How a joke can be the solution for lateness?

In every company and every office, there will be employees who have a bad habit of being late for work. This behavior does not necessarily mean a decrease in employee performance, but it can show his attitude towards their job. How to prevent employees from being late?

Every employee happens to be late, but if he does it often, there is a problem. It is worth knowing how to deal with employee lateness in an effective, yet non-stressful way to ensure a good atmosphere in the office.

Employee lateness and its influence on a team's morale

Most people who come to the office, even if they show up on time, start their workday by preparing coffee, reading messages, talking to colleagues. Only then did they gently "land" on their positions and get ready for work. Preparation for work can take from five, even to fifteen minutes each morning. This behavior does not seem harmful, but often has a negative impact on the team's morale. Employees who show up early in the office and start work on time feel uneven and treated unfairly, seeing that employees, who are usually late, do not suffer any consequences. It can also mean that more and more employees will be late.

Employee time tracking

Controlling employees' arrival and departure times is hard work if done manually, especially when it comes to monitoring employees' lateness. Storing hours in the monthly and weekly forms to create reports that help you know which employees should change their behavior is very time-consuming. Fortunately, it does not have to be this way.

Thanks to Calamari, you will automate employee time tracking. Our modern software records information on entries, exits, breaks, and hours worked in real-time, saving a lot of time to managers and the HR department workers responsible for creating reports on working time records of all the employees. Calamari Clock In allows you to set notifications for lateness, so you receive information about which employees did not arrive on time. The program also allows you to automatically generate weekly and monthly employee attendance reports, so you can easily check all late arrivals and absences, and leaving work too early.

How to deal with late-coming employees?

Delays do not have to harm the employee's performance, but negatively affect the atmosphere in the company, so they should be prevented. An appropriate way of communicating changes in employee behavior should be found to maintain good relations with employees while achieving the intended goal.

Psychologist Alanís Valdez proposes an interesting solution how to effectively communicate a change in employees’ behavior, thanks to which it will be possible to reduce or eliminate lateness in the company while maintaining a positive atmosphere in the office.

The solution of Alanís Valdez

The attendance officer, ie the person who keeps track of the staff's arrival times, will analyze the data and identify which employee within the workforce or in a particular sector, was the one who arrived late most often or accumulated most minutes of tardiness or a mix of both.

Once that person has been identified, they will be informed that, later, in the office, at the end of the day, all employees will gather so that this person who has earned "the distinction" or the one who has had the most delays will stand in front of everyone and tell them a joke.

It's that simple.

One of the most common fears of all people is to speak in public and it gets worse if you have to tell a joke. The fear of public speaking is more significant and exemplifying than a payroll discount or an uncomfortable wake-up call.

It is clear that negative behaviors must be eliminated and we should be careful with the way it is done and for that reason, this slogan to tell a joke and have a good laugh seemed to us a great proposal to improve the working atmosphere within your organization.

What else you can do?

The humorous way of dealing with latecomers will help you reduce the number of late employees by referring to their unwillingness to bear the lateness-related consequences: of public telling a joke. However, this is a kind of punishment that should not be the background end of your actions. If an employee changes his behavior and stops being late, it is good to emphasize that such a change has been noticed. Thanks to this, the employee will feel that they efforts have not been in vain. Of course, employees should not be rewarded for this reason. This can be badly received by other people in the company and have a negative impact on the atmosphere of the work environment. Emphasize that you see change and express satisfaction with it, remembering to appreciate also those employees who always show up in the office on time.

Summary

Employee lateness is a problem that many companies face regardless of whether they are small companies, startups, or large organizations. The atmosphere at work, which translates into team productivity, may depend on their approach to solving this problem. It is worth controlling which employees do not come to the office on time, but instead of punishing them with traditional methods, it is worth introducing a solution that will provide a humorous atmosphere in the office, while referring to one of the most common human fears - fear of public speeches - which will make people will watch themselves. This will prevent the creation of a nervous atmosphere in the teams, and at the same time will bring the expected results.

Does your company have problems with a large number of latecomers? How does it deal with them? Maybe it is time to try something new and add some humor to your everyday work life? Let us know what you think about it!

Author: Laura De Cecco

Sources:

Valdez, E. A. (2016, August 26). Cómo hacer que los empleados no lleguen tarde. Retrieved from http://www.elmoalanis.com/comos-how-to-s/como-hacer-que-los-empleados-no-lleguen-tarde.html