Absconding from the organization is the most unethical way of leaving an organization. When an employee leaves the organization without following the procedure to leave the company is called employee absconding. An employee who leaves the job responsibilities without any advanced intimation and becomes untraceable can create a chaotic situation for the employer.
Possible Employee Absconding Reasons
Reasons behind employee absconding can be issues related to organization, employee, reporting person, and even can be market-related issues. Also, some people might lose interest in the job role after a few days of work. In that situation, some people have the tendency to leave the organization without serving the notice period or not intimating about the decision to leave the work. Extreme disinterest in the work can be a reason for absconding. Other reasons could be lack of commitment, negativity at the workplace, false promises during the hiring process, the conflict between coworkers, failure to recognize and appreciate the hard work, not able to handle the work pressure and stress, better job offers, character issues, issues between managers and among others. An employee may be forced to take the decision to abscond when he feels very uncomfortable for discussing the reason behind the decision to exit the company with his manager or HR. However, an absconding employee indicates a significant failure of communication in the organization.
How does the organization respond to employees' absconding?
There is a lot of effort behind recruiting a candidate for a requirement. Employee nurturing like skill development, training programs, relationship building, etc requires a lot of money and time. So, when an employee doesn’t show up for an extended time period without any intimation, it will be the worst situation for the organization and the people behind all the efforts. Such cases should be investigated thoroughly and proper steps have to be taken to avoid recurrence.
The primary step an employer can take is to try to communicate with the absconder through direct phone calls or through the mail. It is important to keep a copy of all kinds of communication with the absconder on an employee file. Try to reach out to the absconder telephonically and by email. If no response from the employee side, send an official registered letter through courier to the last known physical address of the employee. The registered letter should quote the appropriate sections of your employee policy and enquire reasons for not showing up for the work. Ask him to report back immediately to the organization. If the employer has not received a reply within a stipulated time period, then a warning letter that clearly indicates the termination action will be taken if the employee does not report to work. The employer can take legal action if there is no reply to the warning letter within 15 days. The employer can send a legal notice and termination letter to the absconder. Since keeping an employee who is not properly following the company policies is challenging for the business, it is essential to terminate the individual if the situation demands.
An employer has to fulfill the responsibilities like paying the absconder’s salary till the last date he worked in the organization. All the statutory payments such as taxes, pension fund, health insurance, etc to be paid till the date of his last working day.
If the employee has absconded along with the organization’s property or he dues to the employer in any way, the employer can claim to recover these through court.
How to reduce or avoid employee absconding
The situations of employee absconding can be avoided by working on the following areas.
Implement an HR policy clearly specifying the actions that will be taken against the employee on uninformed absence from work or employee absconding. There should be a legal clause in the job contract regarding absconding. The employees are advised to follow the policy rules, on the other hand, it may lead to taking legal action against the employee who contravenes. Employees should follow the policy of separation or else have to face the outcome of legal action taken by the employer. It is essential to conduct a proper background check and profile checks during the recruitment and selection time to avoid future issues. Also having platforms like TrstScore will be beneficial for the employer, as it will show the authenticity of the employee's ethics and behavior.