How Should HR Handle an Employee Who Arrives Late Due to Working Late?

Hi, I am an HR professional at an IT company. I have a question. One of our employees consistently arrives late to the office. He claims that if he leaves the office late, he will inevitably arrive late the next day.

No one can accept being late because they worked late hours the previous day. It is the responsibility of the employee to complete their work on a daily basis. Therefore, it is not correct to accept that reason. You can implement a late-coming policy for your company.

Sample Policy

Late coming is permitted until --- AM. If an employee arrives after --- AM, it would be considered a late arrival, and ---- late arrivals in a month will be considered as a half-day personal leave.

You can implement this policy according to your management's acceptance of the same.

Regards

The suggestion that Vani gave is widely used in most IT companies. Is your company a start-up?

Additional Suggestions for Managing Late Arrivals

Another couple of them in vogue are:

1. An employee can come late if he/she has prior permission from his/her boss for staying late the previous day. This ensures that the boss is aware of it and has some amount of control over the situation since HR wouldn't be tracking the late-comings on a minute-to-minute basis.

2. Implement some sort of incentive/award for those who have absolutely no late-coming record, similar to what we have in some schools, to encourage latecomers to correct themselves.

And finally, if none of your actions, including any rebukes, work, maybe you need to be tough on him, at least to ensure he doesn't become a wrong example to others later.

Regards,
TS

Thank you for your response. Our company is in the mid-phase, and I appreciate your second suggestion. I am considering implementing that in my company. Thank you very much.

Regards,