Late for Work … Again

Cal, what would you do if you have an employee who is consistently running late and always has an excuse as to why? The employee has no leave accumulated.

People being late for work is one of the greatest problems facing supervisors today. There is a two-part answer to this question.

First of all, over 70% of employees are not engaged in their work. In fact, studies are showing that 30% of those are actively disengaged. With this number of employees not engaged in their work, it’s no wonder they are late – because they probably don’t want to be there in the first place. So the first step toward solving the problem of being late for work is for your organization to ensure that the employee is gainfully active with a clear job description and knowing exactly what to do and how to do it. Not only that, management should ensure that the employee is adequately compensated and rewarded for a job well done. In other words, the employee should be highly motivated to come to work in the first place.

Once that is done, then the second part of the answer to that question kicks in. When the employee is late, that is a behavior problem. However, you should not focus on the behavior but rather turn to the results of that behavior. For example, if one employee is late and another employee has to work overtime to take up the slack, another employee having to work overtime is the result of one employee being late. This gives you something to work with when talking with the employee. As supervisor, you should have a discussion with your employee, state that the results of the behavior will not be tolerated, and ask your employee to identify the reason for being late and what steps the employee will take to solve this problem.

You stand a much better chance of solving the problem if the employee identifies the solution. Employees who have the opportunity to identify the solution are more likely to make the solution successful.