Don't just sign a bond - Make 'A Bond'

In various posts I read people taking different stance about the ‘Bond’ that company enters into with its employees. Here I will observe this in light of my experience at Infosys and will try to find out reason of the employment bond from the standpoint of both the parties involved.

During college we had least idea about going-ons inside the corporate world but the major criteria for applying into any company was its brand name, package, training quality and future job opportunity and finally term of bond. Companies like Xansa (now Steria) offered one-two weeks training and had a bond of six months. While Infosys, which was famous for its extensive training program had a clause of one-year bond. Though the bond period was a cause of initial hesitation, Infosys had lot of takers because of employee-friendly image, exquisite campuses and training programs. The other factors overpowered ‘the bond’ clause.

And indeed after joining Infosys I believe that one year bond was justified. We functioned inside the organization as trainees (basically liabilities) for 3-4 months, which company invested in by providing future requirement specific theoretical and hands-on sessions. Now, in absence of bond, an employee just might leave without letting the firm leverage on the investment it made. The investment that I talk about here is both in time and monetary terms.

No Bond:

- Company trains employees on the basis of future possible requirements and also as buffers in different domains that it functions in.

- If a new joinee leaves right after acquiring the training without earning any revenues, it is a loss for the company.

- If this happens in large numbers, there would be a need to hire new work-force time and again

- Also, firm will now have to train a new employee for the suddenly arrived requirement.

This is a loss-loss situation for the firm. Thus, a bond allows a company to obtain returns on investment they make in new joined employees.

Not Just Bond

- But again this bond can make an employee serve a certain period not retain him for life-long.

- For this a company needs to ‘bond’ with employees, understand their needs and develop a feeling of belongingness in them

As rightly stated in ‘The Ice Cream Maker’ by Subir Chowdhury ‘An employer needs to make its employees invest themselves in the work’, and there needs to be a culture of inclusion of employees in the activities of the firm (in form of feedbacks or opinion poll). These and many other factors make an employee choose to stay in a company and that is a big return on any firm’s initial investment.

Thus, it is just not about signing a bond but making a bond.