Structure for resolving “Employee working late” situation is excellent

It has a significant impact on the organization when employees are frequently late for any reason. Most companies do not sympathize with employees who are often late for any reason. We invite you to join BEMO to dig deeper into the problem of employee tardiness, as well as discover “great tricks” to help improve this situation.

1. Employee’s “chronic” reason for tardiness

There are many reasons employees are late to use as excuses to avoid affecting their personal interests, but if the delay becomes “chronic”, all reasons are lies. The root cause is due to:

Don’t know how to manage time – There are usually two cases, one is that the employee doesn’t know how to calculate the time, or they do it on purpose. Employees are required to manage the travel time from home to the company, and problems may arise during that time, such as a breakdown or running out of gas. According to one study, those who were always on time watched 1 minute as 58 seconds, while those who were late watched it as 77 seconds. Time is not valued by them or the organization.

• Lack of responsibility – Employees who are chronically late are often irresponsible at work, as well as irresponsible for their own lives. Living in an environment where being late is ingrained in their subconscious may influence this. Rather than repeating the same mistake, a responsible employee will seek to correct the first mistake.
• Management does not set an example – When management is late, employees think that they can too, forming a habit that is difficult to correct in the organization. As a result, their superiors are not complying with regulations, so their mistakes cannot be punished. Employees’ ability to implement company policies is greatly influenced by superiors.
• Lack of punctuality culture – Imagine, if a team is late to work, no one will be on time. This creates a mentality for employees “Why must be on time?!”, and gradually promotes tardiness of employees. This responsibility must be attributed to company policy and irresponsible leadership.
• Policy of superficial punishment – ​​Although there is a notification policy that requires employees to be on time, it does not apply to the actual situation. Or sanctioned but the employee is still late, the management level needs to review the proposed policy. Because in the long run, employees will see the company as just “shaking the tree to scare monkeys” and not really improving.

2. Does always being late affect businesses?

Of course, businesses will be affected in many ways when the number of late employees increases, resulting in:

• Low productivity:
  • When an employee is late, it takes up a lot of time for the business and slows down the progress of the project. A lack of time will also reduce the quality of work if they do not make up for the hours they “take up”.
  • Being late also affects the work efficiency of the team, especially when the work items need to be completed so that the following stages are not interrupted. Rather, other people must wait for the late employee to finish their work before continuing. This affects the psychology of teammates, leading to poorer work results.

You may lose potential customers if your employee is late for an appointment with a potential customer, especially if you’re in the service business. Can customers trust your company with important projects if you worsen the brand image?

• Lack of internal cohesion: We must admit that exemplary employees will be annoyed because being late interrupts, interrupts their work flow, or if it affects the quality of their work. the group. In addition, in large enterprises, colleagues in the team have to bear the responsibility when employees are late often such as salary cuts, bonus titles. This is the cause of conflicts among members.
• Influence of corporate culture: “They can do it, I can do it”, lateness will spread and other colleagues can learn that bad habit if there is a lack of discipline. The on-time culture of the business also went downhill because of that.

In addition to causing the long-term management system to break, being late will also make employees undisciplined and irresponsible.

3. Great way for employees to never be late

All departments and leadership levels must take action to correct employee behavior. It can be applied in a variety of ways, from light to heavy, as follows:

• Warning 1-1: When tardiness occurs 1-2 times a week, management should give employees a chance to explain why. Call them individually into the meeting room to talk, and correct the delay. They must flexibly coordinate and divide the work for the absent employee in case the subordinates report being late to the meeting for the direct manager.
• Handling and disciplining: Using documents to deter the behavior of being late too many times a month is very reasonable, because it shows that the company’s regulations are strict, not superficial. The staff also realized that their behavior was at a serious level and needed to be improved. Therefore, businesses should have a smart timekeeping system, as evidence attached to the warning letter, discipline, and employees will comply with the regulations more in the future.
• Downgrade / Fire – The final level of sanction is dismissal. Even if the employee is still unwilling to improve, or the lateness has a large impact on the team, despite previous disciplinary measures. As per the current Labor Code, the company must, however, ensure that it is properly prepared and meets the conditions for disciplinary action.

Meanwhile, the specialized department should develop a policy on rewarding diligence to encourage employees to comply with regulations.

A talent manager today builds a management method that is no longer too formal, rigid, and focuses solely on discipline. Employees will also be less motivated to work if their goals are vague or their career paths are unclear. Besides applying different forms of discipline, managers should also pay attention to the needs and psychology of employees.

You must have also realized that the most disciplined environment is when every employee is self-disciplined. So how to create motivation and how to apply discipline effectively? Please continue to follow BEMO for more updates.