Warning Letter for Attendance or Lateness + Templates

Your employees are the lifeblood of your small business. They’re responsible for producing your products, providing your services, and supporting your business operations. But employees who don’t show up for work—or show up late—can compromise your company’s efficiency, harm employee morale, and eat into your revenue.

Each year, unscheduled absenteeism costs employers $3,600 per hourly employee and $2,650 per salaried employee. The kicker? On any given workday, 3.6% of full-time employees are absent from work, with traffic, personal problems, and oversleeping as the most common reasons.

As a small business owner, how do you handle irregular attendance? With a warning letter for attendance/lateness, for starters. But what should you include in that letter? And how do you use it to prevent frequent attendance problems?

Why It’s Important to Address Attendance and Tardiness

First, let’s briefly touch on why it’s important to address these issues to begin with:

• Lost productivity: When an employee is consistently absent or late, others need to pick up the slack to avoid delays and prevent work from piling up. This means work on one or more projects might slow down, reducing overall productivity. In addition, management needs to invest more time into dealing with scheduling issues and filling in gaps—which takes them away from their regular job duties and makes them less effective.
• Lower employee morale: Consistently covering for an absent or late employee can cause friction and resentment with employees who show up on time. Additionally, workers who pick up the missing employee’s work might become more stressed and burnt out, leading to lower morale and increased turnover.
• Worse product/service quality: When on-time employees have to pick up the slack for chronically late or missing employees, their performance can (and often will) drop. This can lead to a drop in the quality of your products or services—with customer issues (like complaints and refund requests) sure to follow.
• Labor costs: You might need to hire additional help or pay your employees overtime to prevent delays caused by chronically absent or late employees. This can increase your hiring and labor costs and cut into your business’s revenue.
• Legal and contractual requirements: Your local and state laws and/or employee/union contracts might require you to fully document attendance issues before you take action and punish an employee. A warning letter helps you provide evidence of consistent lateness/absenteeism, as well as the steps you’ve taken to improve the issue.

Why You Should Send a Letter to a Chronically Late or Absent Employee

Though there are different ways to address attendance or lateness issues, letters of warning are particularly effective for a few different reasons, including:

• Formally notify an employee of violating company policy: A warning letter is a formal document that creates (or builds upon) a paper trail of attendance policy violations. This can come in handy if you need to take disciplinary action later (like suspension or termination), as you can use previous letters as proof that you’ve tried to work with them to correct the behavior.
• Ensure rules are enforced across the board: Providing every chronically absent or late employee with a letter of warning, regardless of their title, status, or tenure with the company, shows that your policies are equally enforced across your workforce—which can help protect against potential claims of unfair treatment or discrimination.
• Lay out consequences for consistent absenteeism/lateness: Warning letters reiterate the consequences for violating your attendance policy, driving home the importance of showing up to work on time and as scheduled—and that reminder can often be just what the employee needs to get their attendance and/or punctuality back on track.
• Create an opportunity for a discussion or feedback: An effective letter of warning can be a jumping-off point to having a conversation with your employee about why they’re late or absent. And if their tardiness or absenteeism is a result of a bigger issue—like not having access to childcare or reliable transportation—you can take steps to help support them and alleviate said issue (for example, by adjusting their schedule).

What To Include in a Warning Letter for Attendance and/or Lateness Issues

A letter of warning for attendance/lateness should be clear and concise, with all the details an employee needs to understand the consequences of being late—both for your business and for their employment.

Details on their lateness/absenteeism can help them recognize just how often they’ve been late or missed work, in addition to giving them the chance to explain their recent attendance issues.

Each letter should include:

• The date you issue the letter
• The employee’s name and title
• The subject
• A statement that explains this letter is an official warning
• A reminder of your employee attendance policy
• A description of the infraction with specific details and evidence about how it violates the attendance policy (including the number of unexcused absences/late arrivals, as well as dates and times)
• Any previous actions you’ve taken (such as a warning, write-up, or suspension)
• Current consequences for the most recent unexcused absence/lateness
• Potential consequences for future absences/late arrivals
• Solutions for avoiding escalation (like calling ahead or using personal time)
• An opportunity to respond or provide an explanation
• Space for the employee to sign and acknowledge they received the warning

Warning Letter Templates

Looking for a warning letter template to share with your employees? Here are a few sample warning letters—including a first, second, and final warning—to help you get started.

Use these sample letters as templates by removing names and details—and substituting names and details that are relevant to your business and employee.