In some cases, you may find out that the employee is having child care conflicts or has other time constraints. As an employee, whether you are negotiating salary, asking for a raise, or discussing a bonus, you need to walk into the conversation prepared to clearly state what you are asking for and why you think you deserve it. This can reduce their team spirit. Stay off your phone and computer. You needn’t handle everyone with an iron hand. Listen and make exceptions when necessary. Talking about the problem . After missed deadlines and low quality of work, you may have tried to have it, inquiring about their underperformance, one-off. Fortunately, there are ways to take a proactive approach and handle a chronically late employee that will help both the individual employee and the company as a whole. Picture this. 1. Start the conversation. You are sitting in a conference room or standing around a buffet table with a group of people you don't know. Unless it is shift job, timing is not that much crucial. Establishing trust with employees before difficult conversations are necessary and it helps to ease these conversations. Sometimes we need to do developmental coaching and sometimes our conversations needs to be tactical. Employees are less likely to show up late if they know they have to discuss it with someone. Having a conversation with employees who are always late to work An employee who is consistently late can cause problems for a manager on several fronts; there's the impact on service delivery or productivity; the loss of goodwill from their colleagues if it's not managed effectively; and damage to company reputation if they're customer facing. But all of these unplanned employee absences are making it hard to run your business. The course will show users: • a feedback model to help them structure a challenging conversation with an employee. As a manager, you need to bring up the issue early on in the work relationship. #6 Document each instance of tardiness and the reason the employee was late. Institute consequences for lateness. By stating your disapproval of the tardiness the first time it happens, it lets the employee know that it’s unacceptable to arrive late in the organization. This short, video-based course will show users how to prepare for, and carry out, a challenging conversation with an employee. It helps make the content and conversation clear, focused on objective information and helps avoid the tension or shame that can occur in conversations like this. In fact, one simple conversation may be all it takes to find out a specific cause for tardiness that you might be able to resolve with the employee right away, instead of penalizing them for the symptoms of this cause. That’s why it’s important to proactively think about how to handle an angry employee. It’s time to have “the talk”: The one where you have to figure out how to discuss poor performance with an employee. Typically it happens when employees allow things to interfere with their schedule and this becomes a pattern. Generally, that starts with having a conversation with the employee after the first or second late arrival. 2) Record Keeping. Difficult conversations with employees are unavoidable, whether it’s a performance issue or failed project. As you plan this conversation, here are a few points to keep in mind. For an employee that is often late to work, the conversation … Employees that know they can get away with being late are more likely to take advantage of the situation. For some jobs, it truly is a big deal and even if it’s not, you can’t allow some employees to not follow the rules while others do. Start With a Soft Approach to Set the Employee at Ease, but Don't Beat Around the Bush: The employee's level of anxiety is already sky-high and making more small talk while he waits for the bad news to emerge, is cruel. Unfortunately.. That’s not the world we live in. It’s how you discipline staff without ruining relationships. When you approach an employee about their mental health, it’s important to establish an environment where they feel comfortable talking with you. The task of gathering and maintaining attendance records for all employees is required. Proactive Tips to Prevent Chronic Employee Tardiness Implement a Lateness Policy Conversation between 2 colleagues discussing promotion for one of them What is the conversation about? This not-so-fun conversation you likely saw coming. The number one rule for any type of conversation surrounding compensation is to be prepared. Your employee or friend may be dealing with something difficult at home that is affecting their sleep and making them late to work or events. Adopt a compassionate attitude as you talk with the employee, and try to find out the cause of the problem. It’s how you make sure you’re running the tightest ship possible. An employee handbook is a great way to spell out your policy on excessive absenteeism, as well as the reporting process employees should follow if they’re late or absent. Try these nine crucial rules. Steps to Provide Feedback in a Difficult Conversation . Objectives. There is a technique that you can use for this that is called the direct conversation or the crucial conversation. Seek permission to provide the feedback. But ultimately, good, clear communication is how you train your employees up to the standard you want (which we talked about a little bit here). The most important thing a manager should focus on is productivity. From an HR perspective, you have to identify the behavior and give the employee a verbal warning. State the consequences of excessive absenteeism — including the potential for termination. It’s up to you, but if you plan to touch on career plans, it’s prudent to give your employee a heads up because those conversations “require reflection and thought,” she says. 1) Agreements and Expectations. No news is good news isn’t the way to handle it. Since it's the one employee that is late and not the others I need to speak with the employee that's late and make that clear that everyone else is arriving on time and I need to treat everyone equally so if it continues I will need to write him up. Conversation Starters - the best methods and approaches to start and maintain a conversation in the workplace. Consider this; if an employee comes in late all the five days in a week but you only notice it on one day, they were technically late only one day of the week, since that is the only day you know about. For example, they may have a health issue or something similar that they haven’t been forthcoming about with you. If your employee comes in to your business late every morning — or is absent, or taking personal day after personal day — you’ll soon develop a problem. Once you've told him that you want to discuss a difficult topic, move right into the topic of your difficult conversation. Because getting to work on time is not really a skill set. Being late to work is not typically something we coach someone on. The area covered is: • Dealing with an Employee Who is Repeatedly Late for Work. Even if you are the employee's boss, start by stating that you have some feedback you'd like to share.Ask if this is a good time or if the employee would prefer to select another time and place. Certainly be specific with dates, times, and any conversations you had with the employee about tardiness. Something goes wrong—seriously wrong—and when the dust settles, you discover the problem centers on a basic mistake from one of your programmers. How to Handle Late and Absent Employees. These conversations need to happen at the moment the issue occurs, and it must be done one-on-one with the employee privately. In a perfect world, angry employees would give you at least 24 hours of notice so you could review policies on how to deal with angry employees and plan your response before they get mad. For starters, you won’t be able to rely on this employee to complete his or her part of projects. It’s time to have a talk. After 2 years of selfless service, a man realized that he has not been promoted, no transfer, no salary increase no commendation and that the Company is not doing any thing about it. So, after numerous attempts with more diplomatic approaches, I pulled him aside and informed him that if he was late again, I’d have to write him up. #7 Enforce the rules consistently. Chapter 10: New Manager’s Playbook–Having Difficult Conversations With Employees By Marcus Blankenship. Stay completely focused during this conversation. Give faster feedback One of the most important ways to deal with underperforming employees is to reduce the feedback gap once an employee has been identified as an underperformer. I documented our conversation for HR and sent him a copy via email for his records as well. This is especially important when the employee is a low performer and disciplinary action may be necessary. Video created by University of California, Davis for the course "Coaching Conversations". Three Steps to Lay the Ground Work for Attendance Management Conversations. And, when he was late, yet again, the next day, it was no surprise to anyone that I had to write him up. Using the example above: If a manager needs to have a performance coaching conversation with an employee, they should always follow-up. It’s a fairly routine deployment, but this time, it’s not full of victories. Tips for Holding Difficult Conversations . A chronically late employee is not necessarily a bad employee, but the tardiness does have to stop. Tom was just promoted to is first managerial position, and he is a little concerned about the fact that he has never managed people before. If an employee comes in late one day and believes that you did not notice their lateness, they are more likely to come in late a second time. Take the example of the employee who’s always late. With the right preparation, you can turn these emotionally-charged discussions into effective lines of communication that lead to quick resolutions. 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