Dick Wulf, MSW, LCSW

 Team Leadership to Reduce Tardiness and Absenteeism

Copyright 2002 Dick Wulf.

Poor attendance can be the result of a few factors. Poor attendance can be related to:

Let’s deal with each of these separately.

(1) Inadequate Team Purpose — the Absent Member Does Not Think He or She Needs What the Team Offers

Absenteeism can be related to team purpose. Many teams fail because the team has not adopted a critical purpose communicated in actual words. There may be a purpose critical to the employer, but not one that incorporates any really important need of one or all of the employees on the team. In other words, there is not an adopted team purpose important enough to be a long-term priority to some or all team members.

Skillful team leadership makes sure that the team adopts a critical purpose right at the start of the team experience. Team members are asked whether the team purpose under discussion is important enough for them to commit to being a part of the team and be on the job consistently. Since the "right answer" is so obvious, the team leader needs to ask team employees if they can think of any way to make the team purpose even more interesting to them.

After a critical team purpose has been established, one that melds the needs of the employing organization and the employed individuals, the costs of team membership are discussed. These personal requirements stem from the team purpose. One of them will be consistent attendance. This should be discussed by the team in a meeting. Team members should be asked what will be the negative effect on the team if anyone takes attendance at work lightly.

It is easy to see why a team with no purpose might not compete with a lot of other things asking for a person’s time. Salary is not a sufficient reason for consistent attendance for those who do not really think they need the money, whether or not they actually do. People commit to team purposes and the team experience more than to salary because they can always get a paycheck elsewhere.

Therefore, for the sake of success, the team can take time out from its regular agenda to discuss what the team is all about and whether that is good enough to stimulate regular attendance. If not, it is better to modify the purpose and whole direction of the team to include enough for all team members while keeping what the company needs in the purpose statement.

Often the team leader states a team purpose but does not ask the team members to commit to it, hoping that the purpose is popular enough to keep people coming. When the team leader simply states a team purpose, the team is actually still without a purpose because the team itself has not adopted it. The team leader has adopted a purpose for the team, and this holds no power over team members. It is the organization’s purpose, not theirs. In their minds, they don’t really have to fully commit to it.

The team leadership skill that is so very important here is the ability to bring together the needs of the company and the needs of the employee and state such in the form of a team purpose. An example might help.

The small business owner of an automobile lube and oil change service will hire employees to change oil in cars. Enjoyment of changing oil will not keep all of them coming to work faithfully. A few will have very strong work ethics, but they will leave if they can get a better salary elsewhere. A few will fit into the oil-changing team well and lack the initiative to look for a better-paying job. Or they will stay because fellow employees are enjoyable to be with. However, some employees will struggle with management’s stated purpose for them: to change oil. Lacking initiative, they will not find better-paying jobs. Lacking above-average social skills, they will not sufficiently enjoy the comradery. They will begin to miss work more and more often, even making up illnesses to be able to do something they consider more important.

But, then, the management of the oil change shop changes its leadership practices to be team-oriented rather than job-oriented. Employees are asked to come to a team meeting where this new team purpose is proposed. The manager states, "I want to change how we all think about the job here at A-1 Best Oil Change Center. I am proposing that you be treated more as a team of people. Therefore, I am proposing a team purpose. How would you like to be a team of people who help one another enjoy the job of treating customers and changing oil in a superior fashion?"

Most of the team members will have already thought of the job in this fashion and will agree to the purpose as suggested by the manager. To acquire more commitment to the purpose, the manager should ask if the team can think of ways of stating the team purpose so that it might better meet the employees’ needs. Often something will be suggested that can be added to the purpose statement. Someone might suggest adding "getting paid more" to the purpose statement. The team leader might then suggest the purpose be changed to read, "to help one another enjoy the job of treating customers and changing oil in a superior fashion in such a way that leads to increased profit for the company and more money for team members."

Therefore, after a purpose statement has been accepted by both management (the team leader) and employees (the team and its members), the team leader should ask the oil change team what they will need to do to reach their purpose. This will be a brainstorm session, aimed at getting everyone to agree upon what needs attention. In this discussion will come many, many things, such as the need to help one another learn better and better ways to treat cars and people, to be friendly to one another, etc. Included will be the need to be committed to the team, be on time for work, and keep absenteeism at a minimum.

Keep in mind that the team purpose should be an outcome, a benefit worth spending time and energy on, some outcome that every employee will want to place at top priority. In the above example, the outcomes were enjoyment of treating people in a superior way, doing the automobile tasks in a superior way, and, in the longer term, getting a raise or bonus.

Outcomes allow measurement of the team’s effectiveness. Outcomes allow the team leader and the team itself to avoid mere activity that leads to no valuable destination. People want to know that they are getting something valuable out of their expenditure of time and effort. There will always be a few dedicated followers who will be at work no matter what. But the more discerning might not buy into activity for activity’s sake. They want to know that they are using their time for something they really value and cannot be gained elsewhere without a lot of effort. They need a purpose that is personally valuable and can be measured.

If the purpose just doesn’t "scratch where the employee really itches", that employee will start to show problems, usually tardiness in getting to work or excessive absences, as well as poor attitude. At first that person might have thought that the team and its purpose would "fit the bill". But, down the stretch a bit, he or she may come to realize that the payoff from the job just doesn’t meet any critical personal need. Motivation for the job decreases. Since the team purpose, while it looked good at the start, doesn’t really address a major need, his or her attendance grows less reliable and causes problems for the employer and the team of employees.

A team leader wanting to start a team (or continue a team that is having trouble with attendance) should evaluate the team purpose to see if it is primarily for the employer’s need. If so, the team is bound to face defeat. The answer is to change the purpose so that it is high priority in each team member’s mind because it includes something highly desirable to each team member. This will make the team effort more significant to the employees. It might take a lot of thinking and a lot of talking with team members, but a significant and critical purpose can usually be found.

This conversation about team purpose is only cursory without full discussion of the contracting process a team should go through to really be effective. To learn much more about contracting, setting the team purpose and helping team members count the cost of team membership, you might want to review the materials handed out at the training you attended ten months ago.

(2) Absentee Team Members Don’t Feel Wanted or Desired in the Team for a Multitude of Possible Reasons

There is always the possibility that absentee team members do not feel welcome or liked.

There are many reasons people might not feel liked. (1) They may have been unpopular as children and just see themselves as not likeable. (2) They may have been liked as children, but because of other factors, they may have poor self-esteem and feel insecure and not liked. (3) They may have been rejected in overt or subtle ways by one or both parents as children and need strong, open approval and affection. (4) They may actually not be liked by the team.

The typical way taught to help people feel welcome is for the team leader to talk to the employee who is avoiding the work environment in some way or other through excessive absences or tardiness. However, the question of acceptance is rarely focused on the team leader. Instead, the concern is whether the team members, not the leader, want the reluctant member to be a part of the team.

Therefore, the superior way to address employee absenteeism or tardiness is to have the team and its members deal with the problem. It is the team’s job to make people feel welcome and wanted on the team. Only the team and its members can help a team member feel wanted, valuable and capable.

This solution will be adequate for most of the individuals who would be sporadic in attendance for the first three reasons listed above. Certainly, it is not a solution if the person is truly not liked by the team. But for the first three reasons, some individuals will need more overt help from the team, and the team might want to discuss this with or without the person present. Does the person seem to need more overt signs of acceptance? A largely introverted team might have to tell its members to extend themselves emotionally. A fun team might have to tell its members to not forget the compliments.

But what does a team do if the person is not really liked by the team? Weak teams don’t do anything because they are glad the person is not there. But strong teams will see that the team has a problem, the solving of which could strengthen each team member and the team itself.

A strong team, or a team with a skillful leader, would face this problem of an unpopular team member head-on. If not worked on before the person becomes habitually tardy or absent, the team will discuss their dislike of the person who is absent and admit that they should do something to help the person become more likeable. In the person’s absence, the team would examine itself and the hearts of the various team members and do whatever necessary to correct their own problems, whether that be disgust, judgmental attitudes, lack of compassion or other dysfunctional behaviors. After that was taken care of, the team would go on to effect a plan to help the absent team member become likeable, maybe for the first time in his or her life.

Can you imagine how good a team would feel about itself if it addressed such a problem head-on and helped someone turn their whole life around? Can you imagine how good everyone would feel when that person became a dependable member of the team and reported true happiness from finally being liked at work?

And, of course, the person would not have to be absent for the team to deal with such a problem. As soon as it is evident that the team and its members were having trouble liking and accepting an individual, and it would be evident from the body language signals, the skillful team leader can ask the team to deal with it. Most likely, that person has been disliked all his or her life, and for the team to deal with it face-to-face would be far less cruel than the way it had been handled by others at school and work for years and years. And a conscientious team under the guidance of a skillful leader would deal with it gently.

(3) Some Problem in the Team Itself Makes Coming Scary or Quite Uncomfortable

Occasionally a team becomes dysfunctional and scares people away. A growing conflict between members or between members and the team leader will cause a team to be uncomfortable and some team members might begin to avoid the team through tardiness or absenteeism. In this case, the team must deal with whatever is occurring that is uncomfortable or dysfunctional. The skillful team leader usually sees these things coming and urges the team to deal with them before they get so very uncomfortable. But if such a problem escapes the attention of the team leader, he or she merely has the team deal with it when it is seen.

(4) A Personal Problem of the Absentee Member Is Taking Priority over Team Attendance

Most will recognize that this is sometimes a legitimate reason to be tardy or absent. But, sometimes the team and its members can be of help. Often it is the team leader who makes contact to see if a serious problem exists. But, it is even better for the team members do it instead. The absentee member will want to know that his or her problem is not an unwanted burden to the team. It will be expected that the team leader might want to be of help, so the team’s concern will be seen as more genuine.

Can I be of further help?

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