Bonds – “Just another piece of paper” for the Quitters

Employment bonds were perhaps a major topic of discussion in my friend circle when we were appearing for placements in our engineering college. Most companies coming to campus (specially the IT companies) covered their placement offer with a bond. This practice is quite common in IT and ITES sector where attrition is high. But this practice is more company specific than sector specific. Being inclined to the manufacturing sector, I was keenly on the look out for companies that offered jobs in this area.
There are innumerable freshers today, who like me, consider this bond issue an important factor before they apply for companies. This is because of a lurking thought of quitting job for higher studies nests in most of the candidates’ minds. This is why we see most bonds are made for freshers (as observed in few companies mentioned in the opening post in this blog). But do these bonds really work? I mean, will they be helpful in binding the employee to the organization for that specific time period mentioned? I think not. To highlight this case, I would like to mention a case which I have observed closely in the company where I worked.
I joined John Deere as a graduate trainee. The fact that John Deere didn’t ask to sign any bond played a significant part in my decision to apply for the company. (I had not applied to a similar manufacturing company which offered a similar job profile, but required us to sign a 2 year bond on the date of joining). At John Deere, a colleague of mine, who joined with me, quit his job after just 5 months of employment and moved to some other company which gave him a better job. The question is, if John Deere did use a bond, had this guy stayed with the job or quit anyways? As pointed out by Malvika, a person cannot be forcefully employed against his wish just because he signed on a bond at the beginning. Will anyone stay bonded to a company if that person gets a more lucrative job or a chance of higher studies in an institute of repute? In such a scenario, the bond amount and clauses therein make no difference to the employee who has made up his mind to quit. For him, it's just another piece of paper.
Bonds thus are instruments which will ensure companies that not 100% of its recruits will quit. Some people do respect these bonds (maybe out of financial limitation or any other reason). The company will be able to recover the training, induction or overseas assignment expense at least for such employees. Thus these bonds will not ensure people staying back, but are only instruments of comfort for organizations. They are necessary and justified from the organization point of view. Having said that, organizations using bonds in an unfair manner (like Satyam making employees pay interest on non-used money or IMFL asking full payment of the bond even if employee quits one day before its expiry) is not at all welcome!

Ninad Joshi (U109030)