How to Manage Your Employees' Absences and Late Arrivals?

Question

I am working in a small (4 people) team (agency industry) and we are on the right track regarding the productivity. The company is really flat and liberal but doesn't allow remote work but on the other hand you can come in to the office at any time and you don't have a strict timetable as long as you can meet expectations. Nevertheless our workload is really heavy and some of my colleagues are coming to the office late (around 11:00 pm or later) or just stay out of the office usually while others are present and working.

Honestly the business is rocking, but I'd like to create an even better team.

My question is how could we build up a consistent and fair-minded time-sheet which is applied for everyone and how could we communicate the problem for the guys who are ignoring the standards?

Answer 1

I'd recommend defining core work hours during which everyone should be in the office. For example, between 10am and noon and 2pm to 4pm. This allows you to schedule meetings, service clients/customers better, increase collaboration and so forth while still allowing a great degree of scheduling flexibility.

Given how you've described your company culture I wouldn't go too strict on enforcing something like this. Just put it out as sort of a strong suggestion, stating logical reasons on why you need to do this. In most situations, people will usually get the idea and buy into it. Then they'll build their schedule around it.

Answer 2

I'm a big believer in the practice of measuring your employees by their productivity rather than their time spent working.

If your employee is getting enough work done for what you are paying them, I don't see what you have to worry about. It's not broke, don't fix it.
Some people (especially in the IT profession) work in bursts(like me), some more evenly. If you force someone who is getting their days work done to stick more rigidly to a timetable it could very well affect performance.

If it is effecting their performance, that's another matter. But as you say "business is rocking"

Answer 3

There's always going to be a tradeoff between "everyone can manage their work/life balance however they want" and "we all need to be able to communicate to work efficiently". With the capabilities of the modern workplace that doesn't always mean that everyone has to work in the same building, at the same time 100% of the time. But those are the tradeoffs, and thing to do is to figure out the balance that works for your company and what you need to get accomplished.

The reason to drag people in and ask for a set of core hours is generally that they are hard to find, and difficult to get information from. I'm assuming, since you said productivity is good, that your hard to find people are not having issues getting things done themselves. If that's not true - if you don't see evidence of their work on a regular basis - then this is a different conversation about getting work done and being accountable to deadlines.

I like the idea of core hours, but my thought is that it's best to discuss it as a team, particularly since you are a small and flat organization. Ask for times when people can promise to be available for meetings and discussions, and verify that this is sufficient time for the group. 11-2 with implications of a lunch break is a nice bare minimum in the US, but mileage will vary. For example, I noticed in some places, people go home for lunch, so lunch is longer. In other cases, avoiding rush hour traffic may be a particular driver.

At least if you figure it out together, you can make a group decision and get opinions.

One decent heuristic for this style of work is "if you are late to a meeting you accepted, you are late" - in other words, be a grown up and manage your schedule. It's OK to miss core hours for doctor's appointments, illness or other issues, but unless you are sick, don't skip a meeting - plan accordingly. Don't accept a meeting when you have a doctor's appointment or need to be home for a repairman. But don't decline meetings so often that the team can't get a hold of you.

The other trick to increasing productivity is knowing what you want to accomplish. Sounds simple, but it's not - is it quality? faster deliverables? more stuff? Know what you want, and that WILL help you figure out what work patterns are needed to get you there.

Answer 4

Lets start with a straight question Do you wish to grow?
if yes then put process in place.Fix the work hours.or else it will spoil your organization's work culture. At present it doesn't look very scalable.

When there are few contributing members as the organization is small things can be made to work based upon mutual understanding and consent.But as the number grows these things become a bottle neck.
Bad process can bring bad name to organization and make it unpopular amongst employees because after a point you will also want more experienced not so bachelor people to work for you who will be reluctant because of the odd hour culture which would have creep-ed in your organization gradually.
By fixed hours you need not to be rigid you can have a range of in time like 8 am to 10 am similarly for out time. and fixed rules ,which are easy on employees,For once in a while exceptions. This will ensure that every one comes on time and those who have some urgencies are not harmed

Edit I have been privy to medium scale organization who went for ISO or CMM like certification but had faced lots of resistance becoz of adhoc culture.Not only there were delays in their endeavor but also expenses as the concerned experts where hired on salary (big salary) basis.

Answer 5

I am an employee and in my last company we had same situation that we could come to office almost at any time no strict check. But when our manager used to say that "We will go on dinner after work" or any other recreational activity we responsibly come early to finish work and office hours before recreation. So i would suggest to bribe your teammates into recreational stuff after work to manage their Time in/Time out your way and once the routine is set it will be even hard for them to change.