Late Timesheets
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We are having a classic problem with employees submitting timesheets late which of course, ends up costing us more to have to process manual checks for them. We would like to implement a late timesheet policy that in essence charges a fee for late timesheet submission. I am aware that you cannot withhold deductions from an employee's pay unless the employee agrees to those deductions in writing, for example benefit deductions. So what's to stop an employer from creating a late timesheet policy that all employees must agree to as a condition of employment that would permit an employer to collect a fee for a late timesheet submission? I would appreciate everyone's thoughts and feeback on this.
Comments
Instead, I would handle it as a failure to follow procedures. Employees who turn in late timesheets cause the organization time and money. Chances are this has been treated as a small issue so far, so the employees don't see it as a big deal Follow your displinary procedures, up to and including termination. The first time someone gets written up you will find all the employees will sit up and take notice.
Good luck!
Nae
Our drivers are paid a percentage of the freight they haul. If they don't turn tickets in by a certain time, they don't get paid for those tickets until the next pay period. Generally it only takes missing the deadline once.
If you have talked to this employee with no change, then moved up to writing the employee up and including it in the evaluations with no change, then next I would suspend without pay for an hour or two. If still no change I would move the suspension up to a half day or whole day, then to 3 days. If still no change you might as well face it that the employee has no respect for your policies and terminate.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Nae
Personally, I would deal with it as a disciplinary issue.
If nothing else, there might be a non-disciplinary, non-monetary solution to help the employee get the timesheets in on time and save the employer the processing costs. In a couple of places I've worked (both public employers who paid on monthly schedules), because of the delay and cost caused by late timesheets, the managers would take on the responsibility of collecting the timesheets from the employees and then submitting them to payroll. It may seem a little micro-managey, but if it solves the problem with just a little extra nudging from the managers/supervisors, it may be more worthwhile than implementing a fee system.
With all of that said, to offer another possible suggestion that could work around a few of the problems noted by the other excellent comments in this thread, what if you implemented a combination of the policies suggested here?
The employer policy would be that employees submitting late timesheets would not be paid until the next regular pay period. However, employees would have the option of paying the extra costs for manual check generation if they were unable to wait until that next pay period.
This lets the employees opt in to the fee payment so that they're at least not going without rent money, but it also instills firm consequences for the late timesheet that are separate from the fee payment. I think it's a close distinction, but it feels a little better, to me, to structure it that way.