It is an interesting conversation. Dear Perfect, Nothing can prevent an employer from entering into an agreement/contract/bond of one year. However, it would serve little purpose since bonded labor is not legally tenable in India, and signing a bond is tantamount to acceding (in spirit) to a relationship involving bonded labor. There is a precedent set up in this regard way back in the 1950s where some Thapar Industries lost a case in this regard. The judgment pointed out that a bond can only be among equals. The status of an employer and that of an employee is not equal, and hence such bonds have no legal validity. Therefore, an employer cannot force an employee to stay associated with it for any period of time. So if an employer thinks that entering into bonds will solve the problem, then it may soon find itself on the wrong side of the law.
Now coming to attrition. We must accept the fact that the nature of the employer-employee relationship is fast changing. Nowadays, it can be best described as a relationship between two independent thinking adults. If employers can lay off employees due to downsizing, right-sizing, delayering, etc., then they hardly have any moral right left to seek loyalty. I may sound a bit curt, but it is rightly said, if an employer wants loyalty, then it should better hire dogs. Nowadays, the employer should ensure that work, training, etc., are designed to enhance the employability of an employee. On the other side, an employee must ensure that as long as he or she works for an organization, the delivery has to be at 100% efficiency and effectiveness as agreed through pre-agreed KRAs.
In this case, I truly believe that recruitment is no rocket science. The role of operational effectiveness and operational efficiency through the use of technology and advanced statistics is limited beyond a certain level of productivity. After this level, it becomes more of a labor-intensive operation. Hence, an employer in this sector must focus on achieving this target level and should avoid attempting to go beyond it. This should be supplemented with a strategy to ensure that processes meet recruitment targets and not recruiters. Tinkering with compensations, career paths, etc., may not serve much purpose when the demand-supply mismatch favors employees. To gain better insight into real issues, it would be great if data from exit interviews were captured and studied honestly.
Another issue was raised regarding debarring an employee from joining competitors. Forget debarring an employee from joining competitors; an employer cannot even prevent an employee from taking along clients to a competitor. This has legal approval based on a recent judgment in NCR where some bank was complaining in courts for being at the receiving end due to this scenario.