How Can We Retain Employees After Costly Training or Recover Our Investment?

Dear All,

We have hired a few employees for our dealership for pan-India sales and service. Before deploying them in the field, our main co-brand company is providing them with training, which may cost 3 to 5 lakh rupees per employee. In case an employee leaves the organization immediately after training or midway through their employment, how can we retain them or recover this expenditure?

Please suggest suitable bond language and any other methods of retaining them.

Best Regards,
Vinod Kumar
Sr. HR

For a sales training, do you spend five lakhs on each employee? Even the Space Research Organisation, which selects candidates for training, does not spend so much on each candidate. Let's be realistic—the cost for a Post Graduation degree is less than one lakh. Therefore, when you claim to spend such a significant amount on training employees, particularly the employees of dealers, it does not sound realistic.

Nevertheless, in terms of the actual cost of training, you can create a bond that would be enforceable.

Dear Mr. Madhu T. K.,

I understand your point of view; however, we have taken the dealership for India of a foreign company that manufactures UG Mining machines. For that, we need highly proficient and skilled manpower. The training base will be in South Africa, which may cost around 3-5 lakh for each employee. The training cost includes travel fare, wages/stipend during training, visa costs, accommodation, food, local expenditure at the training center, and on-site trainings in India. This process will repeat several times during the training period.

Hi, You may introduce an Indemnity Bond along with the option of security cheques. Employees should sign the Indemnity Bond, stating that they will offer uninterrupted service to your company for a specified period. In case they fail to complete the agreed-upon period, they would need to compensate the company with a certain amount. Security cheques can be obtained along with a self-declaration from the employees, stating that they authorize the employer to encash the cheque and deposit the amount into their bank account if they leave the company before the agreed period. The primary purpose of security cheques is to instill a sense of obligation to the company. Please ensure that the period specified in the Indemnity Bond is realistic.

@Veer Vinod Solanki, if the cost mentioned by you is the real cost, you can introduce a system wherein the cost is recovered from the employee provided he leaves within a certain period. Normally, the response from the candidates to join a private sector company that has a bond of three to five lakhs will be very negative. This is also because there is no security that you, the employer, will not ask them to leave if they are not the best fit for you immediately after a bond period, even if there is a reverse bond.

But let us hope that you will get candidates who agree to your offer.