Absconding Trainees: Can We Legally Prevent Them from Leaving After Training?

Hi all,

In our organization, we hire freshers for our company. After completing the training period, we used to provide confirmation at the same. However, suddenly employees are absconding after receiving the confirmation. Here, we are facing issues such as training expenses, six months of efforts, and the replacement of employees. Normally, we had to hold their salary and relieving letter.

Is there any legal possibility to hold the employees, like a bond, contract, or obtaining original documents? Kindly advise me on this.

Yes, many companies are implementing training agreements and collecting security cheques, especially for trainees. However, please analyze the reasons why they abscond. Try to gather information from their colleagues or the absconded employee themselves if you are able to reach them. Find out whether it is due to long work hours, lack of career growth, or inadequate training. Identifying the root cause and implementing corrective measures would be more beneficial.

Employers' Rights Regarding Certificates

Employers do not have the right to retain original certificates. If your training incurs costs such as software or licenses, it is advisable to have a proper training agreement drafted by a legal professional. The agreement should be concise and include details about the scope of training, training expenses, duration of training, and liquidated damages in case of training period violations.

I hope this helps!

Hi,

The training agreement has to be company-specific. You may refer to the attached file, but please prepare one as per your company's requirements/norms.

Thank you.

Hello,

Can we make an employment agreement with a new employee? If yes, then how? Is it on stamp paper? If so, what is the value of the stamp paper, or is notarization necessary? The agreement is not just for training purposes; I am asking for every employee, whether fresher or experienced. We are recruiting someone and giving salary on time. For just a few thousand rupees increment, an employee serves notice before a year.

Regards

Hi,

Normally, for trainees, employers used to have a Training Agreement, and for experienced individuals, an Indemnity Bond would apply. However, I would suggest not to make this a standard practice for all employees. Human resources are an asset to any company, and we should not compel them to stay for extended periods using bonds.

Instead, focus on cultivating a people-friendly work environment. Conduct regular one-on-one sessions with employees, organize employee engagement activities, introduce employee welfare programs, and implement a reward system, among other initiatives.

Thank you.

Dear Monika,

I want to ask some questions regarding the bond agreement with employees.

1. Why do you want to have a bond with employees?
2. Is this a good practice for HR?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Dear Ravi, it is true that bonds are not always a good thing, but mainly we face issues such as:

1. Employees who are generally earning under thirty thousand in salary leave the organization within a year. In fact, we clearly mention in our employment offer/appointment letter that they have to serve at least one month's notice, but still, they usually only serve a 15-day notice period or do not come regularly within a month's notice. You might suggest creating a positive working environment for employees, but I must point out that we offer only an 8-hour job with a very lenient attendance policy. Since bosses do not come in regularly, there is no pressure regarding their presence. I mean, it's a stress-free environment. However, just for a few thousand rupees, employees decide to move on, which creates issues for us and adds to our recruiting costs.

Thank you.

Dear Monika, only you are not facing such situations; every organization has similar kinds of problems (attrition). These challenges lead us in our life. Start doing new experiments every day, and surely you will get results out of that. As an HR professional, we need to adopt good practices, and challenges are a part of those good practices.

Please work on the following areas:

1. Make your recruitment-to-hiring process stronger.
2. Keep communication with new joiners for 2 to 3 months.
3. Implement new programs for new joiners.
4. Strengthen your exit process, analyze the data of exited employees, and sort their database for your study.
5. Examine the sorted database and discuss it with your management for a better outcome.
6. Revise your retention policy.

Thank you.