Struggling with Late Arrivals at Work? How Can We Motivate Timely Attendance?

Hello everyone,

I have been working with the organization for the last six months, and the HR department is continuously facing one big problem, i.e., timing issues. The office timings start at 9:30, and the company expects employees to be on time, but they are not maintaining their arrival timing. Please suggest what to do? Some motivational or encouragement tips that would be helpful to the organization.

Thanks

You could incentivize coming on time or disincentivize being late. Coming on time is a basic discipline, and if all your employees are lax on arriving on time, there might be a larger problem you need to address. Perhaps your company requires employees to work until very late, leading to them arriving late the next morning. It appears that there may be a more significant issue at play than just discipline problems within your company.

Thanks for the valuable suggestion.

The employees are not staying late as our company is not providing overtime facilities. Therefore, the company also expects all employees to be on time. Can anyone provide motivational tips so that there will be healthy competition in arrival timings?

Hi,

If employees are signing in the attendance register, you may circulate a notice that the attendance register shall be removed from the security/reception at 9:45 am. Employees arriving in the office after 9:45 am will not be able to mark the attendance for that particular day. However, employees arriving late due to official commitments must have an OD supporting it; they may be allowed to mark attendance on that day itself.

Attendance for the rest of the employees can be subsequently marked present if required (after the completion of the attendance cycle), subject to approval from the HOD only (not reporting manager).

As suggested by other members, you may deduct half/full day BASIC salary. More importantly, link their punctuality with their Appraisal/Bonus/incentive to encourage them to take it more seriously. This is one way of disciplining them. Hope this helps.

Regards

Instead of blindly making policies, consider giving a grace period of 15 minutes before deducting pay or applying leave for being more than 3 days late. The key is to first identify the root cause of the problem. Sometimes the issue lies with the employees, other times it may be related to the employer. Additionally, company culture also plays a significant role in instances of tardiness.

A thorough examination of your company's environment is necessary to determine whether persistent lateness is indeed a problem. Provide more information about your company, the nature of the work, the company culture, values, and the behavior of the Director/CEO. Only after gaining a comprehensive understanding of these factors can a suitable solution be devised.

Thank you,
LB143

Such issues are generally found in all the organization, whether big or small. Simple procedures can be followed to curb such employee behavior of coming in late.

1. If you have a punching system, set a late arrival time and allow a grace period of about 5 - 10 minutes for a maximum of 2-3 days in a month.
2. Calculate the total number of late minutes in a month. If it exceeds 30 minutes, deduct one leave, and if it surpasses 30 minutes, issue a warning letter or memo.
3. Even if the employee is not punctual, you can take disciplinary action against them. It's simple, and it works. Be sure to circulate a late arrival policy before implementation.

Let me know if this would be beneficial to you and your company.

Regards,
Kavita Sharma