Like a Swiss timepiece or those Boston Dynamics robots that can do parkour, intricate and complex systems working in harmony can produce spectacular outcomes. When complex systems aren’t working as one, however, the opposite is more than likely to happen. Your watch’s functionality may be reduced to a glorified wrist weight, and if those Boston Dynamics robots go haywire, well, maybe it’s best to not think about that outcome.
When it comes to the complex network of legacy systems HR and People Ops teams are often stuck with when managing leaves of absence, the prevalent lack of harmony leads to detrimental effects on operational efficiencies and the team’s business objectives.
By breaking down the components of your current leave management systems today, you can be better equipped to identify:
- Administrative pinch points
- Compliance vulnerabilities
- Gaps in employee support
- Payroll inaccuracies
- Opportunities to capitalize on state benefits
As with most of life’s frustrations, intentionally mapping the situation out so you can identify where the friction is coming from is the first step to harmony.
Below are the common systems involved with your leave management process. Some of them might not be so obvious, and it underscores just how difficult it is to effectively manage leaves of absence:
- Federal, State and Local Leave Laws
- Requests and Approvals
- Leave Tracking
- HRIS
- Employee Communication
- Insurance carriers
- Secure File Storage
- Payroll
Understanding Today’s Leave of Absence Laws and State Benefits
Oftentimes when we think of systems we think of software programs and platforms, but employee leave management casts a much wider systems net than that. One of the most important systems to get folded into your leave management process is having a comprehensive understanding of the latest leave of absence laws and regulations that could impact your organization and your employees individually.
Existing leave laws evolve. Non-existing leave laws suddenly exist. Do you know the ins and outs of FMLA and ADA? What about the recently passed Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)? Do you have workers in Colorado and are you doing FAMLI planning?
HR and People Ops teams aren’t the ones enacting these pieces of legislation of course, but the legal system is one that must be understood and followed in accordance with their regulations or your organization could be at risk of violating the law. Similarly, navigating applying for these benefits and protections can be confusing for employees, and time-consuming for you and your team to support.
Finding a leave management system that stays up-to-date on all the latest leave laws so you can ensure your organization is acting in accordance with the latest rules and regulations can reduce compliance risks and ensure your employees are getting the support they’re entitled to by law. Ensure the system makes it easy for employees to understand how to apply for any benefits for various states or municipalities they may reside in without burdening you or your team.
Managing Employee Leave Requests and Approvals
In order for your leave management process to work well, employees need to know what leave policies they’re entitled to, the mechanism by which to request a leave, and what the leave approval process looks like. For most organizations, the legacy systems for managing this process are some combination of email exchanges, excel spreadsheets, and calendar reminders.
Not only is this setup not scalable, but it’s also rife with the possibility of missing important deadlines, dropping the ball on communication, and losing any sort of record of truth should an audit occur.
Your leave management process should make it easy to educate employees on their rights and responsibilities, determine whether or not they’re FMLA eligible, make requesting a leave of absence straightforward, and take the guesswork out of the approval process, all without relying on a hazy digital trail of emails and manual spreadsheets.
Accurately Track Leaves of Absence
Excel and Google Sheets users out there, we feel you. HR teams commonly use these systems to track and manage employee leaves of absence, and hurling curse words toward the monitor is just as common an occurrence. Here’s why:
Limited Automation: Spreadsheets require manual data entry and calculations, making them susceptible to human errors. This can result in inaccuracies in leave balances and records.
Version Control: Files can be prone to version control issues, leading to discrepancies in leave records if multiple HR team members are involved in managing leaves.
Limited Collaboration: Collaboration can be challenging, especially in larger organizations. Sharing spreadsheets via email or shared drives can lead to issues in data integrity and security.
Data Security: Speaking of, Excel and Google Sheets lack robust security features, making them less suitable for handling sensitive employee data. Unauthorized access or accidental data loss can also occur.
Scalability Issues: As your organization grows, manually managing leave data in a spreadsheet becomes more cumbersome. They may not efficiently handle the increased volume of employee leave requests.
Lack of Reporting Capabilities: Their reporting capabilities are limited compared to dedicated leave management software. It can be challenging to generate comprehensive reports and analyze leave trends effectively.
Compliance Challenges: Ensuring compliance with labor laws and company policies can be difficult with a spreadsheet, as managing complex leave policies and regulations may lead to errors.
No Self-Service Options: Employees may not have easy access to their leave balances and history, requiring you and your team to respond to frequent inquiries.
Auditing Challenges: Verifying the accuracy of leave records and tracking changes over time can be cumbersome when using spreadsheets, potentially leading to audit difficulties.
Time-Consuming: In the end, managing employee leaves in a spreadsheet is simply too time-consuming, especially if you’re supporting a large workforce. This means the time you’re spending tracking leaves in a spreadsheet, the fewer resources you have to drive business initiatives forward.
A leave management system that automates leave tracking can replace your legacy systems and free up resources to help support your organization in a more impactful way, all while ensuring employee support, data accuracy, and compliance.
How Leave Management Systems Work with Your HRIS
Data accuracy is paramount when effectively managing leaves of absence, and if your HRIS is your source of truth and is siloed from the rest of your leave management systems, there’s a good chance that either:
- Your leave data is at risk of being inaccurate, or
- You’re spending copious amounts of time in your HRIS to ensure that your leave data remains accurate.
This comes into play with each leave for a variety of reasons, from determining FMLA or other employer policy eligibility to confirming pay rate to knowing which state they reside and if they need to apply to benefits programs.
This is an opportunity to seek out a solution that pulls information directly from your HRIS so you can automate your processes (like benefit eligibility for example) based on accurate employee demographic information.
Nailing Leave Management Communication
Clear communication with employees (don’t forget the managers) about your organization’s leave policies and processes is another integral part of the leave management system. HR teams are often relied on to engage with employees and ensure they understand the process and feel comfortable navigating it should they need to take a leave.
Effective communication can improve employee satisfaction, reduce administrative burdens, and can be the difference from a manager empathetically supporting their employee and them causing a leave law violation.
Creating a system where it’s easy for employees to self-serve is vital, but as you’ve likely experienced every day on the job, employees will reliably come to you for questions they could seek out the answers to on their own. Still, it’s your responsibility to communicate with employees throughout the process, especially when they have questions about insurance carriers, state benefits, or what to do in an obscure leave situation.
The influx of emails to your inbox can be overwhelming at times, and if your team doesn’t have the capacity to answer or triage their inquiries you run the risk of tarnishing employee satisfaction, or not providing answers in a timely manner when timeliness may be of the essence. Additionally, you might be asked questions about leave-related issues you simply aren’t qualified to answer.
To mitigate this ubiquitous leave management scenario, you might look at a dedicated leave management solution that provides 1-1 employee support, communicates to employees everything they need to know for their specific leave journey, and sends reminders about upcoming deadlines so you don’t have to.
Insurance Carriers and Leave of Absence Management
Some of you reading this may be relying on your Short-Term Disability (STD) carrier to also manage your leaves of absence. If so, you’ve likely experienced the shortcomings of having the carrier’s system try to play nicely with all the other systems we’ve outlined above. In particular, employees often don’t get the support they need to navigate confusing parts of the leave journey like applying for state benefits. When they have questions, they are often directed to 1-800 number where a carousel of representatives pass around their case like a hot potato.
Having your carriers manage leaves of absence also reveals another friction point on your network of systems…they often don’t manage all types of leave. This means that if you have company-specific benefits, or there’s a state that has a unique leave benefit your employees might be eligible for, the burden for managing that leave, or that portion of a leave in some cases, falls back on you.
While most dedicated leave management systems don’t remove the carrier from the process entirely as they still are the providers of your STD benefit, a good leave management system works directly with the carrier to provide answers for your employees for you, answers all the employee questions the carrier can’t, and can manage all leave types across the country.
Secure Leave of Absence File Storage
Secure leave of absence file storage is crucial for several reasons. First, it ensures compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, allowing your organization to maintain accurate records of employee leaves for audit purposes. Proper storage also supports transparency and accountability in HR processes, as both employees and your team can access leave records when needed.
Leaves of absence are sensitive situations that involve sensitive employee information. Having a system in place where you can ensure files won’t end up lost or in the wrong hands isn’t easy without the right tools. Storing them on a personal hard drive runs the risk of losing access if documents are needed quickly for any reason. Storing them in a shared drive runs the same risk, but adds the additional risks of version control and over-accessibility.
Ensuring Leave of Absence Payroll Accuracy
Saving money for last, but certainly not least. One of the biggest concerns your employees will have when going on leave is the assurance that it will be made clear how much money they can expect to receive while on leave, and that the amount they actually receive is reflective of what they’ve been told.
So many factors come into play when it comes to how effective your leave management system is at perfecting your payroll operations. What state benefits are the employees receiving? How much time is left for the variety of benefits they may be receiving? What happens when a leave start or end date changes? Can you accurately and quickly determine if an employee has been under or overpaid?
Working with payroll is a certainty when managing leaves of absence and manually punching in payroll calculations is a risky proposition when it comes to accuracy. Having a system in place that informs employees what they’re getting paid and from what source, and automates payroll calculations for your payroll team will ensure your employees are put at ease financially, and saves your organization from potentially overpaying employees and losing money, or underpaying employees and facing the accompanying consequences.
Consolidating Leave Management Systems
For some, only a few of the systems above apply to you, for others all of them may. Regardless, it’s important to find a solution that can put all of your systems under one digital roof. Modern leave management solutions must have legal and compliance experts in-house, provide dedicated support to your employees throughout the leave journey, and automate, track, and store every important bit of leave information.
If you’re stuck navigating the tangled web of systems required to manage a single leave of absence, it might be time to evaluate whether or not a dedicated solution is right for you.
About Tilt
Tilt is leading the charge in all things leave of absence management through easy-to-use tech and human touch. Since 2017, our proprietary platform and Empathy Warriors have been helping customers make leave not suck by eliminating administrative burdens, keeping companies compliant, and providing a truly positive and supportive leave of absence experience for their people.
