[fakie99]

we've been in biz for about three years, and have had three pretty good years. however, on the average, our employees have been terrible. by terrible i mean calling in sick a couple of times a month, just not showing up, showing up late regularly, etc. of course, this is only the fault of my partner and i becuase we have not made job expectations EXPLICITLY CLEAR. which is where my question comes in.

how do you guys manage tardiness, absences, etc for employees? i would like to be able to say to new employees that they get two tardies, then a warning, then a termination. similirly, any unexcused absence results in a warning, then termination.

i really don't know what the parameters will be, but i'd like to get an idea of your expectations of your employees and how you deal with it when the expectation is not met.

thanks.

www.treasured-earth.com

[jwholden]

I can't tell you that I've got the answer, but I can say I have the same problem. My crew is myself and two laborers. One of the fellas has worked with me for five years and has yet to have a problem with tardiness or absenteeism. Almost all other employees in my history as an employer have.

The problem with being small is that if you fire someone to set an example there is no one left to see the example. As much as I'm pissed with someone not coming to work, it sucks being short handed and having to find a replacement.

I give employees with over a year on the job five personal/sick days and we take a week off midsummer. I recently had a talk with one of my employees because he missed his 12th day of work this year. I asked why he didn't call to tell me he was going to miss the day and he said, "Because I knew you were going to get pissed if I called or didn't come to work. So I just took the day off." We had a talk and I gave him two more strikes after that day.

Performance on the job is rarely a problem. Once a guy gets to work he has to try pretty hard or be pretty lazy to get under my skin. Absenteeism or tardiness are what does me, and them, in.

I like the idea of a policy for missing days (I'll be writing one this winter). Make sure you have a backup plan for getting more help as well. I have tried hiring anyone with a pulse and vow to never go that route again.

[site]

My advice is to keep cycling through employees until you get good ones. The true good ones for me have been about one out of every eight people I hire. Another thing that will help is to keep running ads even when you don't have a job to fill. When you find a good prospect hire them on and give them a week or so as a trial period. At the end of the week you keep the person who you like best. Cruel? sure- but it beats doing it all yourself.

[Stonehenge]

I must just be lucky - my guys are always on time. I mean always. Then again, I lay into a guy the first day he is late, and if he's more than 5 minutes late, we probably will have already left the shop to go to the job site. Do that just once and it'll never happen again. Or if it does, you know what to do.

The trick is to catch it early - try to change directions a year in and you'll probably end up either firing them down the road or learning to live with it (the second one shouldn't be an option).

[agla]

Location, location, location.

It depends on the labor market, the labor culture, and alternative work places. Where I am, and I'm guessing it is the same where Johm is, there are a lot more positions to fill than people to fill them and it has been this way for several years. That means that you can run ads for weeks and hardly get a call - that means the one in eight theory does not apply here. You also can lay into late help all you want, some of them want to be fired so they can collect unemployment and work for someone else under the table. If they get sick of listening to you, they line themselves up a new job while they are picking up materials for you (networking).

I'm not saying everyone sucks, but there is a whole generation of landscape laborers in my area that never dealt with adverse hiring conditions. Lowest laborers start out at $12-$14 per hour and would just as soon get fired if their friends are going away for a long weekend and they can't take the day off to join them. They will have a job with someone else when they get back.

I agree with John, it is easier and better business to put up with it under these circumstances, than to fire people and wait four weeks to hire a replacement who will do the same thing.

[FireandIce]

Have you ever considered a No Call-Out Incentive? It would depend upon their actual personality if they wanted to get the bonus or not. But if they weren't late, didn't take off, and worked their full shift for 2/3 months maybe a little bonus would help. During your peak season you could increase the bonus amount.

I agree with Stonehenge, changing in the middle can be hazardous (I can't really tell if that's what your intent is though). At least something like this you can implement at any time while you brainstorm the details of policy and procedures or an employee handbook.

[Dale Wiley]

If you contract a job and the homeowner gives you no plans, no explanation of what the job will be when you get there, in a week, or what additions they may want to make in a year, and they will just tell you when they get there, and wait until every day when you get there to tell them.

This would impact efficent operations and hiring and maintaing employees in a stable work force is no different.

Employees need :

Clear job descripitions and expectations.

Clear financial and wage structure definition with in the job descripitions and skill set achievement outlines.

Clear upward job path progression upon skill set addition's and skill level achievement and mastery. (Learn to earn)

Clear and spelled out job infractions, the penalities for such infraction, and the nesscesity of these outlines and how the company will handle them.

If you have these written outlines, and manage by them, and you have the workers agree to them as a condition of employment, you will be able to train a better worker, with a better attitude, that will produce more, and that you can pay more, and achieve more production from.

Structure yields efficency.

Hire attitude and teach skill.

[FireandIce]

Structure yields efficency.

Dale: I LOVE THAT! I'm gonna steal that line!

Employees are like kids. They need your guidance, patience- but most of all they need to know their boundaries and the consequences.

On a side note I'd highly recommend to anyone and everyone if you have policy and procedures- more importantly an employee handbook, have it reviewed by an attorney whom deals with labor laws and stuff.

[justgardens]

We have a policy on what is expected from the employee as far as calling off the moment of hire and they have to sign it. Onre thing I tried to do this year was to have a crew meeting on Monday's to let everyone know what page we were on for the week. Unfortunately as all of you know the best laid plans of mice and men change througout a week for a multitude of reasons. I agree with Dale to keep employees informed of what their work week will be like, what they can expect in wages, and what is expected as far as job performance. I confess I begin to slide on this as the season progresses as I just can't keep up a weekly plan on what we are doing. I have LEFT more than once when someone doesn't show up on time. The crew may have to work slower but we work fine without them until I can find someone who is willing to be on time. I've never had anyone quit and walk off a job yet. I've asked them to leave if they came late though. Our job pool is easliy filled here but I agree with Site about hiring until you have a great crew. Eventually your main crew will come together.

[agla]

Some choose a twelve pack, bag of weed, or some rock over structure in these parts. Again it is a numbers game. If there are enough applicants so that you can hire eight to yield one that is the way to do it. See how long it takes to get eight applicants in my neighborhood. Then see how many accept the job. Then see how many show up on the first day. Then see how many ... too late it is November.