Absconding Employees

We are on Facebook

This is the most unprofessional and unethical way to end an employment contract. The absconding employee(s) never bothers to give reasons for going AWOL to the employer or even the recruiter which ends up leaving a bad impression.

Recently, i encountered an incident where an employee i had recruited for a client absconded 2 weeks after resumption. Reasons why he chose to run away without going through the termination process remains unknown. I couldn’t understand it because it was outright baffling. 

Then i thought to myself, was it my fault? Was it the client’s fault? what if the client blames me (the recruiter) for putting forward a dishonest candidate?  What if the client thinks i’m incompetent? What if this rubs off negatively on my company’s brand? I had a lot of ‘what ifs’ in my head but then, i’m neither telepathic nor a sorcerer to  have known this was looming just around the corner. 

Now let’s explore some possible reasons why an employee could abscond from work:

• If an employee is facing work pressure and isn’t able to cope with it.
• If an employee receives an exceptional job opportunity where he/she has to join immediately.
• If he/she has personality problems; low self confidence, unable to face a competitive environment and thinks running away is a better problem solving approach.
• If an employee decides to try out a new organization without resigning from his/her previous employer ‘just to test the waters’ 

How can a Recruiter minimize absconding cases?

• Every stage of the recruitment and on-boarding process should be hitch-free because employees form their impression from the induction.
• HR people should create a transparent and comfortable work environment for employees (An open door policy should be nice too)
• Introduce a legal clause in the employment contract.
• The HR manager should periodically remind the employees that it is within their right to seek other job opportunities, but it is also their moral responsibility to inform the manager about their plans to depart from the organization.

My final thought… 

The strategies pointed out above may or may not work, but the value of Honesty in a workplace can never be overemphasized.