Getting Your Employees to Work on Time is Your Responsibility

Getting Your Employees to Work on Time is Your Responsibility

You hate the excuses, right?

Traffic was bad. 

I had to wait in line a little longer than I expected for my coffee.

My alarm clock didn’t go off in time.

Once in awhile, these excuses are valid. But when employee lateness starts becoming a habit, it’s time for a change – and the responsibility is yours.

Employee lateness is costly for your business. The lost productivity equates to actual dollars and cents that are being stolen from your company’s pocketbook. With your business taking a direct hit, the responsibility for your employees to get to work on time becomes yours.

How to Get Your Team to Work on Time

It might be a little bit intrusive and exhausting for you to set your employee’s alarm clocks or pick them up for work to make sure they arrive on time. So what can you do to get your employees in the door on time? Here are a few ideas:

Get the Schedule Out Faster

Your employees have a life outside of work. The more notice you give to let them plan their non-work activities, the more likely they are to arrive on time for work.

For example, if you schedule an employee for an evening shift with minimal notice, you might force him to have to leave his child’s birthday party a little earlier than planned. By making the schedule a few weeks out using employee scheduling software, you can help your employee’s family plan accordingly so that he can balance both his work responsibilities and family’s schedule.

Notify Your Team of Schedule Changes ASAP

Do you sometimes wait to let your employees know about schedule changes until the next time they arrive at work? This can make things harder on your team outside of work.

When you need to make adjustments to the schedule, notify your employees right away. If you have some flexibility, ask for volunteers to fill in scheduling gaps instead of assuming someone can take over. You’ll show respect for your employee’s time outside of work, which will encourage them to show your business the same level of respect by showing up on time.

Bake Accountability Into Your Company Culture

What happens when an employee is late? Does she get a slap on the wrist and then asked to get to work?

Perhaps more important is, what happens when an employee consistently arrives on time? Does she get rewarded for her good behavior?

Give your team more incentive to get to work on time by baking accountability into your company culture. Set up rewards for people who are always on time. You might not be able to punish your regularly tardy employees as heavily as you’d like (after all, you need them there with you) but you can encourage better attendance with positive reinforcement.

Author Profile

Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007 and again in 2010, 2013 and 2014.