Struggling with Employee Punctuality: What Strategies Have Worked for You?

I am working in a consultancy as a Client Engagement Executive in an HR Generalist role. My responsibilities include managing all HR operations and strategies for our clients.

Concern About Employee Punctuality

My concern is that in our client's organization, most employees arrive late by 10 to 30 minutes. The office in-time is 9:00 AM. We have tried various approaches to address this issue, such as implementing fines for late marks, salary deductions, conducting sessions, sending notice emails, and having one-on-one sessions, but we have not seen any improvements.

Please provide your valuable suggestions as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Regards

Addressing Employee Punctuality Issues

Make the latecomers stay late in the office and call them on Sundays as well (without paying any extra overtime), stating that we are unable to meet the targets due to most employees arriving late.

Give recognition (rewards) to punctual employees, whether financial or non-financial, as this will make a significant difference.

Establish a routine of sending motivational thoughts to all employees daily via SMS. Currently, you can focus on thoughts regarding the "value of time," which can be sourced from the internet.

If the issue persists, begin filtering out good employees and express gratitude to others following the proper procedure.

Dealing with tardiness is very critical in maintaining employee respect. Firstly, ask the employee to meet you in your cabin so that he/she is not uncomfortable or embarrassed. Use a calm tone and ask the employee about his/her tardiness. List a few occasions in which the employee was late. Listen to what the employee has to say; maybe the employee really has some glitch. Ask the employee to overcome tardiness with some solution. If not, you may gently advise the employee that you can provide a solution and implement your thought accordingly. Approach the situation with tenderness and explain to the employee why punctuality is important to your clients. Last but not least, even after a one-on-one, if the employee does not tend to change, issue him/her a final warning letter.

I appreciate the suggestions of Bhawna and Sharmila. What are the reasons employees are mentioning for being late?

Regards,
Parth

If possible, write their names on notice boards on a daily basis, which can be seen by everyone in the organization. As days go by, you may find that the number of latecomers will reduce. Also, maintain your practice of salary deduction.

Cordially,
Mahesh Ayare

Please respond to the queries of Parth & Ukmitra. Also, you mentioned that 'coming late by 10 - 30 mins'. Have you tried giving a grace period for check-in? Where is Salai located? How is the traffic situation at this place—meaning are there frequent traffic jams? Unless you mention the various reasons given by the employees [obviously everyone would have told differently], the efforts of the members would be a case of 'hunting in the dark'.

Regards,
TS

The company is located in Sadashiv Peth and it's an Interior Designing Firm. The total number of employees in the organization is 20, with 70% being females. The attrition rate is high. The company is hiring and firing very frequently, even within the probation period.

During one-on-one sessions, the most common reason for late reporting is that female employees are married and have domestic responsibilities to finish before coming to the office. Male employees don't have any genuine reasons for reporting late.

Moreover, 18 employees have a reporting time from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, while core members (2) have a reporting time from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Despite this flexibility, they are consistently arriving around 10:15 - 10:30 AM every day (Core Members' timing cannot be changed due to the conditions of their employment). Observing this behavior, juniors are also following suit.

Employees are also working late to complete their individual tasks, with the office usually closing at 8:00 PM. There is no grace period given for being late.

Fines or deductions do not seem to affect the employees at all, as the company had previously applied and removed this system before my involvement.

Suggestions for Improvement

I will propose the following suggestions to the company's director:

1. Rewards for Punctual Employees.
2. Displaying the names of latecomers on the notice board.
3. Sending regular messages on the "Value of Time."

Thank you.

Before I give my comments, I must say that the loyalty of staff is there to complete the work, which must be rewarded. Hope you agree. However, there is no compromise on punctuality to maintain the standard of the organization.

1. Introduce a grace period of 15 minutes for all staff with the condition that only 6 grace periods are allowed in a month. After 6 grace periods, late marks will be recorded with a 1/2 day deduction.

2. Change the timing for all staff from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm (8 hours with a 30-minute break for lunch). Lunchtime will be from 1:00 to 1:30 (flexi), but not during peak working hours.

3. Send a clear message to all staff regarding the office timing and obtain an acknowledgment from them as well.

Besides, since your office is in Interior Designing, please understand that it's a creative business, and stringent rules may not work well with creative employees. For creative minds, we need to be flexible but ensure they are loyal to their work and that work does not suffer due to their lack of punctuality. As long as that doesn't happen, just ignore these few cases and implement a flexible and fun working environment.

Also, I did not ask about the average age group of employees and their home location and mode of transportation to the office. Please also take those into consideration while finalizing your decision.

For example: If all staff live within a 1-hour commute by road, you can suggest management provide a company vehicle for pick-up and drop.

Management also needs to be fully aware of the employees' family backgrounds and ensure that the majority of the staff are retained for the long term. The selection of team members should be done with care and mindfulness.

Hope my suggestion makes sense.

Regards,
Ukmitra

Thank you, Ukmitra, for understanding my query so well and for your valuable suggestions. They are very helpful. We cannot change timings because all Interior Designers have to attend a daily meeting with the company's Director at 9:30 AM and with Core Members at 10:15 AM. He is very punctual.

Regards,

Hi Shwetavi, Thanks for your kind words.

Consider Timing Changes

Do try out the timing changes. In my earlier days of working, staff tended to come late as they knew they needed to stay late until 7 PM, and 7 PM is really late. Just have a brainstorm with the MD, and I hope he would understand.

Regards, Ukmitra