Why Do Indian Companies Transfer Employees Across Departments and Locations?

Hi, sorry for giving the statement like this. Most companies will mention the appointment letter like this:

TRANSFER:

An employee may be transferred anywhere in South India, from one department to another, from one place to another, from one branch to another, or from one post to another in the interest of the work of the Company, or on the request of the individual employee. Transfer within the same department is okay, but why for other transfers? Are those who do not have perception skills the ones conducting the interview to determine whether the candidate is fit or not? Why transfer again to another department? What is the feeling of the candidate? It might be better to remove this clause from the appointment literature.

Importance of the Transfer Clause

The clause is important as it provides the company with the flexibility to manage its workforce. If management needs to transfer someone to another department, they have the flexibility to do so. If the employee does not want to work in that particular department, they can always find another job and leave, provided they are capable of finding another job.

TRANSFER POLICY IN APPOINTMENT LETTERS

Most companies include a clause in the appointment letter stating:

TRANSFER:

An employee may be transferred anywhere in South India, from one department to another, from one place to another, from one branch to another, or from one post to another, in the interest of the Company's work or at the request of the individual employee.

Transfer within the same department is understandable, but why extend it to other departments? Are those lacking perception skills the ones conducting interviews to determine "whether the candidate is fit or not"? Why transfer again to another department? What is the candidate's feeling? It might be better to remove this clause from the appointment letter.

SCOPE OF GROWTH IN A COMPANY

When working in a company in a particular field, you master that field. What additional value are you providing to the company?

There are only two possible options:

1. **Job Enrichment** - Delve deeper into the same job. However, this has limited scope depending on one's nature of work, the company's hierarchy, and other factors.

2. **Job Enlargement** - Take on responsibilities beyond your core role, starting with related roles and transitioning to different roles.

EXAMPLE OF GENERALIST VS. SPECIALIST EXPERIENCE

Why is generalist experience preferred for an HR Manager's position over a very specific and niche profile, like five years of recruitment experience? When you focus on just one area, you only know about that area and fail to learn other perspectives of the role.

UNDERSTANDING CROSS-DEPARTMENTAL ROLES

"Cross-Departments" is a vague term and varies from company to company. A small organization may categorize departments as HR, Marketing, Finance, and Operations. A larger firm, however, may have departments like Recruitment, HR Ops, HR MIS, Performance (HR-related), Marketing, Sales, PR, SEO/Content Management (Marketing-related).

IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSE EXPERIENCE FOR CAREER PROGRESSION

To progress in life, we need to understand that it's not about micromanaging; it's about having a bird's eye view of the whole picture. Unless you are rotated in different roles and departments, how would you climb the ladder up?

Regards

This is a continuation of my previous post "One employee has been selected for HR, now transferred to the Sales Department." What do you say?

Why would the company transfer an HR person to sales? It would be a waste of resources and lead to a loss of sales. Such a move might only be justified if the individual possesses specific skills that the company wants to utilize or if there is an excess of staff that the company does not wish to terminate. In such cases, would it not be more appropriate for the employee to be laid off instead? If the employee is unhappy with the new role, they can always seek alternative employment. At least, for the time being, they still have a job.

Apart from the two positive reasons given by Ankita, there can be other reasons:

- He may not have been able to handle the HR job adequately, and Management was kind enough to offer him another opportunity in Marketing instead of asking him to leave.
- He must have developed a liking for Marketing, and the Management agreed to his request.

It would not be proper to generalize such isolated cases, which in statistics are considered outliers!

Warm regards.

The Importance of the Transfer Clause in Hotels

The clause is necessary in my view since, in hotels, there are many employees who join as room attendants or stewards. They get a chance to study further, become graduates, and may want to change their field from room attendants to sales, HR, Admin, Accounts, etc.