Punctuality-key to sucessful career

Regardless of the nature of the industry or size of the organisation,some employee problems are universal.Tardiness or lack of punctuality is one such issue.People in management or supervisory positions,particularly first time mangers are often not sure how to confront chronic tardiness when it happens.Do they simply turn a blind eye when an oherwise dedicated and hard working employee chronically comes in late to office,do they let them off lightly,or should they take serious note of it as a deciplinary issue? Shocking as it sounds, an employee who comes in late 10 minutes each day has, by the end of the year,acumulated time off from the work to equivaalent of a weeks paid vacation!No surprise,habitual late comers give major headaches to managers at the start of the working day. As a manager it is ur responsibility to instill a sense of discipline in your people.Ifyour lax about taking up the issue,people will be templted to take advantage of the situation.Frequent tardiness in employees reflect a lack of respect for organisational timea and sets a bad precedent for others.And though flexible schedules are more common in the workplace these days,there are situations where a late employee could not only result in lost productivity for the organisation,but also give it a bad name,particularly where customers are concerned.It is there fore important to deal with these kinds of situations before they get out of hand.As exasperatring as chronic tardiness can be,disciplinary action ought not to be enforced with punitive intentions.In the end,as manager you need to be able to get your employees to cooperate without incurring recentments or damaging relationships.Here are some steps that you could take. Build a cooperate culture that encourages punctuality and inculcate in the employees,the need to be professional and mindful of their arrival times.Create a written punctality policy with clearly defined penalty policies.The ploicy must be made part of the employee hand book,clearly communicated to all new hires and consistently enforced. Use time manage ment softwares or devices or cards to record employee arrival and departure time and make it clear that employee man hours will be considered as a factor during perfomance appraisal.This in itself is a deterrent for employees who slip in a few minutes late and leave a few minutes early.Make meetings punctual.Send e mail reminders half an hour prior to every meeting asking participants to come on time.Start meetingd promptly,and tackle the most important items on the ajenda first.The rub is that the late comers receive no updates. Deal with issues of habitual lateness by a case by case basis.There may be a genuine reason for an employee's failure to turn up on work on time.Discuss the situations one on one and see if u can arrive at any solutions or alternative to remedy the situation. Flexible shedules are more commom in the work places these days, and if your organisation can offer flexibility as a option to employees, then by all means do so.In fact.many organisations are discovering that flexible work hours can be a boon for harried employes and stressed out managers alike,when it comes to combating tardiness. In most cases managers find it acceptable to allow temporary changes in an employee's work schedule to adjust for sporadic personal commitments or an unplanned event, so long as the employee makes up for it by working late.If tardiness is only an individual issue, and not an organisation wide epidemic,count yourself lucky.Act before the virus spreads . Candidly discuss the matter with the employee,explain organisational policies and find out if the employee needs any kind of assistance to cope up with it.By setting a positive precedent and clearly communicating your stand,you send across the message that your are serious about the issue.Although strong discilinary action and termination are always an option(particularly if the employee is a poor performer), a little understanding and leeway,consistent positive reinforcement, and a nudge in the right direction are all that are usually needed to get an otherwise conscientious employee on back on track.