Are Punctual Employees More Productive?

One of those annoying featured stories on Yahoo! today was about a study that claims that 20% of Americans are chronically late. I am not quite sure what the criteria are to determine “chronic” lateness, but it got me thinking about the value of punctuality in the workplace. Traditionally, punctuality has been considered a characteristic of “good employees” and “hard workers”, etc. And I certainly agree that, all other things being equal, a punctual employee is better than a regularly tardy employee. Unfortunately, all other things are almost never equal.

I have served as both an employee and an employer over the years in both traditional office settings and in off-site or telecommuting capacities. As an employee, fresh out of college, I was eager to impress and establish some credibility at my first real job, so I was careful to be on time - all the time. But after a few months and management’s early recognition of my contributions, I began to slip a little in my punctuality. Fortunately, our office hours allowed for some flexibility, with the office open from 8AM to 9PM Monday through Thursday and then a straight 8AM to 4PM day on Fridays. Rather than the company-preferred 9AM to 5:30 PM shift, I started moving closer to a 9:30AM to 6PM shift. Although the immediate reaction to my new schedule was negative, it was quickly decided by my immediate superiors that the better solution was to allow me to come in at 9:30AM or 10AM and work my 8.5+ hours. As long as I was productive (and I was) and I was getting 40+ hours (and I was), then they realized that a 30 minute difference wasn’t going to matter. In fact, they quickly introduced my later schedule to anyone that wanted to do it, because it helped us to get better office coverage until the part-timers arrived from 6PM to 9PM. Bottom line in my scenario was that my managers allowed a productive employee some flexibility and everyone benefited as a result. Not every office has the luxury of that kind of flexibility, but even those that do don’t always have management with the foresight to leverage it.

When we launched our first venture and eventually had employees of our own, I remembered the lessons of my time as an employee. We only had two full-time in-house employees, but we afforded both as much flexibility as possible while demanding and rewarding high levels of productivity. We employed a salesperson and an operations person and both were far from prototypical 9-to-5ers. I would be lying if I said that didn’t create some tension in the office from time to time.

We wanted to feel like our people were dedicated to the company and were putting forth consistent effort, but we also wanted them to know that we respected their ability to manage their own time. Sometimes, that balancing act was difficult. But overall, I think it was the best approach for everyone. In retrospect, I’m not sure we could have expected much more from either employee in terms of bottom-line production.

I have worked with and am close to many people that are punctuality-driven and many of them are major assets to their respective employers. But there are also those that are minute-watchers and are obsessed with working exactly the minimum amount of time required to maintain their job status. Never late to work, never late to leave. As an employer, you can’t always ask for more than that, but it’s definitely nice when you get more than that.
All this is not to say that punctuality is not important, but perhaps it can be a little overrated as a performance marker and as a tool for employee management. Not every office has the flexibility to extend flexibility to their employees, but I think it should be a strong consideration for those that do.

Tags: employee management, punctuality at work, time management

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