An employee tardiness policy is the part of the attendance policy that gets tested first, because lateness happens every week and absence does not. A policy that says employees are expected to be punctual has said nothing a shift lead can apply at seven in the morning; a policy that says a shift starts at the scheduled time, a tardy is any arrival after the grace period, and a tardy scores half a point has said everything. This page is the six clauses in order, with the number each clause needs and the choice a small employer makes in setting it. The attendance policy template on this site prints them from your own numbers, and the points calculator shows what those numbers do to a real month.
Clause one and two: when the shift starts, and what counts as late
The first clause names the moment the shift starts, and it has to be the scheduled time and not the time the lead happened to notice. The second names the grace period, if there is one: on this site's worked example there is a short grace period after the scheduled start, an arrival inside it is on time, and an arrival after it is a tardy however small the margin. The choice is between no grace period, which is simplest to apply and hardest to live with, and a short one, which absorbs the traffic and the bus without making a habit cheap. Whichever is chosen, the policy states the number and the software applies it, because a grace period that lives in the lead's head is a different grace period for every lead.
Clause three and four: what a tardy scores, and how long it lives
The third clause is the weight. On the worked example a tardy scores 0.5 points, half an unexcused absence and a quarter of a no-call, which says in numbers that being late is a lesser thing than not being there and a much lesser thing than not calling. The fourth is the window, 12 months rolling on the example, which is how a tardy stops counting: not because a manager forgave it, but because it aged out. Together they fix the arithmetic of tolerance. At 0.5 a point and a threshold of 8, sixteen tardies in a year with nothing else would end employment; four tardies and two no-calls is 6 and leaves room for one absence and one more tardy. The employee tardiness policy should state that arithmetic plainly, so nobody is surprised.
Clause five: the steps before the threshold, in writing
A points total that ends employment at 8 owes the employee a conversation at some earlier number, and the policy names it. The example uses a verbal warning at the first quarter of the threshold, a written warning at half, a final warning at three quarters, and separation at the threshold, each step recorded with the total and the events behind it. The point of writing the steps down is not ceremony; it is that the write-up at 6 can cite the warning at 4, and the separation at 8 can cite both, and a reviewer reading the file sees a sequence rather than a decision. The corrective action guide on this site walks the sequence for a points policy.
Clause six: the exceptions the policy must name and hold at zero
A lateness caused by leave the law protects scores nothing, and the policy says so before it is needed. Intermittent leave under the FMLA can take the form of arriving late, and 29 CFR 825.302 and 825.303 say what notice the employee owes for foreseeable and unforeseeable leave; a schedule change granted as an accommodation under the ADA or the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is not a tardy at all; and an employee cannot be scored for time spent on protected concerted activity. The policy does not have to explain those laws. It has to say that an excused event scores zero, that the reason is kept with the event, and that the employee tells the lead as early as the circumstances allow.
Questions people ask about employee tardiness policy
How many minutes late counts as a tardy?
Whatever the policy's grace period says, and nothing else. The policy names the scheduled start and the grace period; an arrival after the grace period is a tardy however small the margin, and an arrival inside it is on time. The number has to be written down so every lead applies the same one.
How many points should a tardy be worth?
Less than an absence and much less than a no-call, because the crew was short for part of a shift rather than all of it. On this site's worked example a tardy is 0.5, an unexcused absence 1 and a no-call 2. The attendance points calculator shows what any weights do to a real month.
Can an employee be scored for arriving late on FMLA leave?
No. Intermittent FMLA leave can be taken as a late arrival, and 29 CFR 825.220 forbids counting protected leave under a no-fault attendance policy. The event is marked excused, scores zero and keeps its reason. The employee still owes the notice that 825.302 and 825.303 describe.