Lateness Policy Advice

How to deal with lateness

Having the right policies and procedures in place will help to prevent lateness from getting the better of your business. Whether it’s one employee or the entire team, one-off or regular, because of demotivation or personal problems, our common-sense approach will help you to get to the root of the issue, overcome it, and prevent it from recurring.

We understand that, sometimes, not even watertight policies and procedures can iron out every issue though. So, if an employee continues to roll into work late, we’ll take you through a fair disciplinary process – from start to finish.

And if lateness stems from your business’ culture, we’ll help you to pull together effective communication strategies to re-engage demotivated employees.

To get a step closer to making lateness a thing of the past, simply fill in the form below.

What should a lateness policy include?

An effective lateness policy plays a pivotal part in nipping lateness in the bud – which is why it’s so important that it’s clearly communicated, read and understood. Your lateness policy – which will sit within your Employee Handbook – should include information like:

• Your statement reminding employees that they’re expected to turn up to work in sufficient time to begin work at their contracted start time;
• Who employees should report to if they’re going to be late; and
• What action will be taken if employees are frequently late – i.e. your disciplinary procedure.

Not an expert when it comes to handbooks and policies? Not a problem. Our industry-leading experts know them like the back of their hand. To see what we can do for you, get in touch with the team on 0345 844 1111 or hello@citation.co.uk.

Timekeeping at work

To know if an employee’s late, both you and they need to have a clear understanding of what hours they’re expected to work. It’s therefore essential that employees’ working hours are clearly communicated to them from the get-go – usually, this will be included in their contract of employment.

If employees’ working hours regularly change – because they work day and night shifts or various shift patterns, for example – their working hours should be clearly set out within a rota.

The impact of lateness

Whether it’s an alarm that failed to go off, a missed bus or gridlocked traffic, lateness isn’t just a nuisance, it can soon start to affect both you, the employer, and the employee too.

How to reduce lateness

There are a number of steps you can take to reduce lateness within your business, like:

• Ensuring your lateness policy is read and understood by all employees;
• Making sure managers are consistent with their approach and asking employees why they’re late;
• Introducing a clocking-in or signing-in procedure;
• Requiring employees to make up lost time or docking wages for time lost due to lateness; and
• Taking formal (and fair!) disciplinary action when employees are persistently late.

How Atlas can help

As well as the knowledge and experience of our HR consultants and Employment Law consultants, with us, you’ll also benefit from access to our complementary online platform, Atlas.

So, how does this help with managing lateness, we hear you wonder? Well, it allows you to easily log any lateness instances, along with the date, how late they were and the reason behind it.

Then, you can easily download and export reports to help identify any trends, patterns or problem points.