Dealing with a Chronically Late Employee: How Can We Encourage Better Punctuality?

Dear Friends,

In my company, a staff member is frequently arriving late. We have already had two direct discussions with him regarding this issue and have also sent him emails addressing his tardiness. However, he has not shown any improvement in his attendance.

I would appreciate any advice on how to effectively handle this situation and help improve his punctuality.

Thanks.

Dear earlystar,

This topic has been discussed a lot of times in this forum. Once again, you have not mentioned your industry type and the position/designation of the particular person who is arriving late. Please provide a clear and concise statement for you to receive appropriate feedback.

Hi,

Late coming might be due to many reasons for an employee. They might get stuck in traffic, have some personal issues at home, or be sick, etc. Please check one-on-one why they are coming late, and tell them clearly that the organization has flexible timings but they have to work 9 hours a day, no matter when they arrive. This might help.

Indira Agiliance

Hi,

You could implement a Late Attendance policy where frequent latecomers undergo LOP (Loss of Pay). This may help you maintain discipline in attendance records.

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the reply, Mr. Mahesh. This is the first time I'm posting this case on cite HR. We are in the software industry. The person who is arriving late belongs to the Business Analysis team, and they have a general shift from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm. We allow a 10-minute grace period in the morning. Our attendance policy states that those who work late in the evening after 8:00 pm can arrive late the next morning before 11:00 am. However, this person is leaving around 7:00 pm or 7:15 pm in the evening and arriving at 9:50 am or 10:00 am every day.

Hi Ramya, we have an attendance policy that allows for 2 late arrivals per month. The third late arrival will be considered as half a day. This half-day will be deducted from their leave if available; otherwise, it will be considered as Loss of Pay (LOP).

Kindly provide me with a good solution for this case.

Dear [Recipient's Name],

Please be advised that we have observed a pattern of tardiness in your attendance over the past seven days. As per company policy, repeated instances of late arrival are not acceptable. Therefore, we kindly request your cooperation in adhering to the designated work hours.

To address this matter, we will be implementing a deduction from your salary for every third occurrence of tardiness. Please note that we will not consider adjusting leave days to compensate for late arrivals.

We trust that you will take this warning seriously and make the necessary adjustments to ensure punctuality moving forward. Your cooperation in this regard is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Saroj Kumar Deka

Hi,

It is a well-known fact that most employees come late to work due to various reasons (as pointed out in earlier messages). The best way to tackle late arrivals by any employee is to give them additional responsibilities and make them accountable for their actions. For example, politely ask them to track the tardiness of all employees, initiate daily team huddles at the beginning of the day, and assign that person to organize the same, among other strategies.

It is not guaranteed that this approach will eliminate tardiness completely. However, when employees are given such responsibilities, they tend to set themselves as an example and often exceed expectations. Trust me, this method will be effective.

Thanks,
Basheer Ahmed

Hi,

I think you should implement a late coming policy and start deducting salary or something else that can help to improve attendance. This policy should apply to everyone, regardless of their position, including managers.

Thanks and Regards,
Dinesh

Hi,

Kindly:

- Try to explain to him how it is affecting the work culture.
- Escalate the issue to his reporting authority.
- Send a memo for explanation.
- As per the policy, kindly deduct the leave/LOP (Make it 1 LOP for 3 late comings) without further discussions.

You have to check individually who are the persons coming late. Whether they are leaving the office on time or going late, and what is the genuine reason for the same. For such a category of staff, you have to be a little flexible. For those who are coming late regularly, you may initiate disciplinary action as suggested by others. In our company, we are following rules: "grace period of 15 minutes only. Latecomers reporting to duty after 15 minutes thrice in a month shall be considered one day's loss of pay or one day's leave in lieu thereof."

We work from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm with a 1-hour lunch break from 1-2. Anyone arriving at 9:41 am is considered late. Three late arrivals result in a deduction of half a day's salary.

You can try implementing this policy to reduce tardiness.

Regards,
Sachin

Hi,

I believe the best possible solution is to send an email to his reporting officer stating that you have warned this employee many times, but there has been no improvement. Next, you should seek approval from his reporting officer to issue a memo to him. It is crucial that the memo clearly defines that if he repeats the same behavior, the company reserves the right to take disciplinary action against him.

Thanks,
Satyajeet Planman Group

Various factors are there:

1. If he is the only employee who is coming late or if the rest of the team members are also coming late very often.
2. Is he habitually late since the beginning of his joining?
3. Late coming generally shows a lack of motivation in the job because if somebody wants to come on time, he/she can come irrespective of traffic or other reasons, for sure, which cannot be the same all the time.
4. The idea is to discipline the employee and not punish him; please remember this.
5. Based on his position in the company - seniority, experience, and responsibility - you can take action like sending an email related to the same.
6. For a senior employee, a gentle email can work; if he is junior, then you may have to impose punishment like LOP, absent marking, or a warning letter, etc. First work on the trend, cause, and impact on the rest of the employees, then only you will be able to resolve the issue.

Thanks,
Rashee

Re: Late Coming

If we accept that employees naturally comply with company rules and regulations and by nature do not want to behave in an unacceptable manner, we must accept that the employee in this instance has a serious problem. It may be domestic or work-related. The fact that you have not succeeded in establishing what the reason for the late coming is and to get him to change his behavior is a concern.

You will have to earn the trust of the employee and get him to open up so that you can establish the "real reason" for late coming.

No way to consider anyone for any disciplinary matter within the organization. Please treat strictly.

Regards,
Saroj Deka

Several industries start at 7:30 am, but he should arrive by 9:30. This is unacceptable and indicates carelessness and irresponsibility. It is necessary to take strict action to prevent this from happening again. This should serve as a lesson for others.

I don't understand what is holding you back from implementing the company policy in this regard. If his presence is more important than his discipline, then there is no need to have any policy nor to complain about it.

Dear earlystar,

My friends have already suggested their valuable suggestions. Here are a few additional recommendations for you to consider:

1. Counselling.
Or
2. Issue a show-cause notice and take disciplinary action, if permitted by your organization's policies/standing orders.
Or
3. Post a notice on the notice board indicating that the individual is a habitual latecomer. This notice will be visible not only to your employees but also to visitors.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you.

Best regards, [Your Name]

It depends upon the nature of the industry and the individual working. If the duty (incoming and outgoing timings) is for sharp timings, then a relaxation of up to 10 minutes late may be allowed twice, and for every third time, a half-day absence/leave shall be marked. If incoming timing is sharp and outgoing timings vary late from scheduled timings, then consideration should be made on an individual basis.

Late Coming

It is a common problem facing each and every industry. By this, I do not mean that you should take stringent action on the employee. You have to deal with the problem in a meticulous manner.

Nowadays, there are a lot of traffic jams in various places; this may also be one of the reasons for arriving late.

To resolve this problem, you have to initiate counseling with the employee as a first step. If the employee does not heed to it, you may have the employee sit for extra time to make up for the delay in arriving for duties. Gradually, the employee will avoid arriving late to the office.

If you are not satisfied even after the above measures, then you can start deducting leaves (preferably half a day) from their account, then deduct their salary, issue a memo, etc. If all these measures do not provide the desired results, you can try imposing a major penalty as a last resort.

However, I believe the employee may not consistently arrive late and will try to discipline themselves when all the above measures are carefully implemented.

You have to formulate a time office policy as per management instructions and need to inform employees about such a policy. Follow the rules as per organization policy.

Thank you.

Understand him first and read the problem. Maybe there are serious personal reasons. Counsel him and help him in coming out of this, if it is a genuine problem. Since yours is an IT company, you can also change his timing from 0930 to 1000 hrs. Your discussion with him will reveal why he is regularly coming late, and if you are convinced it is genuine, as an HR Head, you can help him by changing his timing, etc. If an employee is intentionally coming late, take quick action like sending him back, etc., to send a message. Late coming is not allowed anywhere, even in ID or any other Acts.

Balakrishnan

Hi,

Coming late to the office is completely unacceptable. Implementing a stringent Loss of Pay (LOP) policy could help solve this problem. Tardiness disrupts the work culture of the organization. In many Korean and Japanese companies, arriving late to the office is considered undisciplined.

Strong disciplinary action needs to be taken against individuals who are consistently late to the office. Punctuality is a key factor in assessing an individual's commitment if they arrive at the office on time.

- Speak with him and find out the reasons for coming late.

Even monitoring the timings and showing the record to the latecomer vis-a-vis other people (who are also leaving late up to 7.30 pm) will definitely help.

Or keep a flexible incoming policy from 9.30 to 10.00 and thereby leave late accordingly.

There is nothing new that I have to express. I strongly believe in corrective actions before taking any punitive steps. Discuss with him about the ill effects on himself and on the organization. If he has a personal problem, he has to solve it himself; any support you can provide should be discussed with him. If not, put it in writing. After one or two warnings, it can be dealt with firmly.

Nagaraj

Notify the model standing order that is obligatory to be followed by both employees and employers.

Dear Early star,

These categories of employees are habitual latecomers who generally tend to test the pulse of the HR department.

The best way to deal with such people is to create a Daily Work Management (DWM) meeting that commences immediately after the working hours start, wherein the boss chairs and all the colleagues participate.

In the DWM meeting, a review of the previous day's activity and the plan for the current day is discussed employee-wise. When such a review takes place, all employees have to be present.

Latecomers are noticed by bosses time and again. Please also incorporate a system wherein the latecomers are issued a late-coming slip every day they come late.

For example, if the employee reports late for work at 9:50 A.M and has not worked until 8:00 P.M on the previous day, then they have to cite the reason/justification for their late coming and obtain the signature from their boss in the presence of all other colleagues.

You will observe that these employees will clearly be sidelined as the others will not require any approvals from the boss as they always report to work on time.

On the other hand, you can also study the feasibility of positive reinforcement. You can try gifting wall clocks/watches (of real value) to those employees who have reported on time (within the policy guidelines of the company) for the whole calendar year.

You will observe that hardly a few employees will win this award. Once this is practiced, you will observe improvement.

The negative reinforcement side is punishment wherein you can deduct leave as per company policy strictly for latecomings, and the rule has to be transparent and applicable to you as well.

Trust this will help you!!

M.V. KANNAN

Listen... Listen... Listen...

There should be a policy called "BAD Apple." If any staff member is coming in late, their name should be posted on the notice board under the heading "BAD APPLE of the month."

Dear Earlystar,

I think you should not be so strict in office premises. You can use business quotas to strike a balance. Put up a notice board in the office and write about bad habits in business quotas. Every day, introduce new quotas and allocate 1 hour to discuss human bad habits. If your employees have self-respect, they will try to arrive earlier. If they fail to do so, write about self-respect quotas. This will make them reflect on their behavior and encourage them to arrive earlier.

Thanks & Regards,

Vaishali Tadvi
vtadvi@yahoo.com

Hi,

I am working for a small back-office company with a total of 125 employees. Please advise me on how to address the issue of late arrivals and absenteeism.

Our current policy allows for three late marks, and upon the fourth late mark, half a day's salary is deducted. However, despite this policy, people still arrive late.

As an HR professional, what actions can I take to manage this situation effectively?

Regards,
Aarti.

Dear Aarti,

Change the policy to the following:
Three late comings = 1 CL. If anybody is late three times in a month, then deduct one Casual Leave. Six times = 2 CL, and so on.

Coming on duty at the time of organization requirement is to be communicated time to time, giving due care to discipline. In-time coming and right-time leaving the work is the sign of a good organization and it is the strength of the company. Thus, no liberty can be given to any one of the employees, whoever he/she may be, and also whatever position he/she may hold in the organization.

Every one of the company employees gets pay for the time of duty attended and work done by him/her. No mercy is shown or taken if done through access control and attendance machine. That's why a large number of instruments are placed at the entry gate so that smoothly free flow attendance is marked.

Similarly, absent employees' data is collected for notifying them. While a policy is framed or as per standing order of the company, attendance machine is instructed.

Thus, there is no hassle in HR process, and a clear-cut policy is to be followed. Keep notifying the latecomers and send it to the management who is the authorized person for appointing and terminating, issuing warnings or notifications as per the power of attorney given by management to do so.

Whatever remarks are done should be communicated to the concerned employee and get his signature done as read and received the warning notice who is asked to reply within 48 hours.

Now you may have many questions that this or that may happen, but be sure you are going to establish the discipline in the organization and keep the record intact and also HR department very live.

Sorry to say the state of affairs of your organization seems very improper.

Binod Kumar

Effective Strategy for Reducing Late Arrivals

The best way that we implemented in our company is to deduct Rs. 100 for every instance of late arrival starting from day 1 of the month. At the end of the month, all the penalty amounts are equally distributed among the top on-time employees. This approach has significantly reduced our instances of late arrivals by almost 80%.

Thank you for sharing this effective strategy!

Importance of Time and Money in Organizations

Time and money are important factors for every organization. A systematic and well-managed company always considers these two things very consciously. Therefore, late coming is not accepted frequently for any designation, level, or grade of employees.

Refer to HR Policy for Guidelines

You should refer to the HR policy in which the rules and regulations of the company must be mentioned. The rule states that if an employee is continuously late for three days, one day's basic salary will be deducted. Accordingly, the system should automatically update the records of latecomers.

Regards