Time Punctuality Guidelines

Time punctuality guidelines ensure that all employees, contractors or associates of the organisation truly understand the essence of timely availability at work in order to maintain discipline, continuity of work and client focus. Tardiness creates disruption to business or a process and also causes distraction to colleagues / peers.

This policy template is available for download in Word format.

With this Time Punctuality Guidelines Policy template, you can:

• Clearly define the need for such a policy
• Create standard formats and templates for a policy rollout
• Save time & effort to manager/HR alike
• Ensure not to miss out on important aspects of the policy

In just a few minutes, you will be able to create a time punctuality guidelines policy. This policy covers rules to be followed with respect to:

• Description & guidelines pertaining to the policy
• Scope, advantages and applicability of the policy
• Consequences of non-adherence to the policy

Time Punctuality Guidelines

Objective

The intent of this policy is to establish guidelines for the employees of < Company Name Here > about the importance of punctuality at work. These are necessary for managing availability to clients and also decorum while conducting business.

Scope and Applicability

This policy applies to employees, contractors, consultants and temporary staff at < Company Name Here > including all personnel affiliated with third party vendors.

This policy is owned by < Name of the Person > and reachable @ < Contact Number > and < email address >

Policy / Process

Definition

Timely and regular attendance is an expectation of commitment & performance for all < Company Name Here > employees. To ensure adequate staffing, positive employee morale and to meet expected productivity standards throughout the organisation, employees will be held accountable for adhering to their workplace schedule. In the event an employee is unable to meet this expectation, he/she must obtain approval from their reporting Manager in advance of any schedule changes. This approval includes requests to use appropriate accruals as well as late arrivals to or early departures from work. Departments have discretion to evaluate extraordinary circumstances of a tardy, absence or failure to clock-in or clock-out and determine whether or not to count the incident as an occurrence.

Absent

An employee is deemed absent when he/she is unavailable for work as per his/her assigned/scheduled shift and such time off was not scheduled/approved in advance as required by < Company Name > Leave policy.

Tardy

An employee is deemed to be tardy when he/she:

• Fails to report for work at the assigned/scheduled shift time. In these instances, Manager may need to replace the tardy employee with another employee for the full shift.
• Arrives to work past his/her scheduled start time may be replaced for the full shift at the discretion of his/her supervisor.
• Leaves work prior to the end of assigned/scheduled shift time without prior approval of the Manager.
• Takes extended meal or break periods without approval

Time Clocks and Failure to Clock In/Out

Employees are required to follow established guidelines for recording their actual hours worked. A missed clock in/out is a violation of this policy and includes:

• Failure to clock in/out on their designated shift time, record time at the beginning and end of their assigned shift.
• Failure to clock in/out on their designated time clock for the meal break;
• Failure to accurately and timely report time worked.
• Clocking in/out early (or late) of assigned shift without prior approval.

Department Notification Procedure

Employees are expected to follow departmental notification procedures if they will be late for work or plan to leave early or are requesting time away during work hours. Employees must request their Manager in advance and in accordance with departmental procedure to avoid disruption in service or process.

The employee must notify their Manager of an upcoming absence due to pre-approved leave in order to ensure appropriate and alternate arrangements can be planned by the Manager in terms of hand over or knowledge transfer, etc.

An employee who fails to call in or report to work as scheduled for [n of days] consecutively will be viewed as having abandoned their duties and will lead to disciplinary action, including termination of employment. The Manager should consult with Human Resources if this situation arises.

Progressive Discipline Process

Managers should monitor their employees' attendance on a regular basis and address unsatisfactory attendance in a timely and consistent manner. If the Manager notices a pattern of uninformed tardiness or irregularities, they should discuss this concern with the employee and ensure the situation is rectified.

When an employee has been previously counselled under the Discipline Policy, the totality of the circumstances will be assessed when determining further action. For situations involving suspension or termination of employment, the Manager should consult with Human Resources prior to implementing disciplinary action.

Occurrences

An occurrence is documented as an absence, tardy or missed time clock in/out. While an absence refers to a single failure to be at work, an occurrence may cover consecutive absent days when an employee is out for the same reason.

The following grid is designed to provide guidelines when addressing the total number of occurrences in a rolling 12-month period.

1 Occurrences is equal to : ● 1 Absence ● 2 Tardies ● 2 Missed Clocks 4 Occurrences Step 1 : Verbal Warning 6 Occurrences Step 2 :Written Warning 8 Occurrences Step 3 : Final Written Warning 10 Occurrences Step 4 :Termination Total # of Days Absent ● Consecutive or Non Consecutive ● Does Not Apply to Tardy 6 Days Step 1 : Verbal Warning 9 Days Step 2 :Written Warning 12 Days Step 3 : Final Written Warning 15 Days Step 4 :Termination Single Day of No Call / No Show 1 Occurrences Step 2 :Written Warning 2 Occurrences Step 3 : Final Written Warning 3 Occurrences Step 4 :Termination

NOTE: The data can be changed as per the company requirement

Holidays

If an employee calls out of work the day before, the day of or the day after an intervening holiday, the manager will review the circumstance of the absence. Based on this review, the manager has the discretion to determine whether to count the incident as a regular occurrence or go directly to issuing a written warning for the holiday-related call out. If an employee is already on discipline, they can progress to the next level.

Special Circumstance and Exception

Any Deviation from this policy has to be approved by HR. Any changes to the policy have to be approved by Legal and Compliance.

Non-compliance and Consequence

Non compliance of this policy will be viewed seriously by HR and appropriate action taken, including up to termination of employment contract.