How Can I Encourage Employees to Meet Work Hours Without Salary Deductions? Seeking Advice

I am here with a speculation, with a thought of bringing attendance discipline in employees linking up with Compensation. You must be thinking I am like a school teacher, speaking about discipline and punishments in return, but which is necessary for perfection. The reason being, we have a company policy of 09:30 work hours with an 8-hour productive time. Employees are responsible for their respective productive hours at the end of the month according to the number of work hours, and the salary will get deducted according to the number of lacking hours.

Till here, it may sound fine, but the employees are not putting up the required hours at the end of the month and in return getting deductions of salary. But my actual concern of the deduction policy is just to ensure 100% contribution from a resource at the end of the month in order to ensure the promised deliverable to the clients and to be fair from all sides.

But the actual problem is coming here. Even after this policy, employees are not serious about the hours, and the same deductions are happening every month, which is not ensuring my thought process. So, I wanted to find some other ways to ensure 100% contribution from employees.

Linking Attendance with CTC

So, I am planning to link the attendance with CTC, which resembles as follows:

- If the employee is not putting the required hours for the month, he will get deductions according to the lack of hours and will get a notice stating that he has to be perfect at his productive hours next month. If not, the employee's payroll will process with a 10% less of Promised CTC.

- If it repeats again in the third month, again 10% less in the CTC. But if he makes his logged hours perfect, the payroll will process according to the normal promised CTC.

Hope you understood my thought process, which may sound unfair, but people will not consider the communication until it directly affects the pocket.

PS: I am an 8-month experienced HR professional, currently working with an IT company and learning practices with no mentoring or any supervisor. Please help me out with the above said issue with Critics/Positives and do provide your guidance with Possible and acceptable practices, where I wanted to establish a win-win situation.

Thanks and Regards,

Aisha.K

Human Resources

You are thinking about discipline, which is okay. However, as you are in the HR department, you also need to consider the employee's perspective. Take into consideration the following points:

1. Deducting 10% of the CTC is not a small thing. This might cause dissatisfaction among your employees and may result in a high attrition rate in the near future. You need to study other companies' policies and procedures for the same. It should not become one of the reasons for leaving the organization. As an HR professional, you are also responsible for the retention of employees.

2. You might find it easy to administer now, but just think, every month you have to calculate and review every employee's work duration. Have you planned how you will carry out these activities every month?

3. You can identify those who are regularly undisciplined and take corrective action against them. This kind of policy may also affect genuine employees. Any organization would not want to lose their honest and sincere employees.

Ultimately,

4. What is your ultimate goal: completion of the job or just attendance at the workplace without any productive work? Find out if there are any other possible ways to achieve that. For example, instead of demotivating employees with this policy, you can announce a reward or award for the most disciplined employee on a periodic basis. This will motivate all employees.

Every problem can be handled in both ways. In a humorous way, I can say, "It's not necessary that 'jab ghee sidhe ungaly se na nikle to ungaly tedhi karo.' You can also try turning the box upside down."

This is just a thought. I hope it may be useful for you.

I am really happy that I have finally received a reply to my posting, marking the first one in the past year. Your words are truly appreciated, and the point you made in the end is very true. Thank you for the prompt response.

Ensuring Zero Loss of Productivity

Is there any other way we can ensure zero loss of productivity? If employees utilize their time more effectively for other tasks, they may be able to double their productivity. Please share your views.

Have a good day.

Thanks,
Aisha K.
Human Resources

It sounds interesting that CTC would be deducted if attendance discipline is not followed. However, for productivity to improve and even attendance discipline, HR should talk to employees as and when required. Let employees enjoy their work; automatically, productivity would increase.