Whether you are an employer, a manager or an employee, there are often times when you are just not able to make it to work on time. An urgent work, personal reasons, weather conditions or indispensable family chores – there are a number of reasons you might get late sometimes, and it’s okay and acceptable. Organizations consider these possibilities and most of them provide leniency and flexibility in such cases. However if the delayed arrivals have become more of a habit, and your employees are getting late to work on a regular basis, this is a clear sign that tardiness is taking over the workplace. Employee tardiness is a challenge for many organizations. It goes heavily against the culture and discipline of an organization. It not only damages the course of performance and growth but also creates a bad repute of the organization in the market. Aside from that, it is the sure-tell sign of the decreasing morale and motivation of the employees. Therefore, it is an essential responsibility on the manager’s part to make sure that all employees are regular and punctual and identify the ones who are habitual of arriving late at the workplace.
Point System for Attendance and Punctuality – Is it Really Effective?
Many organizations that have experienced indiscipline and tardiness have tried or are planning to implement a point system in their employee management designs. In this system, an employee is penalized with points for every late in, early out or unscheduled absence. The magnitude of points is a direct indication of the level of punctuality or tardiness of an employee. For instance, if an employee has a zero point score, it implies that the employee is extremely punctual and regular. Similarly, if the employee has a point score around 7 or 8, it means that the employee is habitual of being absent and late from work. While a number of employers and managers advocate on the efficacy of the point system, the system has certain discrepancies and downsides attached. For instance, if an employee has a certain number of late-ins and absences within a short span of time, resulting in a high point score, they can erase or minimize their points by being regular and punctual for a prolonged period of time. This way, the system allows the employees to be undisciplined as well as disciplined and if the employee has been tardy for a specific time span, they can balance their score by being present on time for a prolonged duration. So this way, the point system isn’t really useful in preventing and eliminating tardiness at the workplace.
What’s the Solution?
A smart approach to ensure perfect discipline, attendance and punctuality at the workplace is by implementing a workforce management system in your management designs. A workforce management system automates certain routine tasks such as the time and attendance recording, employee planning, and shift and roster management. The system keeps a fair record of attendance, time entries, intervals as well as absences and makes it convenient for the management to find if an employee is frequently getting late to work. A workforce management system is fully automated and it removes any chances of buddy punching or time frauds.
