Which industry is the latest? Data on late arrivals and factors to consider when raising with staff
Apr 2025 ⋅ 8 min read
We took a random sample of our customer data*, which included more than 150,000 instances of late arrivals in 2024, to see which industries were the ‘worst offenders’ for being late to work.
Read on for our results, insights, and factors to consider when raising recurring lateness with staff (or jump ahead below!).
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Key findings
Overall, the average lateness we found was 59 minutes. We also discovered many sector differences, including that late arrivals for workers in ‘Professional Service or Public Service’ jobs clocked in at an average of 113 minutes after their scheduled start time – the biggest delay of all sectors analysed in our research and more than double that of the next closest group!
Find the list of the industries we analysed in our research below, each with the average minutes employees clocked in late.
Here are our overall rankings:
- ‘Professional Service & Public Service’ (113 minutes late)
- ‘Other’ (54 minutes late)
- ‘Retail’ (52 minutes late)
- ‘Entertainment and Leisure’ (51 minutes late)
- ‘Healthcare and Medical’ (50 minutes late)
- ‘Hospitality and Catering’ (48 minutes late)
- ‘Technology and Software’ (44 minutes late)
Outside of these main sectors, we also analysed sub-sector groups to highlight which had the most extreme tardiness – and found that those working in ‘Other Professional Services’ clocked in the latest as a whole...
On average, late arrivals in this group arrived 4.1 hours after their scheduled start time!
10 sub-sector groups in total clocked in more than an hour late on average. As well as ‘Other Professional Services’ already mentioned, these were:
- ‘SaaS’ (155 minutes late)
- ‘Theme park, zoo, aquarium’ (95 minutes late)
- ‘GP surgery, primary care’ (88 minutes late)
- ‘Crime, police services’ (75 minutes late)
- ‘Pharmacy’ (75 minutes late)
- ‘Transportation’ (71 minutes late)
- ‘Veterinary, animal care’ (66 minutes late)
- ‘Beauty, salon, massage’ (64 minutes late)
- ‘Optical’ (63 minutes late)
So, let’s dive a little deeper. What did our lateness data show for each industry?
Sector-specific insights
Professional Service & Public Service
Of the 153,109 recorded late arrivals that we analysed (making up approximately 20% of all lateness recorded in RotaCloud for 2024), customers in the ‘Professional Service and Public Service’ sector group accounted for almost 20,000 of them.
In this group, our customers are split into one of 12 sub-sectors. Of these, ‘Other Professional Services’ were the worst offenders with late arrivals, on average, clocking in 246 minutes late – equating to more than 4 hours!
‘Crime and police services’ (75 minutes late) and ‘transportation’ (71 minutes late) took second and third place in this sector, followed by ‘beauty, salon, and massage’ (64 minutes late), and ‘university and other education’ (60 minutes late) to make up the top five.
The remaining seven sub-sectors managed to keep their average late arrivals to under one hour:
- ‘Communal organisation’ (58 minutes late)
- ‘Councils and public authority’ (57 minutes late)
- ‘Pet care and kennels’ (56 minutes late)
- ‘Call centre’ (55 minutes late)
- ‘Non-profit, volunteer, and charities’ (48 minutes late)
- ‘Security services’ (48 minutes late)
- ‘Cleaning service’ (35 minutes late)
Retail
Our retail customers split into three sub-sector groups and account for more than 10,000 of the late arrivals we analysed.
Of these, ‘online/e-commerce store’ employees had the highest average lateness of those who clocked in later than their scheduled shift (54 minutes late, in fact). However, the other two sub-sectors—‘retail store’ and ‘other retail’—were not far behind, with both recording 51 minutes late on average.
Entertainment & Leisure
‘Entertainment and Leisure’ accounted for over 14,000 recorded late arrivals that we reviewed. Out of its six sub-sectors, employees working for ‘theme park, zoo, and aquarium’ businesses took the top spot for the highest delay for starting their shifts, averaging a lateness of 95 minutes!
‘Events’ (47 minutes late), ‘theatre and cinemas’ (42 minutes late), and ‘other entertainment services’ (41 minutes late) also featured in our research. But it was workers in ‘golf club’ and ‘leisure, activity centres, and recreation’ companies who made up the top three, at 52 minutes and 50 minutes late.
Healthcare & Medical
Nine sub-sectors make up our healthcare customers, which recorded more than 43,000 late arrivals in this research. ‘GP surgery and primary care’ topped the list in this group, with late arrivals turning up an average of 88 minutes into their scheduled shift.
‘Pharmacy’, ‘veterinary and animal care’, and ‘optical’ workers also surpassed the one-hour-late mark on average, at 73, 66, and 63 minutes late, respectively.
The remaining five groups included:
- ‘Hospital and hospital department’ (51 minutes late)
- ‘Assisted living and care homes’ (49 minutes late)
- ‘Dental practice’ (49 minutes late)
- ‘Care agency’ (47 minutes late)
- ‘Other healthcare and medical’ (47 minutes late)
Hospitality & Catering
The ‘Hospitality and Catering’ industry was by far the largest proportion of the recorded lateness data we analysed, which was more than 53,000.
In this sector, ‘bar and club’, ‘catering and events’, and ‘pop-up’ workers were the worst offenders of the nine sub-sector groups, with late arrivals being 51 minutes late on average for all three groups.
‘Other hospitality’ (48 minutes late), ‘restaurant and cafe’ (47 minutes late), ‘deli and bakery’ (42 minutes late) were all less than 10 minutes behind the leaders. ‘QSR and fast casual’ workers were 38 minutes late, and ‘mobile’ workers were 37 minutes late.
Technology & Software
When it came to ‘Technology and Software’, the data we reviewed accounted for just shy of 1,500 recorded late arrivals. In this sector, it was those working in ‘SaaS’ who were the tardiest, at 155 minutes late on average.
Those working in ‘IT’ clocked in 55 minutes late, whereas ‘other software and technology’ workers were 38 minutes late on average.
Other
Where not able to be categorised by one of the above sectors, we have pooled our remaining customers into a ‘Other’ sector category. This group accounted for more than 11,000 late arrivals analysed in this research – and this data revealed that, on average, workers were 54 minutes late arriving at work.
Location insights
Looking at major cities and their averages, employees based in Leeds (82 minutes late), Nottingham (68 minutes late), and Glasgow (61 minutes late) were the ‘worst offenders’ for late arrivals to work.
However, it’s important to consider factors that can lead to these issues: traffic problems and public transport delays are the most common reasons for lateness – and for good reason. Data from the Office of Rail and Road reveals 7.6m delay claims were made from April 2023-24. Recent research from tank.co.uk, which looked at 600+ journeys and nearly 50 stations, also revealed that not only are many commuters experiencing regular delays, but 4% of morning commuter trains between 1 July 2024 and 31 December 2024 were cancelled.
Rail staff, including various union members, are set to walk out or take industrial action on multiple days in the coming months. While this doesn’t necessarily impact all on-site workers, it may impact the more than half a million employees who mainly rely on the rail network to commute to work.
With this in mind, we also looked into which locations were potentially most impacted by these delays from an employment point of view, resulting in being late to work.
While this recent research highlighted that stations in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Huddersfield, York, Derby, and Nottingham were the ‘worst’ stations for commuters with common cancellations and delays, our data revealed that Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol were also hotspots for workforce late arrivals.
Other factors to consider
It’s worth noting that our data may not reflect the full extent of the issue due to ‘time theft’ and ‘buddy punching’.
Also known as ‘timesheet fraud’, ‘time theft’ is when an employee intentionally manipulates their timesheet. It can include exaggerating hours worked (such as clocking in earlier or clocking out later) or taking longer breaks without recording them accurately on timesheets. It might not seem all that big a deal on the surface, but when it starts to add up, it can have a crippling effect on your business.
‘Buddy punching’ (when one member of staff clocks in or out of a shift on behalf of another, whether it’s via a time-clock, swipe card clocking-in system, or a paper sign-in sheet) can also be a related issue here. This tends to happen when staff run late for a shift or attempt to artificially extend their recorded working hours for more pay. But it can also happen during a shift, with staff clocking one another in and out of their breaks to give the impression that they’re working when, in reality, they’re not.
These issues tend to happen due to a combination of fear of being reprimanded, feeling disengaged at work, and feelings of resentment towards the employer (i.e. poor employee experience and engagement), so they’re often symptoms of bigger problems such as unhappy staff, rigid rota planning, or poorly articulated policies.
How to manage employee lateness
While delays can't be avoided, having the correct tools in place can make a lot of difference.
With RotaCloud, businesses can track attendance in real time using our mobile app or clock-in terminals. It allows managers to quickly identify staffing gaps and make decisions to keep operations running smoothly. Employers can also set up clock-in reminders and location-based check-ins to ensure staff stay on track, even when their journey to work is being disrupted.
Managing late employees can be a minefield, but several effective strategies and tips for managing late employees can help. For example, it’s important to set clear expectations, keep accurate records, and be consistent and fair with disciplinary procedures.
With RotaCloud, keeping on top of lateness is very easy. Employee timesheets are generated automatically and stored securely online, with any lateness and absences flagged for managers to review. You can even spot trends and patterns and use them to have an open conversation with your employees.
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Data rounded to the nearest whole minute unless otherwise stated.
*Insights based on a randomised, representative sample of ~20% of real RotaCloud customer clock-ins from a wide range of businesses in 2024, equating to 153,109 rows of late arrivals.
