What is Transfer?
A transfer is a change in job assignment. It is the internal movement of an employee from one section to another without involving any substantial change in his duties, responsibilities, required skills, status and compensation. A transfer does not imply any ascending (promotion) or descending (demotion) change in status or responsibility.
Transfer Definition
According to Edwin B. Flippo, “Transfer is a change in job where the new job is substantially equal to the old in terms of pay, status and responsibilities.”
According to Dale Yoder, “A transfer involves the shifting of an employee from one job to another without special reference to changing responsibility or compensation. Transfer may involve promotion, demotion or no change in status and responsibility.”
Thus, transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job, section, department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another place, where his salary, status and responsibility are the same.
Purposes of Transfer
Transfers are generally resorted to with a view to attain the following:
To Meet the Organisational Requirements
Organisational changes may demand the shift in job assignments with a view to place the right man on the right job, Such changes may be changes in technology, changes in the volume of production, production schedule, product line, quality of products, change in the job pattern, fluctuations in the market conditions, reallocation of or reduction in the workforce due to a shortage or a surplus in same section so that lay offs may be avoided, filling in of the vacancies which may occur because of separations or because of the need for suitable adjustments in business operations. In short, the purpose of transfers is to stabilise employment in an organisation.
To Meet Employees’ Requests
Sometimes, transfer is done at the request of the employer himself. Employee may need transfer in order to satisfy their desire to work under a different superior in a department/region where opportunities for advancement are bright, in or near their native place or place of interest, doing a job where the work itself is challenging etc.
To Ensure Better Utilisation of the Employees
An employee may be transferred because the management feels that he is not performing satisfactorily and adequately and when the management feels that he may be more useful or suitable elsewhere, where his capacities would be better utilised.
To Make the Employees More Versatile
Employees may be shifted from one job to another to expand their capabilities. Job rotation may prepare the employee for more challenging assignments in future.
To Adjust the Workforce
Workforce may be transferred from a plant where there is less work to a plant where there is more work. Thus, the employees who have been in service of an organisation are not thrown out of employment but adjusted elsewhere.
To Provide Relief to the Employee
Transfers may be made to give relief to employees who are overburdened or doing hazardous jobs for long periods. Transfer may also be made to break the monopoly of the employee. The climate of a place may be unsatisfactory for an employee’s health. He may request a transfer to another place, where his health may not be affected by the climate.
To Reduce Conflicts and Incompatibilities
Where employees find it difficult to get along with colleagues in a particular section or department, they could be shifted to another place to reduce conflicts. To Penalise the Employees: Transfers may be effected as disciplinary measures to shift employees indulging in undesirable activities to remote, far flung areas.
To Maintain a Tenure System
In senior administrative services of the Government and also in industries or where there is a system of annual intake of management trainees, the employee holds a certain job for a fixed tenure but is made to move from job to job with a view to enable him to acquire variety of experience and skills and also to ensure that he does not get involved in politicising informal groups.
Family related issues cause transfers, specially among female employees. When they get married, the female employees want to join their husbands and this fact necessitates transfers or resignations.
Types of Transfer
Transfers may be classified on the basis of purpose or unit:
On the Basis of Purpose
- Production Transfers: A shortage or surplus of the workforce is common in different departments in a plant or several plants in an organisation. Surplus employees in a department have to be laid off, unless they are transferred to another department. Transfers effected to avoid such inevitable lay offs are called production transfers.
- Replacement Transfers: A replacement transfer is the transfer of a senior employee to replace the junior employee or a new employee, when the latter is laid off or shifted to another job, Sometimes, it is a temporary arrangement to make use of the services of the senior personnel.
- Versatility Transfers: Versatility transfers are effected to make employees versatile and competent in more than one skill. It aims at giving training to the employees of various jobs of similar nature having different operations. It helps the employees to get themselves prepared for promotions and also helps the employer in developing the effective manpower prepared to handle the higher openings.
- Shift Transfers: When the unit runs in shifts, employees are transferred from one shift to another on similar jobs. In some undertakings, where shifts are operated regularly, employees may be recruited permanently for the shift, but in some cases they are rotated from one shift to another as a matter of practice, because many employees dislike second or third shift assignment as it interferes with their social or family engagements.
- Remedial Transfers: Remedial transfers are effected at the request of the employees and are, therefore, called personal transfers. Personal transfers take place because the initial placement of an employee may have been faulty or the worker may not get along with his supervisor or with other workers in the department. He may be getting too old to continue his regular job or working conditions may not be well adapted to his personal health. If the job is repetitive, the employee may stagnate and would benefit by transfer to a different kind of work.
- Precautionary Transfers: Such transfers are made as a precautionary measure to avoid the misuse of office or misappropriation of funds by the employees. In some undertakings, there are more chances of misuse of office or misappropriation of funds than others. Generally it is mentioned in the transfer policy of the organisation that an employee cannot stay at one post for more than 3 years or so.
On the Basis of Unit
- Sectional Transfers: These transfers are made within the department from one section to another. The main purpose of such transfers may be to train the workers and prepare them to handle the operations of different sections of the department.
- Departmental Transfers: Transfers from one department to another department within the plant is called departmental transfer. Such transfers are made if the nature of work is same or substantially the same in both the departments such as clerical or routine jobs.
- Inter-Plant Transfers: If there are more than one plants under the control of same management, transfer may be made from one plant to another on varied reasons. Such transfers are called inter-plant transfers.
Transfer Policy
A sound, just and impartial transfer policy should be evolved in the organisation to govern all types of transfers. This policy should be clearly specified so that the superiors cannot transfer their subordinates arbitrarily and the subordinates may not request for transfers even for the petty issues. The management must frame a policy on transfers and apply it to all the transfers instead of treating each case on its merit.
Such a policy must be based on the following principles:
- Transfer policy must be in writing and be made known to all the employees of the organisation.
- The policy must very clearly specify the type and the circumstances under which company initiated transfers will be made.
- Basis for transfer should be clearly mentioned in the policy. Whether it will be based on seniority or on skill and competence or any other factor.
- It should indicate the executive who will be responsible for initiating and approving the transfers.
- The policy should specify the region or unit of the organisation within which transfers will be administered.
- The effect of the transfer on the pay and seniority of the transferred employee may be clearly evaluated.
- It should be prescribed in the policy whether the training or retraining is required on the new job.
- Transfers should be clearly defined as temporary or permanent. The interests of the organisation are not to be forgotten in framing a policy of transfer.
- Reasons for mutual transfer of employees or reasons to be considered for personal transfers should be specified.
- The fact of transfer should be intimated to the person concerned well in advance.
- Transfers should not be made frequent and not for the sake of transfer only.
Generally, line managers administer the transfers and personnel managers assist the line managers in this respect.
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