Job contracts look to bolt footloose juniors

Indian companies worried over junior employees quitting within a year of joining are devising ways to secure their commitment for longer, ensuring their efforts in training freshers do not go to waste.

- Devina Sengupta & Mansi Verma

To stem the attrition of entry-level staff, several companies are weaving in bonds by another name in the employment contracts. These agreements specify that if exits occur in less than a year of joining, employees will have to pay for the training and career development costs borne by the company, lawyers and headhunters said.

Realizing that the word "bond", or asking an employee not to join another firm during the specified period, may not be legally tenable, and to make the job offers more palatable to the candidates, employers are using terms like "commitment period", and detailing out the costs incurred even for a remote workforce in their contracts.