Battling Constant Tardiness In Your Workforce
Employees are late for work for lots of reasons, and there’s always an excuse. Employees often claim personal problems, forgotten commitments, bad weather or traffic jams as excuses for being late. Unfortunately, if you have chronic tardiness problems, there is probably a bigger issue. Your staff members may not like their jobs very much, they may be burned out or they may simply be unmotivated.
If you find yourself battling with tardiness at work on a regular basis, your organization will need to make some fundamental changes to ensure your staff members are being as productive as they can be. Some of the steps you should take include:
- Identifying the root cause of the problem: Are you asking staff members to do too much? Are employees not feeling excited about their jobs because managers don’t trust them or give them autonomy to figure out the best way to succeed? Talk to staff members – anonymously if necessary – and ask them to give feedback on what problems they are having at work.
- Determining if employees have specific issues: If you have one or two employees who are late all the time, the problem may not be your company but may be issues with those workers. If so, talk with them about the tardiness and come up with a solution. If they’re having trouble getting kids to school on time, could you provide flextime, for example, so they could start a half hour later. Ultimately, if you can find a solution to the problem that works best for everyone, you can keep your staff happy while maximizing productivity.
- Set policies and standards: While being flexible is nice if you can do it, it’s also important for employees to live up to obligations. If your staff is routinely late, this may need to be addressed as a disciplinary issue. You can set guidelines employees must follow and impose consequences if they fail to live up to their obligations.
SmartTalent can help you to find committed, passionate staff members who will show up on time to work and who will do their best for your organization. To find out how our staffing professionals can help you to build a great team in Kirkland, Fife, Renton, Lacey, Lynnwood, Everett and surrounding areas, give us a call today.
