Discipline in the workplace makes employees and employers well-behaved, improves attitude and performance. Sample Memo for Late coming, indiscipline to employees Time and discipline are the two important factors which drives a company. Supervisory training can help to ensure that supervisors know their roles and responsibilities when it comes to documenting lateness and counseling and disciplining employees. Before you prepare a write-up for tardiness, check your employee handbook to ensure you understand your company's policy. You will have no basis for disciplinary action if the employee did not receive notice of the attendance policy in the first place. Several years back, I had one such employee. Documenting employee discipline is as important from a litigation defense perspective, as is counseling the employee in the first place to try to correct or improve job performance. Another important point to make before providing an example of how to discipline an employee for tardiness is that you must always be fair and consistent when applying disciplinary action. #6 Document each instance of tardiness and the reason the employee was late. Some employers let the first or second tardy arrivals slide and begin disciplinary action once the employee has established a pattern of being late. Furthermore, it must be in writing and accessible. For starters, you won’t be able to rely on this employee to complete his or her part of projects. Share | Foster Swift Employment, Labor & Benefits Quarterly Winter 2011. Depending on your workplace culture and Federal and state employment laws, you may want to create penalties for employees who show up late to work more than, say, once per month. As a steward of the company, it is your responsibility to address employee transgressions – be they small, recurring or huge. Just make sure all employees are notified of the changes in any employee tardiness policies before they go into effect. Employee Handbook. Disciplining employees: Avoid mistakes that get you into trouble. Employees are less likely to show up late if they know they have to discuss it with someone. The success of any company is the outcome of the efforts that is put down by its team members. Employee tardiness is an issue that plagues many businesses. Your employee handbook is the perfect location for this policy. Explained here is the importance of discipline. In fact, data from a study on CareerBuilder found that “Nearly one quarter (23 percent) of employees admit to being tardy at least once a month on average, with 15 percent admitting to arriving late at least once a week.” Even if you have rules in place, if many of your employees come in late without consequences, you can’t single out one employee for disciplinary action. Often, chronic lateness can be resolved informally. Any employee who is tardy more than three times in any six month rolling calendar period of time will be subject to disciplinary action. If your employee comes in to your business late every morning — or is absent, or taking personal day after personal day — you’ll soon develop a problem. Most of us cringe when we hear the words “micro-manager,” but sometimes it’s a necessary evil, and managing a constantly tardy employee is one of them. Institute consequences for lateness. It’s one of life’s unfortunate realities: If you’re a manager, you’re going to have to discipline an employee at some point. In these conversations and meetings, the employer or manager would typically counsel the employee in an attempt to eliminate the negative behavior and improve the performance.When the employee continues to perform poorly or perform acts of misconduct, then a disciplinary action needs to be taken. Career Advice. Document Employee Discipline: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late. 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