What actions we can take against absconding new joiners?

Hi,

We need suggestion on absconding employees. As per rules what actions we can take against absconding new joiners?

They absconded after joining in few weeks now. Please advise.

4 Likes

At present nothing as such. It’s always better to understand them during the offer letter period and keep them engaged and always have a backup plan ready

3 Likes

Hi Manjunath,

Firstly, the letter of appointment to have a clear term stating that if the employee absconds from the duty breaching the employment terms and the company policies, the company is entitled to take appropriate disciplinary action against such employee (which may include termination).

Secondly, the employer ideally should have the (i) attendance policy, (ii) leave policy, (iii) code of conduct, (iv) disciplinary policy and a lot more policies in place. The reason for listing these policies leaving the rest aside is they carry the norms, duties and accoutability of employees.

Thirdly, such policies should be made available for reading to the new joinees at the time of their joining and the existing employees.The employees cannot claim that they were not aware of the company rules and policies.

Now, coming to the actions that can be taken against such absonding new joiners:

If you have signed up an appointment letter clearly stating the terms and right to terminate on certain grounds (such as not reporting to work without informing the HR or reporting manager continuously for 3 days, absentism without any intimation, etc.), you can invoke a show cause notice to such employee stating why not the company terminate on such grounds and forfeit such employee’s entitlements as per the industry practice.

You can give some reasonable time to the employee to revert and mention that if they fail to respond or revert within the stipulated timeline, you will proceed with further action.

The key areas of concern is:

A. the human resource
B. the company assets given to such resource who absonds with it

Nowadays, due to the pandemic, the employers are trying to give some grace period to such employees; on the other hand, the employers also take some time and go slow in providing with any expensive company assets to the new joinees (due to this apprehension of absonding with the assets which becomes more challenging to retrieve then).

Atleast till the employer gets the background verification report, and/or till the reporting manager is confident that the new joinee will not move away for any other better opportunities, it is a challenging timezone for every employer at present.

Regards,
Bhuvana Anand

3 Likes

@Bhuvana_Anand / @GreytHR team,

We are forming HR department in our company which we never had earlier. So we are new to these HR compliances, policies, etc. Are there any sample of such polices (code of conduct / disciplinary / attendance / company asset polices, which we can refer to?

3 Likes

Hi Shefali,

Good to hear from you :slight_smile: .

We are sharing our resources link Resource Library | Policy Templates | greytHR.

You will get a lot of policy and letter templates here.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Bhuvana Anand

3 Likes

Hi Bhuvana,

Thank you so much!! You are real gem! :slightly_smiling_face:

I will go through these. Thank a log again!

Regards,
Shefali

3 Likes