How Do You Handle Employees Who Are Frequently Late or Leave Early? Seeking HR Advice

Managing Employee Punctuality

How can we control employees who are late or leave early from work? What actions can be taken against these employees who report late to the office? What precautions should be taken to avoid this as an HR person?

Please reply as soon as possible.

Regards,
Rajendra

Grace Period Policy for Employee Attendance

Allow a grace period of 10-15 minutes daily. If employees exceed the grace period, treat those late or early hours as Casual Leave (CL) or Loss of Pay (LOP). Without stern action, you can correct the erring employees.

Regards,

You can allow four late arrivals per month. If anyone exceeds this number, you must deduct half a day of leave from their balance. For anyone requesting a one-hour permission, deduct half a day of leave immediately.

Thank you.

Regards,

Actually, we have all these policies, but some employees, in particular, don't come on time. I also deduct their salaries, but every month this doesn't feel good for me. How should I encourage them to come on time?

Regards,
Rajendra V

If there is a particular employee, then I think you and the employee's HOD should personally talk to the person and ask for the reason behind the same. Normally, people provide reasons like commuting from a far-off place or traffic. So, politely convince them that office policies should be respected, and a healthy decorum adds to a good working environment. If after this, too, the situation is out of control, then take action like the issuance of a warning letter.

Hope that helps. If not, then update us on what happened.

This is a very widespread problem everywhere. People are ready to get their leave adjusted and to have their salary deducted, but they never abide by the office hours. You should install a biometric attendance system and keep a tab on the actual behavior of the latecomers and early goers.

The usual adjustment of leave and deduction from the salary may also be made as usual. However, the punctual employees may be rewarded. The stubborn ones may be punished further by stopping the annual increase or letting them go.

If the issue of employees arriving late is not a significant problem for some, the real issue arises when habitual tardiness becomes ingrained in the company culture. Changing company culture is a challenging task. The primary culprits for such negative cultures are the leaders. Leaders play a crucial role in shaping and maintaining the organizational culture. If they fail to set a good example and do not consistently apply HR policies, it can lead to a culture of leniency towards lateness and other undesirable behaviors.

Another critical aspect is the need for strong HR policies to address and rectify these behaviors effectively. HR should have well-defined procedures in place to manage and discourage tardiness and other behaviors that can undermine productivity and discipline in the workplace. By enforcing these policies consistently and fairly, organizations can foster a culture of accountability and punctuality among their employees.

Dear All,

The suggestion given by one colleague to give a grace period of 10-15 minutes will be a disaster because you are legitimizing late coming. Please think of the aftereffects. 15 minutes × 26 days = 390 minutes / 60 minutes = 6.5 man-hours per person per month. Assuming you have 100 employees, it will be 650 man-hours per person per month. In short, you will be paying for 81 man-days for late coming every month (650 / 8 man-hours = 81.25 man-days). On top of it, you are indirectly encouraging other employees who are regular to follow suit.

Late coming, as said by many colleagues, is a habit. Not all employees tend to come late, but some habitually do so. So, it is important for us to correct the system. Here are a few tips (although they may be quite painful, they are effective in curbing late coming):

1. Fix a grace period, say a maximum of 10 minutes per employee per month or 3 times maximum late comings. If the 10 minutes are used up in one shot, it means that the employee can't report late for work any further. Similarly, if an employee has reported late for work three times, even if the time used up is only 6 minutes, they can't report late for work any further.

2. Notify every day the number of late comings and the employee numbers (not the names) near the swiping machine. Update it daily.

3. Notify all employees on the notice board regarding the leave policy. Also, communicate orally that for late comings beyond the permitted hours, 1/2 day EL will be deducted from the employee's leave account. When EL is deducted, the employee loses the chance of encashing it. Execute what you have announced on the notice board and orally.

4. For the first year, give an award on an annual day to the employee who has reported to work always on time. Also, honor the spouse for facilitating this. The value of the award must be substantial. Make this a surprise award; you will find that there will be a real turnaround in the process.

5. One word of caution: please inform new entrants about the company policy on late coming. Let them not be surprised; otherwise, they may quit if they are unaware of your company policy.

6. One more rider: on a given day when you observe that it was raining heavily or there was indeed a genuine traffic snarl leading to your office, be gracious by not marking late coming for that day. But remember, exceptions are not examples.

Regards,
M.V.KANNAN

Late Arrival Policies in the Workplace

In my office, HR implemented a policy of deducting one day's leave if an employee is late three times in a month. In some other offices, late arrival results in half a day's leave being deducted. You may choose a strict or more lenient policy based on the existing environment.

Regards,
Moin

Please reconsider your concepts; nowadays, the world is transitioning towards remote work.

Implementing a Thumb Fingerprint Scanner

As a better solution, consider implementing a thumb fingerprint scanner for clocking in and out. Moreover, ensure that the minimum number of working hours per week is met; otherwise, a deduction will be made from the salary for each day missed.

To overcome this problem in our organization, we have installed an attendance system. Apart from this, we have introduced a grace period system for the employees, i.e., a 10-minute allowance for coming in late or leaving early. This 10-minute grace period is allowed only on three occasions per month. If it exceeds this limit, then a half-day's leave will be deducted for every three instances. The deduction can be made from either the earned leave or the salary.

Genuine employees will surely take note of this and comply, but there are habitual employees who will always complain that they are being punished through salary deductions or leave deductions. To streamline the system and maintain discipline, we have issued warning letters to them, with copies marked to their Head of Department. They are asked to reply within a stipulated time and provide an assurance that this behavior will not be repeated. As HR professionals, we must cultivate a culture of discipline; otherwise, all employees may start taking undue advantage of the system.

Thanks,

Priti

Hi All, I agree with implementing the scanner and automatic capturing of in and out times. Additionally, I suggest sending a daily email each morning to all employees in the office, including their in and out times, and highlighting those who are not adhering to the schedule. Trust me, no one wants to be out of adherence in front of their colleagues or boss.

Regards, Amit S Rajdev

Our company does not have any policy, but our new HR is insisting only on time. All the staff are very good at work, and only a year ago, we underwent restructuring, so only a handful of people already feel demotivated. This new HR does not understand all this but would like to prove himself. We do not agree with this, as there is no HR policy in the company, and we are demanding the HR policy before implementing such rules. Though we appreciate that office decorum needs to be maintained, isn't it necessary that we are also respected?

Please advise.

Don't worry about that. A simple solution is to have a clock timer. Tell your employees to punch in and out and calculate the salary on a time basis, not a day basis. Employees will not like to have deductions from their monthly salary and will eventually start coming on time. You will not have to worry about them coming late because you will not have to pay them.

Dear All, I work in a company that serves a variety of clients, and our client office is our workplace. This makes it very difficult to keep track of the timings of employees walking in and out. We have made it mandatory for all employees to email their in-time and out-time to HR, and the responsibility for the genuineness of these timings is placed on the respective Client Head.

I agree to a grace period of 15 minutes, not more than 3 times a month, and from the 4th instance onwards, a half day will be marked. If someone is found misusing these 3 graces, they will receive a stern warning.

As rightly pointed out by someone earlier, clear HR & Admin policies must be in place, outlining the late reporting rules and the consequences of not following them.

Thanks,
Sachin Nagda

Issuing a Warning Letter

Issue a warning letter to the concerned employee, taking your superiors into confidence. Also, enclose the summary sheet of the working hours with that letter.

Regards,
Sumit

In order to control the late coming of employees, two types of measures can be adopted. One is disciplinary, i.e., deduction of leave or other punishment, and the second is motivational, i.e., framing some rewarding/motivational policies which will attract employees to follow office timings, like paying a special reward to punctual employees by way of cash or certificate but announcing it in a staff meeting. If possible, frame a monthly allowance policy, e.g., those employees who will have full-month attendance will get a special allowance of Rs. 100/- (or a suitable amount) in their salary, etc.

I feel once the disciplinary side has failed, then you should go for the motivational side to resolve this problem.

Regards,
HARISH

I suggest changing the schedule of the employee. If the employee works from 7:00 to 4:00 and often comes in late, change their schedule to 7:30 to 4:30. Often, they don't like this very much because they don't want to finish later due to outside factors (family responsibilities, social life, commute, etc.). Then they have a choice: either respect their original schedule or be imposed a new one.

Also, I had this problem at some point and asked the employee to give me a detailed, written explanation when she was late, plus she had to call in advance to advise us. Problem solved! It was less trouble for her to come in on time than to go through all this.

Good luck!

Regards,
Renee L.

Every company has its own policy on late arrivals. You should create a policy after discussing it with your management. Provide all employees with a grace period of 10 to 15 minutes daily, and then offer 3 to 4 short leaves of 60 to 90 minutes per month. If an employee continues to arrive late, deduct half a day's salary for the day they were late.

Regards,
Naveen Kumar Sharma

Steps to Improve Employee Punctuality

1. Prepare an HR Policy.
2. Fix the Time Attendance Software.
3. Allow a grace period of only 10 or 15 minutes, permitted twice a month.
4. Issue a warning letter to employees arriving late. If they continue to arrive late without prior permission, deduct their salaries.
5. Issue a charge sheet.

Regards,
Jaya Simha Chowdary

By implementing flexible working hours, we can address this issue. Employees are required to work 8 hours per day. Their work time will commence upon their arrival at the office and will be calculated accordingly. For instance, if an employee reaches the office at 8:30 am instead of 8:00 am, they are expected to work until 5:30 pm. I have allocated one hour for lunch break.

Regards,
Manoj Nair

It is so sad to note that the younger generation has no time consciousness. I doubt whether there is a measure for their productivity. I worked for a Public Sector Undertaking with American Collaboration, and the office hours were between 8 AM and 4:45 PM, 5 days a week. It will be interesting to note that almost all employees would be on time, and some would even arrive early. The employees had a sense of ownership. Similarly, all had to leave the office on time. If we stayed late, there would be a remark in the performance appraisal: "not planned well to complete the work on time." Working late was considered a disgrace. The employees also had more time to spend with their families. (On Sunday morning, the child should not ask, "Who is this Uncle?") There should be a revival in work culture.

Need to first understand the dynamics of business and the impact of late coming on the same. For example, if it is a software company and an employee comes late but still delivers the project, it should be fine. If it is a factory environment, we need to have an efficient time office system and define the process of attendance clearly. We need to sit with the business and understand the loss that is going to incur, and take action accordingly.

In any case, the nature of the job and its impact on the business will determine the importance of punctuality. As HR professionals, we need to follow the spirit of the rule, set the process and system, and ensure the business implements the same.

Regards,
Subbarao

"Use 'Early In and Late Out' policy. You come early before everyone and start marking their attendance daily, and also their out times the next day first thing in the mornings. Looking at the data sheet, you can take it up with the concerned reporting supervisor or someone superior in the office. If favoritism exists predominantly wherein a few are ignored, then it will be difficult to discipline because employees will give the example of others who come late and are not pulled up. For this, you first need to take the support of all such favorites' reporting supervisors and explain to them the causes and effects of the same, then go ahead with the policies. Remember, attendance handling is a common issue in every organization and has to be dealt with tact, control, and flexibility to get the maximum output while showing justice at the same time.

Regards"

First, you should create a policy for latecomers with the approval of top management, then circulate it within your organization. If employees don't arrive on time, you can take action against them with the help of this policy.

Regards,
Pankaj Sharma

This is a common problem that arises in every industry, but if you want to control this kind of behavior in employees, there are a number of steps or policies that could be implemented to avoid such occurrences, i.e.:

1. Adjust/Deduct one EL/PL for continuous 2 late arrivals.
2. Announce attendance bonuses on a quarterly and yearly basis (based on their presence and hours worked). If a person has more than 98% attendance in a particular quarter, give him/her an X attendance bonus of Rs. 3000. This kind of lucrative offer will encourage employees to reduce absenteeism and tardiness.
3. Track their actual working hours with a minimum requirement and accordingly penalize or make deductions from their payroll.
4. Flexible working hours are also very popular today.

Regards,
Dinesh Negi

Addressing Employee Punctuality Issues

This is an attitude and culture issue. Try to counsel the latecomer. If it does not work, then you may have to resort to disciplinary actions under the Model Standing Orders. Line managers should be made responsible for the same.

Dear Rajendra,

1. As a first step, send the rules and regulations of your company to all employees.
2. Keep an attendance register and mark attendance.
3. Teach them the importance of time and time management.
4. Remind them of their importance in the company. They will then fall in line. Otherwise, contact me for a detailed resolution of this issue.

Regards,
Dr. N.S. Balaji Rao
General Administration (HR)
RGUKT

If any employee comes late daily, go through counseling to try to identify the exact reason for the tardiness. If no results are found through counseling, then stop that employee at the gate, call them into the office, and have a conversation with them in a compassionate manner one or two times. Subsequently, disciplinary action can be taken.

Regards,
Vichitra Kumar
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Please clarify if any organization has formulated a policy stating that if an employee enters the organization after 9:00 am, it will be observed as a half-day, and their first half will not count. I would like to understand what happens if the first half does not count. Does it count as overtime? If it is considered overtime, then overtime should be double his/her gross earnings for that hour. However, it should be shown as a profit for them. Please clarify.

Companies can have a policy regarding reporting for work. They can frame guidelines stating that employees are permitted to report late for work on, let's say, 3 occasions, but the total lateness on these 3 occasions should not exceed 10 minutes combined. Any employee who reports beyond 3 occasions or exceeds 10 minutes will lose half a day of earned leave (EL) for each late reporting instance beyond the allowed grace period.

In short, on days when an employee reports late for work beyond the grace period, they do not lose wages, but their EL is deducted. If the employee has no leave credits, they will lose wages for the first half of the day even if physically present. This means they are deemed to be absent for the first half of the day. Overtime is not applicable in this scenario. If the employee chooses to report for the second half of the day on the days marked with half a day of EL deduction, they may have to be permitted, as they are deemed absent for the first half of the day in any case. However, this tendency to report late may decrease over time as employees realize they are depleting their accumulated EL.

Regards,
M.V. Kannan

Hi sir, thank you for the information. Could you please tell me about these three occasions? Secondly, if he/she reports beyond the grace period, his/her first half will not count. Why would he/she work until the end of the first half if they will not receive wages for that period? Can he/she enter the organization at the beginning of the second half?

Dear Pradeep, I have already answered this query in my earlier reply itself.

"In the event the employee chooses to report for the second half of the day on those days he has been marked 1/2 day EL, he may have to be permitted as he is deemed absent for the first half in any case. However, this will tend to decrease, as over the period the employees start realizing that they are exhausting their EL accumulated."

So, if the employee wishes, he can be permitted to report in the second half of the day. Please have a record of this, and you can compare him with those employees who have reported late for work beyond the grace period and know that they will lose 1/2 day EL; despite this, they still continue to work in the first half of the day. This demonstrates the attitude of people, and certainly, the first person (who reports in the second half) will leave your organization shortly. So, you can prepare yourself well in advance.

Regards,
M.V. KANNAN

"Please find below the corrected version of the text with proper spelling, grammar, and paragraph formatting:

Circulate a letter to all employees regarding condonation application for each late arrival (up to 2 times, up to 1 hour in a month). After two occasions, deduct casual leave/leave from employees' leave account if the employee applies for leave. If an employee does not apply for regular leave, start disciplinary action against all latecomers."

Hi all, I intend to share my organization's practices. Our culture was very lenient a year back, but we took some strict actions as follows:

- Allowed 10 minutes grace time.
- Upon every 3 late comings, we used to deduct one day's salary, meaning on 6 late comings, two days' salary is being deducted.
- We introduced 2 incentives based on regularity & punctuality. This means one day's salary if you are regular the entire month and one day's salary if you are on time (within the grace period).
- One can get their salary reimbursed upon submission of an application by adjusting it against annual or any other leave.

The most effective way that I, being GM Admin & Sales, started coming early, so we have seen positive results. But simultaneously, we lack in some areas, especially in the leave policy, which I believe we should improve in light of your suggestions:

- There is a disadvantage since we don't have a clear policy on deductions for leaves; therefore, one can think to have a day off in case they are late on the 3rd day. How can we address this?
- We did not pay leave encashment as we did not have proper data on leaves.

Please suggest to me what actions we should take now to improve the procedure.

Await expert views.

Regards,
Shazz

I agree with Mr. Kannan. The idea is to educate the employees and not to punish them because belligerency and resultant attrition are the last things you would want in your organization.

Another experiment we did in our company was the introduction of flexi hours (in the US, this is very much the norm, as is working from home). We did this during the Commonwealth Games, where employees could come as early as 08:00 and leave at 16:30 hrs, or come as late as 10:00 and leave at 18:30 hrs (office timings start from 09:30 to 18:00 hrs). Some department bosses raised concerns regarding the availability of all employees at the same time; however, collectively, it was felt that even if the whole office was present together for 6 hours (10:00 to 16:30 hrs), things could go smoothly. Support functions like IT were asked to distribute hours of availability among themselves, ensuring at least one person was available at all times. The program was a hit, so much so that we might as well implement it.

Managing Employee Punctuality

How can we control employees who are late or leave early from work? What actions can be taken against these employees who report late to the office? What precautions should be taken to avoid this as an HR person?

Please give a reply.

Regards,
Vikrant K

Why not have flexible working hours like it is implemented in most MNCs? You can set the number of hours an employee has to work each day, and if they work less than that, you can deduct their salary. Additionally, to implement this, there should be a maximum time limit by which the employee must report for duty.

Please let me know the pros and cons of using such a system.