laurakate
Well-Known Member
Don't think I've seen a thread on this on here but amongst people in the industry, I know this is a topic of interest.
What is your experience of a training bond/agreement? Do you think it's a bad thing or a good thing? Is it a good way to protect the interests of the employer or does it make an employee feel like they are financially trapped into staying in a job?
I'm not sure where I sit on the fence on this one. In my last job I have seen girls brought to tears because they desperately want to leave the company but physically could not afford to due to their training bond being worth 2-3k! I was both a good and lucky girl in my last job because I worked out nearly all of the training bond and wanted to leave two weeks before my training bond was to expire but because I'd been a hard worker and had paid for a solid amount of training on my own outside of work my boss waivered my fee which I massively appreciated because it would have been worth £300 but it was worth £1250 initially (I'm assuming it's ok to state amounts of money in this instance because I've not said what the cost was exactly for and every company is different with this anyway). I totally didn't envy the girls who had a bond worth a few 1000 but having said that, I always felt really overlooked by not being offered as many training opportunities myself so swings and roundabouts I guess.
I am someone who values learning (and cv building
) to the extent that I don't mind paying a bit within reason if it helps give me a competitive edge when it comes to looking for my next job and in this respect, I do think it is understandable that employees shouldn't be able to get lots of free training only to leave the company very soon after. I think the training bond is a good way of the employer saying "I'm going to invest in you but I want loyalty in exchange for that." Having said that, I think costs and lengths of time need to be reasonable in order that the employee doesn't feel trapped in a job. In my last job it was a case of leave within 6 months and pay half the agreed training bond back, leave within a year and it will roll over and you won't have to pay anything back. I think this was a fair system because it felt manageable. The only flaw was in how some people were put on training so frequently that more kept getting added to their bond and thus they would have had to work there longer than they may have wanted to.
I have heard of employers getting ripped off too though...training people up only for them to do a runner. Totally not cool to be fair and very ungrateful! (my last job kept the certificates and only gave them to you when you left to help prevent this).
I think a training bond should be optional but my last job made it compulsory. That is to say that I think if people don't want to have the bond then they should be able to say that they don't want to do the training providing that the spa/salon can cope with this.
There's some training coming up at my new job and I'm hoping to be on it because I'll enjoy it and it will be valuable. I have yet to see what the training bond will be so I'm a bit "eeek!" about it but all the same I do want the training.
I'm thinking that a good training bond should be reasonable and proportionate to what it actually costs the employer. I would say that from one year of working for a company post training, the employee shouldn't owe anything to the employer and that also, any amount agreed on should be reflective of what the employee was paid whilst on training as well as any other costs that affected the employer (rather than the employer plucking a high number out of thin air for e.g. £500 owed for a 3 hour spray tan course).
Would be really interested to see what people make of this. Employees, are you comfortable with having a training bond? Employers, do you feel that a training bond protects your investment? What implications do you think it could have on morale? (I've heard therapists say "I make them all this money for such little pay and they want to take money off me when I leave?!")
Over to you!
What is your experience of a training bond/agreement? Do you think it's a bad thing or a good thing? Is it a good way to protect the interests of the employer or does it make an employee feel like they are financially trapped into staying in a job?
I'm not sure where I sit on the fence on this one. In my last job I have seen girls brought to tears because they desperately want to leave the company but physically could not afford to due to their training bond being worth 2-3k! I was both a good and lucky girl in my last job because I worked out nearly all of the training bond and wanted to leave two weeks before my training bond was to expire but because I'd been a hard worker and had paid for a solid amount of training on my own outside of work my boss waivered my fee which I massively appreciated because it would have been worth £300 but it was worth £1250 initially (I'm assuming it's ok to state amounts of money in this instance because I've not said what the cost was exactly for and every company is different with this anyway). I totally didn't envy the girls who had a bond worth a few 1000 but having said that, I always felt really overlooked by not being offered as many training opportunities myself so swings and roundabouts I guess.
I am someone who values learning (and cv building
) to the extent that I don't mind paying a bit within reason if it helps give me a competitive edge when it comes to looking for my next job and in this respect, I do think it is understandable that employees shouldn't be able to get lots of free training only to leave the company very soon after. I think the training bond is a good way of the employer saying "I'm going to invest in you but I want loyalty in exchange for that." Having said that, I think costs and lengths of time need to be reasonable in order that the employee doesn't feel trapped in a job. In my last job it was a case of leave within 6 months and pay half the agreed training bond back, leave within a year and it will roll over and you won't have to pay anything back. I think this was a fair system because it felt manageable. The only flaw was in how some people were put on training so frequently that more kept getting added to their bond and thus they would have had to work there longer than they may have wanted to.I have heard of employers getting ripped off too though...training people up only for them to do a runner. Totally not cool to be fair and very ungrateful! (my last job kept the certificates and only gave them to you when you left to help prevent this).
I think a training bond should be optional but my last job made it compulsory. That is to say that I think if people don't want to have the bond then they should be able to say that they don't want to do the training providing that the spa/salon can cope with this.
There's some training coming up at my new job and I'm hoping to be on it because I'll enjoy it and it will be valuable. I have yet to see what the training bond will be so I'm a bit "eeek!" about it but all the same I do want the training.
I'm thinking that a good training bond should be reasonable and proportionate to what it actually costs the employer. I would say that from one year of working for a company post training, the employee shouldn't owe anything to the employer and that also, any amount agreed on should be reflective of what the employee was paid whilst on training as well as any other costs that affected the employer (rather than the employer plucking a high number out of thin air for e.g. £500 owed for a 3 hour spray tan course).
Would be really interested to see what people make of this. Employees, are you comfortable with having a training bond? Employers, do you feel that a training bond protects your investment? What implications do you think it could have on morale? (I've heard therapists say "I make them all this money for such little pay and they want to take money off me when I leave?!")
Over to you!
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