7 Ways to Deal with Employee Tardiness
How do you handle employees who consistently arrive late?
If it’s an ongoing problem, how do you best deal with it? In this article, we’ll look at seven ways to handle employee tardiness and propose a few different ways to set expectations and avoid future tardiness. We’ll also provide you with a free template that you can use to create your own form that outlines the specifics of your policy on tardiness. Hopefully, this will help you to deal with employees who are habitually late while keeping it from happening again!
1) Start Small
It’s important to come up with a set of guidelines that all employees are aware of and must follow. This will help avoid any confusion or tension when an employee tardiness in late or leaves early without advance notice. Start by listing each person’s tardiness status on a scale, then list the possible responses. For example:
5 min late – Verbal warning
10 min late – Written warning
20+ min late – Termination
You can find a free template for creating this guide at our post here
2) Provide Company Benefits That Will Motivate Them to Be On Time
As a business owner, you have the opportunity to make sure your employees have time-sensitive perks that will motivate them to be on time. While setting and maintaining clear company guidelines may seem like enough motivation for your employees, it’s important that you acknowledge their needs as well. Here are seven incentives you can offer in order for your staff members to consistently arrive at work on time:
Offer flexible work hours and telecommuting options Encourage an atmosphere of collaboration and teamwork Offer adequate and accessible transportation options Provide a monthly bonus based on attendance Allow them more take-home time when they come in late Offer more breaks during the day Add some kind of incentive to earn a certain number of points per month by being punctual
3) Offer Constructive Feedback
- Reassure the employee that you are not angry with them and talk through what is going on in their life right now.
- Ask if there is anything you can do to help them do their job better.
- Stay calm and focused, and use phrases like I need your help with this or Can you take care of X?
- Focus on solutions, not the problem
- Try a motivational tactic by telling the person how valuable they are and why it’s so important that they stay on board
- Provide guidance by offering resources like mentorship from another trusted employee
- Encourage the employee to talk about how they’re feeling for two minutes to get things off their chest
4) Hold Regular Meetings
One of the best ways to deal with employee tardiness is by holding regular meetings. By giving employees a forum for feedback and brainstorming new ideas, the burden of management can be shared with everyone in the company, rather than left up to one person. These meetings also force you to check in on how people are doing and what they need from you in order for them to be successful. You’ll not only find out about potential problems before they happen but can plan ahead for opportunities as well.
1) Set a recurring meeting time
2) Share tasks as needed
3) Discuss results
4) Follow up
5) Talk about Their Progress in a Friendly Way
In this blog post, I want to talk about how you can deal with employee tardiness in a positive way. One way is to take the time and make the effort. Many employees struggle with their personal lives, things that are beyond their control like illness or family problems. You can go a step further by taking the time for empathy and understanding of the situation your employees may be going through. Express concern and ask how they’re doing. Expressing genuine concern has been proven to decrease workplace stress among workers.
In addition, you should provide feedback on the job performance (or how well they’re meeting expectations) to help ensure success in both areas. Make sure that it’s specific feedback so they know what areas need improvement and where they’re excelling at work as well as in life. For example: When I looked at your file from last week, I noticed that there were a few cases where you missed deadlines.
6) Show Appreciation for Efforts and Performance
It is essential for employers to let their employees know that they are appreciated for their efforts and performance. If a company has done everything it can, short of firing the employee, then it is important for the employer to commend their employees in order to keep morale high. Here are some suggestions on how to deal with tardy employees:
-Complement each employee’s contributions -Acknowledge what they have accomplished that day or week -Ask them if anything is bothering them that day and see if they want advice -Offer flexible work hours (for morning, afternoon, and evening)
7) Communicate Effectively
Be sure that you have set clear and consistent guidelines for the team in the event of tardiness. These might include but are not limited to: what their consequences will be, how they will be alerted of their tardiness, and who they need to speak with.
This is a tough situation and the best thing we can do is to put ourselves in our employee’s shoes; they may be in a difficult time of life and may need some understanding from us. The first step is checking if there’s an underlying problem with why your employee has been late for work on a regular basis.
