Question

Provide an example at work or in school where a problem was either identified late or ignored and created a greater problem than it should have?

How could it have been handled differently?

What key lessons from this course would you bring to prevent a similar reoccurence during another project?

Answer 1

Problem at work either identified late or ignored and created a greater problem than it should have?

Late arrival of the employees

In a company ABC there are 30 employees working in the main head office. The company is having 2 different site a different locations operating with a staff of 25 and 35 respectively. The site operates from 8 AM to 6 PM and the Head office timing is 9AM to 6PM.

In the head office the attendance of all the employees are maintained by using an attendance register. All the employees have to sign the attendance register and mark the arrival time. The register will be kept in the front office till 10 Am as some of the procurement executives may come late after morning meetings with suppliers. For such meetings and late coming they are getting the approval from the department heads. After 10 AM the register will be taken back to the HR department and any further signing will be allowed only with the written approval of the concerned department heads.

Problem identified

As the register is being kept at the front office some of the employees take the advantage of the same and started coming late. Instead of coming at 9AM they used to come after 9.30 Am and before 10 AM. Some other employees noticed this practice and they also started to come late with silly excuses. As the site is being controlled from the Head office, this unprofessional approach of some employees affected the site operation where immediate decisions and support is required. Due to such late coming it affected the work and morale of others those who are coming punctual. The subject issue is taken to the HR and they have asked all departments to give the explanation and it in turn causes the reason for interdepartmental conflict.

How could it have been handled differently?

Once the subject matter was noticed by the HR, they should send a circular to all the departments and give the instruction to take the register from front office by 9.15 Am. All late entries after 9.15 am should have a written approval.

What key lessons from this course would you bring to prevent a similar reoccurrence during another project?

To avoid such situation the best way to handle the manpower movement is possible by introducing the bio metric system for attendance.

The bio metric punching will help to take the punch time and there won’t be any confusion. All employees who punch on or before 9.15 Am will be considered as on time entry. 3 late coming of 2 hour is also allowed as a relaxation for the employees. If any employees comes late for the fourth time, it will be considered as late coming and the leave will be deducted or it will be on loss of pay. By implementing the bio metric punching system, all employees are coming under the same system and further conflicts and discussions can be avoided.