September 10, 2007

Is “joining bonus” a right tradition?

I have noticed that several companies offer joining bonus to a prospective employee to join early (or shall I say "immediately").

I was wondering if this is a right tradition? Is this ethical?

I see it this way –

A guy is working in Company A and he has a notice period of 30 days. if he wishes to terminate his contract/job with Company A and move to Company B he need to serve a notice period of 30 days to Company A. This is supposedly required so that he can transfer his responsibilities in a proper way to an assigned person by Company A enabling them to maintain the smooth function of the organization in his absence. However, Company B tells the guy – "If you can join us within 7 days, we are willing to pay you a joining bonus of $X.

I personally feel that it is like bribing the person to go against the separation clause of the employment agreement, so that he can pay for any financial loss (that might arise from any penalty clause) and enjoy a bonus amount – all for doing something wrong! I see this happening almost everyday.

Don’t you think this HR practice is unethical and is further rewarding people to stoop low for some quick bucks?

What do you say?

 

Filed under Business Strategy, India, Reviews by Abhishek Rungta

  • vishal_b
    yes u might claim thats unethical but i would not completely agree with this as far as the employee is paying the penalties there is not unethical thing coming in. Even the Company A does not loose anything so compromises on a penalty and asks the employee to pay the notice period shortfall amount, if the employee receives a bonus of $x he is paying a penalty also of $x-penalty...so i think thats a fair deal.
  • Rashmi
    I feel, that it would be ethical only incase where the notice period is long like say 3 months or so. My personal experiences say that once you put in your resignation, the very next moment onwards you are an outsider. You are not considered as a part of the company any more. All the accolades showered on you earlier seem to have vanished from memories. You are banned from attending meetings etc. All important communications by pass you directly to your successor, lest you leak the information to your future employer, many more reasons etc. etc. The severance becomes painful to the employee. In this case the faster the severance the better it is for everyone. Moreover, it usually does not take much time to hand over the responsibilities since no one is indispensable in an organization.

    Finally, the joining bonus received from a new company need not be looked at as a bribe, because this amount will be used to pay off the company you prefer to leave as notice pay. I guess it get equated here. (As the Hindi saying goes “Ek Haath Le, Ek Haath De”) The amount is just passing through. Well, nothing much to gain personally except for some peace of mind and positive attitude towards the new work.

    Therefore this will lead to a lot less bad experiences and you will get your relieving letter and final severance dues too. (After all we all work for a combination of various things, like a handsome pay, job satisfaction; peace of mind etc may be not in the mentioned order)

    This debate can go on, because we cannot measure ethics with practicality. What might seem unethical to some may seem practical to others.
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