current Department New Department
Current Location New Location
Current Line Manager New Line Manager
Current Salary New Salary
Status: Permanent or Temporary
Employee Signature:
Approved by:
Current Line Manager Signature:
New Line Manager Signature:
HR - Signature:
Note: You can make two copies of it; one can be submitted to the Accounts Department, which will use this for salary processing. The other can be kept by HR as a record, and the Employee will receive a letter from HR after all these formalities.

Hope your query is resolved.

Rgds,
Deepti

Hi Deepti,

It was very useful information on the transfers. I agree with the procedure, but on a constructive note, I have reservations about the approach of an employee to his/her boss when requesting a change in job. In a scenario where the employee excels in their current role and adds significant value to their department, would it be possible for them to transfer to another department? It could be challenging, and in many cases, even if the employee is eager to shift, the boss might not approve, resulting in missed opportunities. Such situations have been common in our organization, especially with highly skilled and scarce individuals.

To address this, we have implemented a process where we advertise internal openings, interested employees apply, HR conducts interviews to assess fit, and then makes recommendations to the department head, emphasizing the development opportunities for the applicants and ensuring replacements. However, not all department heads are receptive, which may hinder an employee's career growth.

Please share your opinion on this.

Regards,

Balaji

Hi Balaji,

Thanks for your appreciation.

I totally agree with you that the approachability of an interested employee to his/her line manager is a difficult task and may give rise to personal ego too.

We also follow the same process as you have mentioned, i.e., by circulating internal mail and then, after shortlisting the candidates, talking to both the Department Heads/Managers. This is the best way of getting the departmental change done.

We convince the shortlisted employee's existing manager that we will provide him with the best new candidate to fulfill his job requirements because here the wish is of the employee who wants to transfer. Therefore, the Manager would have no option other than relieving him from his existing profile because not doing so means losing one important asset of the organization. In return for this transfer, we search for the best candidate for the Line Manager.

But we also follow one rule, i.e., only those employees who have spent at least one year in their profile in our organization can show their interest. Through this process, we also make sure that nobody takes advantage of it.

Regards,
Deepti