If an employee is continually late for work, as a manager, it is essential that you nip this in the bud as quickly and effectively as possible. As in reality it could cause employees to become more relaxed with other company rules and the quality of work and work ethic could decrease.
A lateness policy allows you to outline the expectations to employees to ensure that all employees, managers and HR are on the same page. The policy should highlight that employees should be ready and prepared to start work as soon as their contracted hours begin. It should also outline what the consequences are for employees who are constantly late and outline the correct procedure for reporting lateness.
Do your employees know that they should be calling their manager beforehand if they are going to be late? If not, ensure the procedure is communicated to all employees or maybe run meetings to go through the procedure and provide an opportunity for questions.
Also making sure you keep a record of employee lateness is a useful tool if you need to formally raise this in the future, keeping records mean you will be able to use them as evidence when you speak to the employee, showing them the facts of their attendance. They may not be aware of how often it has occurred until they are faced with the facts!
Then schedule a meeting with the employee and collate all the information you have regarding the times they were late, when they reported it and the reasons etc. Explain that you want to understand what is causing the issue and find out if there’s something you could help with. Try to understand whether they have any personal problems, medical issues or any other reasons which might be causing them to be late.
Remember to bear in mind any potential issues which could arise through discrimination and any adjustments which could reasonably be made by the company to support the employee and come up with an action plan to try to prevent lateness becoming an on-going issue and inform them of any consequences if the lateness continues.
If you need help with any employee issue big or small, please get in touch, HR Revolution are here to help.
