Dealing with Poor Time Keeping

It is up to each business unit to define its own rules and procedures in respect of timekeeping. Much will depend on the nature of the work, whether or not employees work to a defined shift pattern, any special safety implications and the impact of lateness on the work of the department and morale.

Rules and procedures should be communicated to all staff, along with the penalties for lateness.

Rules on timekeeping

Our employees’ written statement of terms and conditions include details of any disciplinary procedure applicable to them, or reference to a document specifying this.

Disciplinary rules are useful because they set standards and make it clear to employees what conduct is and is not acceptable.

Procedure when timekeeping unsatisfactory

Disciplinary procedures permit managers to deal fairly and consistently with employees who breach the rules. Our disciplinary procedures are based on a hierarchy of stages. Stage one is typically an informal warning, stage two a first written warning, and stage three a final written warning. If, following a series of warnings, there has been no improvement, or insufficient improvement, dismissal for misconduct may be fair.

Dos and don’ts

• Do make sure that you are familiar with, and fully understand, the organisation’s disciplinary rules and procedures, including any on timekeeping.
• Do ensure that your staff understand the penalties that will be applicable in the event of unsatisfactory timekeeping.
• Do communicate to all staff the importance of reliable timekeeping, and the impact of lateness on other members of staff and the work of the department.
• Don’t underestimate the importance of regular communication about timekeeping rules and disciplinary procedures.
• Don’t jump automatically to the conclusion that an employee’s regular lateness is a disciplinary matter.
• Don’t apply the rules inconsistently.

Monitoring

Where an employee has been turning up to work late regularly, you may wish to monitor the employee’s timekeeping over the coming weeks or months. You might note whether or not the employee arrives at work on time, or require the employee to report into  you or another senior person on arrival at work each day. If the employer has a clock-card or swipe-card system in place, you may be able to use this technology to review the employee’s start times.

Monitoring should be done only with the employee’s knowledge as, technically, it represents an intrusion into the employee’s private life and has human rights implications. It also has data protection implications where the data is recorded. You should not therefore be tempted to carry out covert monitoring. The main aim of any monitoring should be to strike a reasonable balance between the need to monitor as judged against the employee’s rights.

Informal approach to tackling unsatisfactory timekeeping

As a first step to tackling unsatisfactory timekeeping, you should hold an informal meeting with the employee to make him or her aware of the problem.

The aims of the meeting will be to:

• ensure that the employee understands why his or her timekeeping is unacceptable; and
  seek agreement on making sure that the lateness does not continue.
• Despite the informality of the discussion, you should set a date to review the employee’s timekeeping, and keep a record of the meeting. The record should show the date and time of the meeting, state briefly what was discussed and record the fact that there was no formal outcome.

Holding a discussion with the employee

Conducting a meeting with an employee to discuss unsatisfactory timekeeping is not an easy task, and it is understandable you may have doubts and worries over such a meeting. Open, honest and unambiguous communication will be essential if the meeting is to succeed.

You should:

• present the employee with a record of the occasions on which he or she has been late, stating precise dates and the extent of the lateness on each occasion;
• avoid expressing personal opinions about the employee’s timekeeping, and stick instead to the facts;
• avoid vague statements and generalisations such as “you never get to work on time”;
• ask open questions, i.e. those beginning with “what”, “which”, “why”, “how”, “where”, “when” and “who”, rather than closed questions inviting only a “yes” or “no” answer; listen actively to what the employee has to say in response and take it on board;
• use a tone of voice that is firm but not accusatory;
• avoid emotional reactions, e.g. annoyance or impatience;
• try to establish if there is any underlying reason for the employee’s persistent lateness;
• ask if there is anything in the workplace that is causing or contributing to the lateness problem (and, if so, take prompt steps to remove or reduce the factor that is causing the problem);
• seek the employee’s agreement that his or her timekeeping is unacceptable;
• ask the employee if he or she is willing to try to improve; and check for understanding, for example by asking the employee to summarise his or her understanding of what has been discussed and agreed.

If you have identified a particular pattern to the employee’s lateness, for example frequent lateness on Monday mornings, it will be appropriate to put this observation to the employee. This should be done factually and in a non-accusatory manner. For example, you could say: “I have noticed that eight out of the 10 occasions of lateness in the last two months have been on Monday mornings. What do you think the reason for that is?”

At the end of the meeting, you should ask if the employee considers that he or she has been given a full opportunity to explain the reasons for the poor timekeeping and that the meeting has been conducted fairly.

If the answer to either of these questions is “no”, you should ask the employee to state why he or she thinks that this is the case, and take immediate steps before the meeting closes to put things right. If the answer to the questions is “yes”, this should be recorded. This will be particularly important if there is a subsequent need to move to formal procedures to deal with continued unsatisfactory timekeeping.

Formal procedures

If one, or possibly two, informal warnings have not produced an improvement in the employee’s timekeeping, there will be little point in continuing with informal action. You will need to move to formal disciplinary action.

Deductions from pay

You may wish to deduct money from employees’ pay on account of lateness, this arrangement should be agreed in writing in advance. Further advise before stopping pay should be sort from the HR Team.