Struggling with Employee Tardiness and Swipe Compliance? How Do You Handle It?

Hi all, I am working in a small-sized IT company with 50 employees. Our management is somewhat micromanaging. Our standard working hours are 12 PM IST - 9 PM IST, and we have given a 30-minute grace period, i.e., they should be in the office by 12:30 PM. However, most of the employees regularly arrive by 12:45 or 1:00. We have an internal cafeteria where the employees have their lunch. Can anyone suggest how to reduce tardiness, as most employees are not swiping when taking breaks?

Addressing Tardiness and Swipe Compliance

My main concern is to address tardiness and ensure that every employee swipes when taking breaks. When I refer to the Factories Act, it only mentions the standard number of working hours, which is 9 hours.

Regards

Hi Sriram, I have a solution for latecomers, but for employee breaks, I will suggest a feasible solution shortly. As a part of the company's HR policy, you can add a clause to limit/restrict the number of times an employee can use the grace period in a month. For example, employees may be allowed to use the grace period (till 12:30 PM) 2 or 3 times in a month. If this limit is exceeded, management reserves the right to consider it as half-day leave, and LOP (Loss of Pay) will be deducted as a penalty.

Please circulate this information to all your employees. This measure would help them be punctual. Implement it and let me know how it works.

Thank you.

Dear Nirupa,

Thank you for your quick response. We have already circulated this information, but they are still not coming in on time. Even though we are considering their late arrivals three times as a half-day leave or loss of pay, more than 70% of the employees are consistently arriving late.

If it were just one or two employees, we would counsel them. However, the issue seems to be widespread among the majority of the team.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best regards

Understanding the Applicable Laws

First, as you are an IT company, the Factories Act does not apply. Instead, check the Shop and Establishment Act of your state. Since you have 50 employees, standing orders apply (unless specifically removed, as in Karnataka). Since this is a widespread issue, you need to be careful.

Addressing Tardiness

One way is to have your director send out a warning to everyone that starting this week, anyone not arriving on time will lose half a day's pay. However, be prepared for potential rebellion. If a significant number of people simply walk off, what will you do? Instead, your directors can begin by addressing individuals. Start with managers, then move on to team leaders, and finally, address the juniors who are consistently late.

Once tardiness is addressed, you can then consider adjusting break timings.

Issue a written warning to 2 or 3 senior-level employees. If the late marks continue even after issuing a warning, take strict action like LWP for the day. This will set an example for all the employees.

Keep fixed working hours. Let's say the working hours are from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The grace period allowed should be 15 minutes only. A 30-minute grace period will lead to such situations.

Allocate 30 minutes for a lunch break and 15 minutes for a tea break or any other break you provide to employees.

Since many employees are consistently arriving late, changes in policy may lead to a rebellious outcome. However, to resolve the issue once and for all, you have to implement strict rules.

Flexible Approach to Address Tardiness

Considering the same, you can adopt a more flexible approach as follows:

1. Revise the office timings from 12:30 to 9:30.

2. Allow a grace period of 15 minutes three times a month. More than that will result in half-day or full-day leave deductions.

3. Employees arriving late must adjust their timings with their breaks. For example, if an employee is 35 minutes late, they should deduct the same amount from their break times.

4. Withhold half of the salary of employees who fail to swipe or punch their timings.

Do not take it lightly if employees do not adhere to the company's rules and regulations. It will impact the organizational culture in the long run.

Addressing Late Arrival in the Workplace

Late coming is a perennial issue faced by numerous organizations in the public, private, or NGO sectors. Hence, it has to be handled with the utmost care. Just framing rules will not solve the issue once and for all. While a system to handle such issues should be put in place, it has to be evolved in due consultation/involvement with the staff concerned. Also, positive reinforcements such as rewards for "NIL LATE," "FULL ATTENDANCE," etc., should be constituted. Have a brainstorming session with the staff and then take appropriate decisions.

Thanks

Addressing Late Coming in the Workplace

Late coming is a universal problem in HR. Apart from the suggestions given by our HR friends, I did one more thing. I changed the timing, reduced, and limited the grace period. I also started sending a daily attendance email to my HR head, keeping everyone else in CC.

This way, now everybody knows who all are regular latecomers. This has reduced the episodes of late coming drastically. Now, everyone follows the timings and feels proud when their names don't appear in the daily attendance email.

You can also try this if possible.

Regards,
Supriya

Learned members have given actionable suggestions. This late coming and early departure is indicative of poor working culture. The matter should be discussed with top brass for corrective steps, incentives like Sodexo coupons, etc.

Addressing Regular Late Coming in the Workplace

Regular late coming is not acceptable by any company. There are many solutions to this problem, some of them are mentioned below:

1. Verbally talk to those employees regarding their late coming issue.
2. Send an email to their department head.
3. Implement a Late Coming and Early Leaving policy for the company. This policy can state that if an employee is late more than 3 or 4 times in a month, their half-day or full-day salary will be deducted, or there will be deductions from their leave balance. Additionally, emphasize that habitual late coming and early leaving will impact promotions and increments.

Regards,
Sanchi

Thank you all for your suggestions, and I will definitely look into your valuable advice. Although this is a common problem, it will be indicative of a poor working culture, as Nathroa mentioned.

Surprising to know that employees are fine with LOP but are not willing to report on time. I can sense two things:

1) I strongly feel salary/money is not driving them to work.

2) It looks like the relationship between employer and employee is not strong enough.

What do you think? What's your observation?

Seventy percent is not a good number. Should steps have been taken at the initial level? But I appreciate that you have considered this a serious issue affecting organizational culture.

Now, what's next?

1) Is it possible to find out when it all started and how it was followed? Because there should be someone who has triggered this action. Counsel him or fire him.

2) Talk to each employee if possible, or you can talk to ten employees and understand what makes them late. Make sure this is not a counseling session. You can mention that you are working on creating a good work environment and would appreciate their time.

Questions to Consider

- How efficiently are they balancing work life and personal life?
- What drives them to work? Salary (ruled out), challenges, reporting manager, perks, incentives, rewards, career, etc.
- Could they think of their best day at the workplace?
- What are their expectations from the company? I know the list could be long, but it can be worked out to fulfill some.
- How would they like to contribute to the growth of the organization?
- etc.

I have a question for you... How do you engage with your employees?

Suggestions to Reduce Tardiness and Improve Swipe Compliance

Try the following:

1. Your swiping machine should automatically close 15 minutes after the scheduled reporting time. If someone is late by more than 15 minutes, they should seek approval from their Head of Department on a separate form. HR, using their password, should allow the individual to swipe.

2. Close the cafeteria service five minutes before the end of lunchtime. After lunch hours, the cafeteria doors should be closed immediately.

3. Unless there are four entries in the swiping machine - IN and OUT for both entry and exit, and during the lunch break - do not consider the employee as present. Implementing such strict measures will help establish discipline. You will require the support of your Managing Director to enforce these measures.

Regards,
Satish Akut

Implementing a Sent Home Policy

Creating a sent home policy can be quite effective, as it demonstrates how serious you are about enforcing company policies.

Grace Period, Tardiness & Sent Home

Please be informed of the meaning and differences of the following:

• Grace Period
An amount of extra time given to someone to come to work but still considered late (e.g., 8:15 – 8:25; the time between 8:15 to 8:25 is the grace period).

• Tardiness
Delayed beyond the expected, proper time or schedule of work (e.g., 8:15 – 8:25; the time between 8:15 to 8:25 is considered late).

• Sent Home
A process to send home those who arrive after the given grace period (e.g., those who arrive after 8:25 AM).

These are existing policies that need to be republished by the Human Resource Department for everyone’s awareness. Employees who exceed these limits will receive a corresponding memo for negligence regarding attendance.

Regards