Few employees got bonus and a few resigned as the news spread

Dear All, Kindly help me on this ,as few employees in our company got bonus and this news spread all over the company and because of that few employees resigned although it is already been communicated towards them but any how they got to know each other bonus part .Now company's cofounder raised a question towards hr that it is a leakage from her side because one employee backbited that hr sits with few employees at lunch timing and had gossips so it could be a leakage from her although she denied but mgnt not ready to understand they are blaming her .she already submitted the audio proofs towards mgmt that who were into that but according to mgmt as a gatekeeper(Hr) nobody should discuss on such things ,its a hr duty Now what hr should do .
Really appreciate your quick response.
Regards
Preeti

From your query I can understand the mind set of your top management. How can you stop people to talk about their earnest money which is their rightful property. What i m observing from your query your management believe in micromanagement of people and keeping them uninformed from the company policy or it may not exist.
Mgt. need to understand their employees in modern age they are not slave, giving them salary dosn't mean to keep them away from their fundamental right.
Transparency in policy and freedom of working among employees help not only to attain high productivity but also inculcate the value of honesty and loyalty toward organization. From various discussion and survey held on attrition makes very clear due to poor management policy and its implementation ( Lack of justified Increase, timely promotion, advancement and learning of individual with equal opportunity) make employees unsatisfied and results as held in your organization.
So who leaked, when, with whom and what manner dosn't matter if matter that is your policy and transparency you maintain among employees. In my opinion you are not in fault, you need to make detailed plan of relevant requirement need critical attention and present to your management or superior to avoid future blame game.

Many a time, HR becomes a thankless job in situations of conflict of interests because of the work culture of an organization and the total quality of its management. It is said that the Moghul Emperor Aurangazeb would have three commanders for every expedition without each of them knowing the fact. There are many Aurangazeb-like CEOs in modern business enterprises. They have their own informal espionage system within the organization. Most of the moles eventually become time-servers to settle down their personal scores with their co-employees or pass on some false information of their choice about managers or others employed in position of confidence just to please the CEO or maintain their proximity to power centres within the organization.
Coming to the situation described by the poster and the questions raised, most probably the bonus mentioned is performance reward. Disparity in performance reward drives some employees to relinquish their jobs means, your performance appraisal system is biased. Similarly, once the amounts got disbursed, individual shares can not be a matter of secret any more. Your accompaniment to some people on the dining table might have been quite frequent and as such more visible. It might be quite trivial and sheer coincidence. But the mole's crooked mind would have distorted vision only and he/she might have exploited the situation to his/her advantage. In such awkward situations of deceit and despair, you should have the native intelligence to convincingly prove your innocence. Try not to be totally defensive or emotional since your credibility is at stake. If such fair and ideal approach fails to work, even no harm in making the confusion of the impossible type of person worse confounded for the sake of your survival.

Management have to be very discreet on deciding on Production Bonus/Service Reward on the basis of set criteria made known to workers. Declaration of such Bonus/Reward should not be hidden from the work force for any them to strive to reach the goal set next time. HR staff are at times used as Scapegoat for someone to save his skin. In the given case I even have doubts if HR had any information about Bonus/Reward being declared. It practically is a PRIDE for those who are chosen for it and anyone from the group of recipients might have declared it to others.
I think the issue needs further investigation to reach the root-cause and HR may talk to Management and submit request.

Dear Uma sir,
Appreciated your response but i just wanted to add one point here that it is a start up company and we are exempted for five years for bonus so the amount which we have given to few employees ,they shared that information towards each other now request you to help me that how to handle this situation.Do i need to mark a mail towards all employees about the confidentiality of the information sharing or what else i can do?

Dear Preety,
Your top management of the start-up company appears to have dealt with the payment of bonus ( when it was not legally due) to a few employees only in non- transparent manner and perhaps without proper rationale.
On top of it, they blamed HR for leaking the information just on immature observation of your being in contact with them at lunch table and believing the story that you would have leaked the info without apparently making any fact finding enquiry.
I think you may write a polite mail to the top person highlighting the leakage was due to their sharing it amongst themselves only and their questioning your credibility is misplaced.
Besides giving bonus to a few and not giving to large numbers without sound logic is bound to boomerang and create ripples.
Regards
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR-Consultant

Dear Preety,
I concur with the views of Mr.Vinayak. But, still I've a doubt. Though as a start-up, your establishment is eligible for the " Bonus Holiday" u/s 16 of the Payment of Bonus Act,1965, whether it actually fulfills the conditions stipulated in its ss (1-A).