Employers using late arrival times to gauge staff morale

by Henry James, Intern, Melcrum

Better late than never? Only if you’ve got £8 billion to spare or an outrageous excuse.

It’s estimated it costs the UK economy in excess of £8 billion per annum, so if you're going to arrive late to work then the very least you can offer is an outlandish excuse accompanied by an apology. This is even more valid at a time when the UK and European economy is only just beginning to recover from the damage caused by the recession.

With so much at stake, it’s no wonder 39% of employers are paying more attention to staff arrival times then they had previously, according to an online survey, conducted by market research agency, Shape the Future, of 625 business leaders in Europe.

Although 11% of employers said they would terminate their staff’s employment for making two or three late appearances, and a further 12% would for being late four or five times, a large proportion (44%) are tolerant of tardiness, as long as the work is completed punctually and to a high standard.

This may illustrate the true motives behind enforcing arrival times. Instead of developing from the desire for the full hours to be worked, awareness of arrival times, especially in the current economically unstable environment, may be used to monitor the levels of employee morale within the organization and its subsequent affects on performance - as it is assumed that a motivated and committed employee will arrive at work on time consistently, while also performing to a higher standard.

What’s the meaning of all this? As long as your performance remains good, you’re still motivated and loyal to the organization, the likelihood is you won’t be fired after a few sporadic late arrivals – but can your conscience deal with their effects on the economy? My answer, if the excuse is outrageous and entertaining enough, it might just be worth it.

Here are three real-life examples of creative excuses workers gave to their employers:

• Employee’s cat was stuck in the cat flap.
• Employee had difficulty adjusting to the climate change from summer to winter. 
• Employee reported that a horse had jumped over a hedge straight on top of her car.

Do you think lateness correlates with engagement? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Comments

[Angela Sinickas]

While this might work well for hourly employees who have to clock in and out of work, where they have a fixed number of hours each week, it might be less useful a measure for salaried employees. Just as one example, years ago I was asked to talk to an employee of mine about coming in late nearly every Friday morning. The reason she was late is that every Thursday night she was at the printer quite late doing press checks for our weekly newsletter. So my talk with her was more about how people seeing her come in wearing a winter coat an hour after everyone else didn't know she was working late into the evenings. I found ways to give her compensatory time off that didn't look bad to people who didn't know the situation. By just the measure of lateness, she would fall into the disengaged camp, whereas she was really a quite engaged employee working late into many evenings. Maybe it would be better to create a formula that takes late arrivals AND late departures from work both into account.

[Wedge]

Being late for meetings is inexcusable for the most part, but otherwise this article is so far away from my working life, I don't know how to start!

Our company is about to implement true 'flexible working', meaning "start times" are a thing of the past. Personally, because of management discretion, I've had a flexible start time for four years.

[Henry James]

Thank you both for your comments.
As a student, I am not unaccustomed to flexible working hours! And, of course, if the management have made the decision to introduce a more accommodating system, then gauging arrival times no longer becomes an accurate measure of employee engagement.
However, as far as my knowledge of the ‘real world’ goes (mainly based on myths and legends!), the majority of employees are still provided with a structured working day based on time.
I completely agree with Angela that basing employee engagement purely on arrival times will not produce a true measure, and hope that employers don’t purely decide to terminate an employee’s contract on the basis of arriving late to work – unless the job is defined by the hours (e.g. shift work, front of house work, etc.).
Also interesting is the example that you’ve mentioned Angela. Had you not spoken to your employee, the person concerned, as well as the other staff, may have become disillusioned, affecting the performance of company.
Would you agree with that? Great to hear your thoughts.