Dealing with Frequent Employee Tardiness: How Do You Handle It When It Becomes a Habit?

If you have ever had an employee arrive late for work, you are certainly not alone. While there is a multitude of reasons why someone might experience an unforeseen delay, the professional expectation is that it does not become habitual.

So what do you do when absenteeism becomes a frequent issue with one of your employees?

Clarifying the Difference Between Being Late and Being Absent

There is a difference between being late and being absent. Both are distinct concepts. It seems that there may be some confusion between the two. Please clarify this distinction.

Discussion on Tardiness and Absenteeism

A lot of discussions have taken place on this forum regarding tardiness and absenteeism. You may refer to those discussions.

Questions About Your Business Operations

Could you provide information about the nature of your business? How many employees are employed in your office? Does tardiness affect customer satisfaction or other office operations? Is there any possibility of flexible working hours? Have you conducted an analysis of tardiness? How many employees are consistently late? What is the situation with managers? Do they adhere to disciplinary guidelines or do they also struggle with tardiness? How about the head of the office? Is the punctuality of the senior-most individual maintained?

Please address the above questions.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Look into the conduct of the management for answers. What is the administration doing all along when employees are consistently arriving late until it becomes a habit?

B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Law Advisor

Addressing Late Arrival Issues

Addressing this sort of issue is straightforward:

- Analyze late arrivals.
- Evaluate their performance.
- Discuss with the concerned individuals their reasons for being late, and see if there are any alternatives you can suggest to them.
- Develop a policy on late arrivals: for example, allow a grace period, and after a certain time limit, mark them as late. Three late marks could contribute to half a day (which is then considered as Leave Without Pay, even if there is a leave balance). From the fourth late mark onwards, it could be 1/4th, and so on. The level of leniency or strictness on this matter depends entirely on you.

Lastly, if the nature of your business prioritizes performance over completing a certain number of hours, then focus solely on that and offer the option of flexible hours. If issues persist, framing policies and their enforcement are always at the discretion of senior management and HR.

Hello Dinesh Divekar,

This looks more like an academic query than any reference to a real-time situation. The opening line itself 'seems' to be a giveaway.

@PREHR-- Picking from your own posting/query 'While there is a multitude of reasons...', there are several reasons for such a situation, and it's plain elementary that the background of the query is given while asking for comments from the members of this Forum.

Rgds, TS