If you’ve ever found yourself saying, “Wait, shouldn’t they be back from leave by now?” you’re not alone.
Managing leaves of absence with outdated or incomplete data is like being in a relationship with someone who ghosts you: radio silence when you need answers, last-minute surprises, and a whole lot of second-guessing.
For HR leaders managing leave themselves or overseeing those who do, this kind of dysfunction doesn’t just cause headaches, it erodes trust and creates real risk.
Think payroll errors, missed benefit deadlines, unplanned double coverage, and a growing number of employees wondering if their manager even knows they’re out. Without real-time insight into who’s out, when they’re returning, and what benefits or policies apply, HR teams are left scrambling to put out fires that shouldn’t have started in the first place.
Let’s talk about why it’s time to break up with the unreliable leave data that’s been leaving your questions on “read,” and what a better future looks like.
The Cost of Not Knowing Leave of Absence
They say knowledge is power, but ask the same “they” about the world of leave of absence and they’ll tell you that the lack of knowledge is costly. Take, for example, not having insight into upcoming leaves of absence across your organization.
“You might not know that a specific employee is even out of the office at any given moment,” said Brad Hyland, VP of Leave and Customer Success at Tilt. In a remote or hybrid work world, the consequences of that statement are big.
If someone is unexpectedly out and you don’t have proper coverage lined up, the rest of the team is left to pick up the slack, or worse, key business operations grind to a halt.
And when outdated leave data collides with a payroll cycle? Hyland warns, “If we’re coming up to something like a specific end of pay period… that could result in a massive change in that person’s pay… [they] may end up with that employee being drastically overpaid or potentially underpaid.”
Now layer on compliance risks, leave tracking errors, and the very real possibility of someone missing an application window for job protection or state benefits. What might feel like a calendar oversight turns into a potential legal issue and a human experience gone wrong.
Disconnected HR and payroll solutions usually mean someone is stuck doing heaps of manual data entry, cross-checking systems, or fixing mistakes. And let’s be honest, that “someone” is usually you or your already stretched-thin HR team.
A Manual Leave Process with Too Many Red Flags
Without real-time data, HR teams are often left cobbling together calendars, email threads, and spreadsheets just to understand the basics of a leave. “If your process involves updating a calendar…that’s a very manual task…that can then result in maybe forgetting to add the leave, and then you don’t have a backup person there to help support the team,” said Hyland.
That’s when preventable missteps start stacking up:
- Gaps in workforce capabilities
- Missed deadlines
- A leave return missed with no re-boarding plan in place
- FMLA tracked incorrectly, exposing the organization to risk
- A manager left in the dark on how to support their employee (also exposing the organization to risk)
Whether it’s overestimating workforce needs and ending up with idle employees or underestimating them and facing burnout and poor customer service, the stakes are high.
From Administrative LOA Firefighter to HR Hero
But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be this way.
Real-time visibility isn’t just about cleaning up the mess. It’s about never creating the mess to begin with. “Having that real-time data is really, really important…to help support both business continuity-related items, but also making sure that pay is accurate for those individuals,” Hyland shared.
When HR teams have up-to-the-minute insight into leave status, eligibility, expected return dates, and applicable policies, they’re able to:
- Proactively plan for backfills or redistribute workloads.
- Avoid payroll and benefit blunders.
- Support managers with clear, compliant info.
- Offer a more empathetic, human experience to employees navigating challenging life moments.
“Really it comes around again to making sure that we’ve got the right coverage with the right people at any given moment because we have the forecasting ability of understanding what’s happening in real-time,” Hyland said.
That level of clarity turns HR into a strategic engine, not a reactive clean-up crew.
Tilt: The Real-Time Leave Data Partner You Deserve
Tilt was built to help HR teams ditch spreadsheets, reduce manual work, and stop flying blind when it comes to leave of absence.
“We provide leave details directly over to managers within the system itself in a real-time status…that is up-to-date as soon as that information is provided and our team has been able to review that and approve,” said Hyland. That means no more digging through emails or wondering if the calendar’s current.
Tilt gives you full visibility into who’s out, when they’re returning, what policies apply, and how to support both your employees and your operations, all in one place.
You’ll have the insight to avoid costly errors, the foresight to staff confidently, and the control to deliver a better experience for everyone involved.
With Tilt, you’ll never have to navigate leave data in the dark again.
It’s time to stop chasing down updates and making decisions based on assumptions. Break up with leave data that ghosts you or shows up late to important dates. Get with a modern solution that’s transparent, responsive, and fully committed, because you deserve a partner that shows up when it matters.
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.
