While this .gif might be the most concise and relatable depiction of your current leave of absence ecosystem, the powers that be *cough* Google *cough* demand words be written, and thus words shall be written.
Further, providing a holistic picture of your internal leave of absence management process can help you uncover compliance vulnerabilities you may not be aware of while shining a light on process inefficiencies you’re likely all too aware of.
By the end, you’ll be equipped with the know-how to reduce your organization’s risks around managing LOAs, and the prevalent pain points you can seek to streamline in an effort to provide a supportive and compliant leave of absence experience for your people.
Common Compliance Risks When Managing Leaves of Absence
When it comes to compliance and managing leaves of absence there are three typical types of organizations out there:
- Organizations that aren’t compliant and HR is pretty sure they aren’t acting in accordance with the law, but are doing the best they can.
- Organizations that aren’t compliant and HR has no clue they aren’t acting in accordance with the law (more common than you’d think!).
- Organizations that are compliant and can sleep easy at night.
The truth is, getting compliance right in the world of leave of absence is hard. Even if you have the best of intentions there are numerous rules and regulations organizations need to adhere to in order to act compliantly.
How numerous is numerous? Well, let’s take state leave laws for example. There are over 400 state leave laws, that’s 4 with two zeros after it, and only about 10% of them cover family and medical leave reasons. HR and People ops teams must administer leaves in accordance with applicable Federal (like FMLA, ADA and PWFA for example), State and local leave laws in order to maintain compliance and avoid potential legal trouble.
If that weren’t enough, new legislation is being passed while existing legislation is being amended on a regular basis. (We create quarterly Leave Law Reports and put them here for free if you’re looking for a page to bookmark). It’s a lot.
As an HR and People Ops leader, having a firm understanding of leave law is an understandably daunting task, as is educating your employee population on the do’s and don’ts surrounding leaves of absence. Managers are the leading cause for employment law violations and they need to adhere to laws when a direct report goes on leaves as well.
Discrimination cases are common, and inconsistently applied leaves can find you vulnerable to them. You might understand that an employee returning from FMLA must return to a job that is at least equivalent to the one they had when they went out on leave, but your managers might not know. Similarly, if an employee feels they are facing retaliation for taking a leave, that’s another compliance no-no.
Then there’s the issue of data security and sensitive information. Tracking your leaves of absence accurately is vital for compliance, and making sure important information surrounding the employee’s leave is safe and secure can’t be overlooked in your process.
Compliantly administering a leave of absence is hard. Like, really really hard. We don’t blame you if you’re reading this and having an “oh sh*t!” moment. You are far from alone, but it’s important to know the truth about your leave of absence processes and the potential of exposing your organization to compliance risks.
Who gets involved when managing a leave of absence?
When talking about the leave of absence management ecosystem, an inconvenient truth often not discussed is that the stakeholders involved extend well beyond just the employee and HR. We’ve already talked about the manager’s critical role when it comes to compliance adherence, but the tangled web of leave has many additional (and perhaps not obvious) players who must work in harmony for a positive outcome.
Payroll: One of the major concerns employees have when taking leave is uncertainty around getting paid. They need to know how much they’re getting paid and from where, and the complexities around calculating that accurately and in a timely manner more often than not falls on the shoulders of payroll.
Insurance carriers: Short-term and long-term disability providers can also play a major role in your employee’s leave of absence journey. Some of you out there might also be relying on them to manage your leaves of absence as well, which makes them an even more integral cog in your ecosystem. Employees often rely on a carrier’s call center for support when questions arise, and like it or not, the support your carrier provides to the employee weighs heavily on the efficacy of the leave.
Doctors: If a medical certification is required for the leave of absence your employee’s doctor will play a pivotal role, especially early on, in the successful launch of a leave of absence. Having a finely tuned process for informing your employees of what’s required of them as it pertains to a doctor’s certification must be considered in your ecosystem.
Managers: We mentioned them above, but it bears repeating that managers are a major player in your leave of absence ecosystem. They can be the difference between a successful leave of absence and a lawsuit, and educating them on the LOA do’s and don’ts is highly recommended.
Legal and Compliance: If you’re unsure about certain leave laws and regulations, you might consider reaching out to your legal and compliance department. Please keep in mind that leave law expertise is a specialized area of employment law and your legal and compliance team may not be experts. We recommend seeking legal counsel where appropriate.
State Departments: In order for employees to receive applicable state benefits then state departments, like the Employment Development Department in California, also get brought into your ecosystem. Working with the states isn’t always straightforward, and requirements change regularly, adding to the complexity of your already complex leave of absence ecosystem.
Leave of Absence Management Systems and Solutions
Between your leave tracking spreadsheets, email threads, calendar reminders, internal payroll, HRIS, insurance carrier systems, and government portals, managing leaves of absence internally requires several disparate systems to work in harmony. That’s not including the human element of leaves changing mid-stream (from caregiver to bereavement, for example) or managers misbehaving (intentionally or inadvertently) that can derail your process at any moment.
The compliance risks associated with managing leaves internally along with striving to provide a positive experience for your employees is why this.gif hits home to so many HR and People Ops pros trying to manage their organization’s leaves of absence internally.
Knowing how to choose the right dedicated leave of absence management solution provider isn’t always clear, but by leaving your leaves to the experts you can mitigate compliance risk, wrangle all your systems and key stakeholders under one roof while safely, securely and simply have your leaves of absence administered 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.
