Tips For Dealing With Tardy Employees

While its normal to be late for work once in a while, there are some employees who are late for work from time to time. This habit can negatively affect productivity and cause disruption in the workplace. As such, it is good to deal with this habit as early as possible to avoid its negative effects. Here are tips to help you deal with tardy employees.

Talk To a Tardy Employee in Private
Talk to a tardy employee in private to know why he or she comes late to work. While doing so, you should aim for a solution rather than a confrontation. This is due to the fact that there are many reasons why an employee comes late. It could be things going on in the employees life or perhaps the employee may not even be aware that he or she is habitually late. Let the employee talk about his or her lateness and inform him or her that you are worried about this.

Look For a Solution
Ask tardy employees to tell you what they can do to stop coming late to work. For instance, an employee can choose to stay late to make up the lost time. If possible, you can even adjust a tardy employees working hours to meet his or her needs. If the problem is a temporary one, such as a street closure, tell the employee to consider speedier alternatives or show some flexibility in his or her work schedule.

The best thing about letting tardy employees come up with solutions is that it enables you to find the best solution to the problem as a tardy employee understands himself or herself better than you do. This is way better than telling the employee what he or she should do without allowing him or her to contribute.

Take Punitive Action
If the tardy employee does not change his or her habit even after talking to him or her, consider punitive action. When you decide to do this, ensure that you follow your offices official policy on dealing with employee tardiness. Punitive action may include writing a warning letter to a tardy employee, docking pay and firing the employee. However, while taking punitive action, ensure that you do not expose your organization to any discriminatory or legal action.

Dealing with tardy employees as early as possible is very important to an organization. However, you should ensure that you lead by example so that you dont give others a reason to criticize you.