Dealing with late staff members

A question recently came up from David Uribe Gosselin at Hostel Ka’Beh in Cancun about how to deal with staff who come to work late.  There were many suggestions and opinions. Here is a summary of the discussion:

David Uribe Gosselin: If staff are more than 10-minutes late, we make them give a $3 dollar 'donation' to the tip jar. We came to this conclusion because we didn't want to 'remove' money from their salary and 'make money' off of them being late.
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It's a cancer if people can't get their act together, not even for a critical period of time. IMO, the important thing here is to give them as many chances as you feel comfortable giving them, and eventually get to the point where you can feel justified in saying: "Enough is enough... I'm sorry, but you've brought this upon yourself"

Darren Overby: The rules are of course different in California then in Mexico. Here employers can't fine employees or arbitrarily reduce pay (although less time worked can equal less pay).
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I would have a beer/fun fund for the staff that I contribute to as owner when something was done well. Then when staff were late, I'd have them contribute to the beer/fun since their tardiness negatively affects the other staff. Of course, they will get to enjoy part of the beer/fun fund too, which perhaps won't make them feel so bad for contributing to it.
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In California administrative discipline, demotion and firing are the only options (that I know of). However, you can't arbitrarily withhold pay. Administrative Discipline is a "scolding" in writing. Firstly, we try to create and maintain a culture of teamwork, cooperation and camaraderie. For staff who show they don't care about these things or the negative affect they are having on others, we would fire.

Dennis Pitcock: Just schedule those who are often late for earlier, knowing they'll be late, and by being late, they show up right on time. That worked well in Brazil.

Malole Rodriguez: Every time I was 15 minutes late, I gave my colleague at least 30 minutes back. This way they could either start half an hour later or finish half an hour sooner.

Aden Annunaki: Take money from their salary based on how many minutes they are late so it is a sliding scale. The fine for being late should go directly to the person who had to stay over on their shift to cover for the late employee

Adrian Jimenez Iglesias: We consider being late, arriving at the hostel after 10 minutes and they always need to clock in. We give better shifts to the employees who show a better performance with their task. So the one who is late one day would get lest shifts the week after therefor less money. Besides, If you are late and we can get someone else to cove it, you go home today and don’t get paid for that shift.
We also have bonuses for the employee who gets more positive reviews and the one who sells more. If a guy is late he won’t be elegible for these bonuses. We cannot afford worked to be late. It makes us lose a lot of money and produces very negative reviews. These are our rules but we normally are very understanding with the excuses and not always use the rules.

Jason Ordiway: Here in Vegas many hotels have a point system, when you are late you lose points, you dont show up to work you lose points you call in sick you lose points you lose all your points you're fired! I dont use this system. My employees are never late. They understand that by starting at 4pm means that at 4pm you have opened all the programs, logged in to everything, counted the money and are ready to check in people. That it doesn't mean you arrive at 4pm and then you start doing all that stuff. Idk if it's an American cultural thing but 90% of the times they make it in time.

Tina Munzing: I would tell the person. You have new shift one hour earlier. Or send them home especially if they don’t say sorry and care. Good luck my friend. I know is hard to find people..but if it effects you...bye.

Robert Davies: You could give them extra chores such as cleaning the toilets... Make them buy sweets for their colleagues. Or make them go run a few laps around reception/the street. Most extreme is sending them straight home when they are late. If they don't work, they don't get paid. They will soon realise that being on time is important. But that can hugely backfire on you. Perhaps a reward system might work, where if the lateness between the staff is 15 mins collectively then beers are in order, or sweets.

Nicholas Marais Reyneke: Be proactive. Don’t let a person’s excessive tardiness go so long that you react in anger. Remember, you’re tired of the behavior, not the person. Try not to lose your cool. It’s counterproductive to use foul language or threaten an employee. Clearly outline consequences too. Every hostel is different obviously depending on the culture of the business and size.

Morena Smith: The moment staff starts doing what they want is the moment you lost your job as a manager . We came to that point when we have to beg staff to work ? Why ? How would any other sector handle that ? They would fire them for being late and with being late they are doing a bad job , and bad job should be punished with no job cause you're guests suffer for no reason.

Jon Thorne: 3 warnings and they are gone. Same as any other industry. Business is business.

How do you handle tardiness in your hostel? What are your consequences for arriving late to work?