How To Deal With Lateness At Work (+ Free Template)

Does it matter if someone’s 5 minutes late to work? After all, it’s only 5 minutes…

Alisa Mistry, one of Charlie’s HR advisors, looks at lateness at work in detail and explains why it’s important to have a tardiness policy at your small business.

Can you be 5 minutes late to work?

From time to time, members of your team will be late to work. It’s an inevitable fact of life and something you need to be realistic about.

Most employers offer a ‘grace period’ in response to occasional lateness, but it’s at your discretion if you want to do the same. Typically, the grace period covers being 5-10 minutes late to work.

Being 5 minutes late to work every day, or frequently enough that it becomes a pattern, is a different thing however. So you’ll need to deal with regular lateness before it becomes a bigger problem.

Usually, there’s an easy explanation for someone being late. For example, you might notice that an employee is late to work on the same day every week, and then find out that’s the one day they’re responsible for dropping their kids off at school.

Your tardiness policy needs to take real-life scenarios like this into account, as then you’ll be able to talk to your employees and come up with effective solutions.

5 minutes late to work law (UK)

Is there such a thing as a 5 minutes late to work law in the UK? In short, no there isn’t.

Lateness at work is something all employers must handle independently, as there are no laws specifically relating to not arriving at work on time — whether that’s by 5 minutes or a lot more.

Instead, there is guidance and common practice around lateness at work and recommendations around creating an employee tardiness policy in response to the Employee Rights Act.

According to ACAS, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service who work to improve workplace relationships:

“If someone does not turn up for work or is late, their employer does not have to pay them for the time they did not work.

However, an employer should:

follow any policy they have on it
be fair and reasonable – an employee might have a good reason for not being at work, for example sickness or a family emergency.”

A tardiness policy will help you to establish a fair and consistent response to employee lateness, and mitigate the impact on your business.

You may not have considered the possible implications of lateness before, but it’s definitely worth understanding what they are.

Lateness at work: what it means for your business

Lateness at work will have an impact on your business.

How much of an impact depends on how often, and by how much, your employees are late to work. After all, there’s a big difference between the occasional 5 minutes, and a regular habit of being increasingly late.

As the employer, your response to lateness also plays a big role — which is why having a tardiness policy in place is essential. A tardiness policy at work will help you deal with situations of lateness fairly and consistently.

But before we get into the whys and wherefores of an employee tardiness policy, let’s look at the impacts of lateness on your business.

Some of the most obvious impacts of lateness at work are:

Decreased productivity

Chronic lateness will ultimately lead to reduced productivity. Plus, it’s difficult to coordinate tasks and projects when attendance is inconsistent.

Lowered team morale

Punctual employees will likely feel frustrated and resentful towards colleagues who are frequently late. This sense of unfairness can be compounded by perceived managerial leniency, which can then really impact team spirit.

Operational disruptions

It’s much harder to maintain smooth operations when members of the team consistently arrive late. Simple tasks like scheduling meetings or other time-sensitive activities become a challenge.

Engagement and retention

Balancing the need for punctuality while maintaining a supportive and flexible work environment isn’t always easy. You might be worried that a strict lateness policy will have negative consequences for engagement and employee retention.

Alongside these obvious impacts, there are other factors to consider:

Client relations

Maintaining a professional image is difficult if employees are late for client meetings. And recurring lateness can impact everything from deadlines to client interactions.

Accountability and discipline

Knowing how to enforce punctuality and accountability isn’t always easy, especially in a small business setting. You might feel unsure about what disciplinary action is appropriate for repeated lateness.

Legal and HR

You may be worried about the possible legal implications of enforcing lateness policies, particularly regarding fair treatment and discrimination. You’re in need of reliable guidance to ensure a policy for your business that’s compliant with labour laws and regulations.

Culture and environment

Diverse workplaces can be complex, as cultural and environmental factors can influence or cause lateness. To cover this, create a policy that takes into account legitimate reasons for lateness (for example, issues with public transport or family responsibilities).

Lateness at work can be a struggle to define and resolve, as it’s not cut and dry (every instance of employee lateness is different) and is therefore difficult to address. For example:

Performance management

How do you factor lateness into performance evaluations and reviews, so that it’s included but doesn’t overshadow other contributions?

Employee tardiness policy

A lack of clarity and uniformity will cause confusion. You know you need a standardised approach to lateness, but where to start?

What’s the best way to handle lateness at work?

The best ways to handle lateness at work are by:

Being fair and consistent
Putting in place a clear and accessible employee tardiness policy.

A tardiness policy will enable you to properly and fairly address employee lateness, whether that’s 5 minutes late to work or 5 hours. A lateness policy will also help you to monitor and maintain the levels of productivity at your small business.

In addition to a tardiness policy, you should also communicate the importance of punctuality in your employment contracts, as then every member of your team has the same information from the get-go.

Alongside a lateness policy, you may also want to look at your approach to work.

For example, at Charlie we operate a flexible hours policy, which means we don’t actually have an official start time for our working day. As such, no one in our team can be late, as we trust all our employees to choose the time they start work.

You may also decide that a more flexible approach works for your business, and you can include information on this in both your employment contracts and your tardiness policy.

Find out more about our hybrid working policy in our blog.

What is a tardiness policy?

Also known as a lateness policy or an employee tardiness policy, a tardiness policy is a document outlining and communicating your business’ stance on lateness at work.

A tardiness policy at work defines what is regarded as ‘tardiness’, acknowledges extenuating circumstances, and sets out any grace periods afforded to your team. It also explains the internal process for dealing with situations of recurring or extreme lateness and how this may affect pay.

Your tardiness policy makes it clear to your employees what:

Is regarded as being late to work
Will happen if they don’t uphold their contractual commitments.

A tardiness policy is an essential HR policy for small business employers who want to ensure they handle lateness at work fairly and consistently.

Employee tardiness policy sample

Your tardiness policy should form a part of your employee handbook, which many small businesses and startups store in Charlie so it can be easily updated and accessed.

The framework below is to help you write your own tardiness policy at work.

Your employee tardiness policy should cover:

What time employees are expected to arrive at work
What is regarded as lateness at work
How to report lateness
The process for dealing with recurring or extreme lateness
The actions that may be taken in response to recurring or extreme lateness (including what will happen with pay)
The grace period for occasional lateness
Extenuating circumstances (weather, public transport, family emergencies etc.)

As a fellow small business, we know how daunting and time-consuming it is to draft up policies from scratch.