Employee lateness is a serious cause of irritation for 87% of employers but despite the findings few are prepared to introduce disciplinary and monitoring measures to tackle it.

Only 30% of bosses monitor lateness while a mere 29% have plans in place to start tracking punctuality.

Of the 1751 employees quizzed, 17% admitted to being late at least seven times a month.

Peter Done, managing director of employment law firm Peninsula, authors of the survey, said the problem is costing businesses money, urging employers that wish to stamp out the problem to impose the right culture:

“There will always be a problem for companies in tackling lateness in the workplace effectively; it is not simply a matter of punishing those that are late for work. An employer needs to promote a work culture where the effect of lateness has consequences throughout the business and this needs to be put forward to each employee. As soon as this work culture is adopted, employees will become used to and start to be concerned about their own time management.”

Communication, added Done, is the key:

“Employers could stop this problem of lateness by placing disciplinary measures within their company stopping employees from being persistently late. Although it would not be a great idea to simply force the issue by being unreasonable and disregard an employee’s reasoning for their lateness. Employers simply need to sit down with their workforce and discuss the implications of lateness in the workplace. If this is communicated correctly, it is only a matter of time before employees see tardiness as a serious issue.”