We’ve all been there; we have an hourly team member who just can’t seem to clock in on time. How do we address the situation fairly and effectively?
The first order of business is to make sure you have an absentee/ tardy policy in place. Without it, there are no expressed expectations for a team member to adhere to. Absentee/ tardy policies come in many varieties and choosing, creating or updating one that fits your needs should be fairly straightforward. If you are introducing a new or updated policy, make sure to review it with all employees, have a signed copy in every personnel file, and then add it directly to your employment manual. When creating a policy, be sure to include;
- The definition of absent and tardy, some examples include;
- Tardy is any amount of time past the scheduled beginning of the shift.
- Tardy is more than 2 minutes late, more than twice a month.
- Absent is any unexcused day away.
- The definition of a “No Show”.
- When a doctor’s note will be necessary
- The exceptions to the policy, such as illness, injury, personal or family business, jury duty, FMLA leave and potential ADA situations.
- You will also want to outline an objective and measurable, progressive discipline process associated with the policy.
- Make sure your time clock or other tracking system can generate reports for individual employees. It is your responsibility to provide documentation of an absentee or tardy scenario. In addition to time clock reports, a documented employee schedule is essential.
- Keep in mind, all hourly employees must be held accountable for following the policy you set. I know it can be tempting overlook mild tardiness from your all-star employee, but when you do so, you put the practice at risk for a discrimination claim.
Some companies use a “No fault” absentee/tardy policy. The hope of these policies was to stream-line record keeping, and also aid in fairness, but recently the “no fault” policies have come under fire, mainly due to ADA considerations. If you want to consider a no fault absentee and tardy policy, I strongly encourage you to perform significant due diligence prior to implementation.
So, assuming you have a policy in place, now what?
- Begin with a fairly simple conversation with the employee.
- Review the absentee/ tardy policy of the practice, including potential discipline, and your documentation to support the incident. Then ask the employee if there is any reason why they may be unable to adhere to the policy.
- If the employee admits there is no legitimate reason why they are unable to adhere to the policy, end the conversation on a positive note and move on. For our practice, this is step one of our progressive discipline policy; the initial verbal conversation, and it is documented.
- Obviously, if that same employee continues to struggle, another conversation takes place and the next step in your discipline policy is enforced. .
What if the employee states they do have a legitimate challenge in adhering to the policy?
- Here is where you need to pay close attention. There are legitimate reasons, both in the eyes of the various employment laws and probably within your practice culture as well.
- Determine the legitimacy and then begin brainstorming a solution with the employee.
- Example: we have a great technician who has been with us for over seven years. He has always used public transportation and a number of years ago he was scheduled to arrive at 7:00am. The bus could get him to the hospital at 6:10 or 7:10, so he was faced with arriving much too early, or chronically late. We saw this as a legitimate obstacle to that technician clocking in on time, so we changed his schedule to arrive at 7:15, and the problem was solved.
An additional approach to curb tardiness is to use positive reinforcement or recognition. This is a controversial strategy, as some managers feel rewarding an employee for the minimum expected performance (showing up on time), does not build a team that aims for excellence. If rewards fit into your personal management philosophy, then I’d encourage you to consider a reward or recognition strategy for your practice. In our practice;
- We recognize by posting a monthly announcement congratulating the employees who have achieved a perfect attendance that month.
- We reward with PTO. Employees can earn 4 hours a month with perfect attendance and perfect time clock entries.
In summary; breaking the tardy cycle in your practice can begin now; with policy, consequences and conversations.
Jessie Merritt is a certified veterinary practice manager, and a senior professional in human resources. She is the practice manager at Oswego Veterinary Hospital in Portland, Oregon. Jessie was recognized by the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association as the state’s Practice Manager of the Year in 2011. She currently volunteers and serves on the VHMA Board of Directors.