We know that most SFMade companies are small and feel like a family. You expect your employees to treat you the way you like to be treated, without having to spell everything out. But attendance issues happen at all kinds of businesses, so it’s important to address them with clear communication. Here are some helpful tips:
-Be Proactive. You can discuss lateness in a staff meeting, with staff upon hire, or at individual check-ins. Ensuring mutual understanding early on will cause less stress for you and your employees when someone is late or can’t come to work.
-Define what it means to be late. Spell out exactly what being late means at your business: Is three minutes late? Is 20 minutes? You get to define what it means to be late and make it clear from the start, so you won’t have to quibble about it later.
-Clarify how you want to be contacted about lateness or absences. Do you want a call, email or text? How much notice do you require?
Once you have a mutual understanding around lateness, it can free you up to figure out what’s really going on with your employees. All of us have struggled with the bus being late or traffic, but if one of your employees is consistently late to work, there’s probably some other issue in their life that is affecting their ablity to be reliable. Having agreed upon definitions can move the conversation past the small things on to more important issues.
If you have any questions about this or other HR issues, please feel free to contact Claire Michaels, Manufacturing Workforce and Hiring Manager at [email protected] or (415) 408-5605 ext 7.