When determining how you and your organization plan to tackle leave of absence management, accurately vetting which vendor will suit your needs can be a tricky proposition. Identifying which features are fluff over function and which bells and whistles actually ring hollow can help you avoid making a costly mistake for your LOAs.
So which factors are most important when considering your next LOA vendor? Let’s take a look:
1. Compliance
“I really hope I interpreted that change in the leave law correctly…” – Too many overworked and understaffed HR managers
Leave laws can change like one of those costume magicians on America’s Got Talent (how do they DO that?). Last we checked employees are scattering across the map while most managers are still LOA newbs who don’t know what they legally can and can’t say to their employees taking leave. Make sure your LOA vendor has the leave law chops to equip you and your employees with up-to-date information no matter the leave and no matter the state so you keep your company out of the courtroom.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
With in-house leave law experts, our tech is backed by real humans (with a pulse and everything) ensuring that when your employees take a leave their personalized leave plans are compliant with the leave laws and guidelines of the day. They don’t only inform our tech, but they also support our customer success managers and leave success managers in the event Tilt users have any questions along their leave journey.
2. Customer Success Support
An LOA vendor that doesn’t actually make your life easier is no vendor you should tango with. Nearly every vendor on the planet will claim they have great customer support, so how can you be sure? This is where doing some cultural homework can come into play. If your vendor is looking at you like a dollar sign and not someone sympathetic to your LOA management needs and empathetic to your employees taking leave, they’re likely not going to go the extra mile when you need it most.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
If you’re a People Team of two? Consider yourself a team of three with Tilt. You don’t need to carve out budget for a new hire to manage leaves because we Tilters live and breathe it. Our company wasn’t founded because we found a gap in the market, we were born from first-hand experience of the poor treatment so many people face when taking a leave, and the stories of stressed-out People Teams pulling their hair out trying to manage them. Our Customer Success Team, like everyone at Tilt, is passionate about helping make leave not suck for everyone involved, and since they’re backed by our leave law experts, they have your back to ease your mind and make you shine. More than that, we make onboarding fast and smooth so you are up and running with ease.
3. Manage All Leaves Under One Platform
The only thing worse than a vendor that ghosts you once the ink is dry and one that’s confusing to use and exposes you to compliance risk is one that can’t manage all potentialities. Some LOA vendors might do a good enough job for a basic parental leave in your home state, but if they can’t handle all leave types across all states you’ll now be forced to manage different leaves in different systems. Inefficiencies and inconsistencies when it comes to your LOA management processes can’t be compromised. Your LOA vendor should be easy to use no matter the leave scenario.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
Tilt understands that your leave management solution is only as effective as it is comprehensive. Our intuitive tech makes navigating the leave journey a breeze for you and your employees, and our team of leave-loving gurus keeps you supported from start to finish no matter the leave or location. Learn more here.
4. A Solution That Scales as You (And Your Leave Requests) Do
Whether your organization is growing or not, leave requests are on the rise across the country, especially as more and more companies look to remove stigmas surrounding mental health leaves. It’s imperative that your LOA vendor can support your leave management demands as they increase over time. While that seems like a problem most tech can tackle, it’s not as straightforward as it seems. If your vendor doesn’t have the human support to manage the influx of leaves your level of service will continue to decline as your needs for their service are on the incline.
Similarly, if you’re relying on a 3rd party vendor for filing your employee claim forms (we discuss the potential pitfalls of doing so here) you’re introducing a potential pinch point for your employees to file forms on time and error-free the more your requests increase.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
Not only does Tilt provide personal support to your People Team, we have a whole mob of Empathy Warriors (more on these baddies below) to ensure your employees are always supported throughout their leave journey. As for form filing, our personalized leave plans give your employees crystal clear direction (with 1-1 human support if they have questions) so their forms are filed on time, by them, ensuring they’re kept in the loop with where their claims stand throughout the process.
5. Leave Success Support
We don’t mean to be reductive, but your LOA solution will only be as effective as it is capable of supporting a successful leave of absence. That’s going to have a different look and feel depending on which vendor you choose. Some vendors want to remove the human element out of the equation entirely, which on the surface might seem exactly what you’d want from a tech solution. Keep in mind that no two leaves are the same, and relying solely on tech means when a leave goes sideways your employee might feel stranded on an island without a human life raft.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
Tilt’s Leave Success Managers, AKA LSMs, AKA Empathy Warriors, are the heartbeat of Tilt. Where your employees go on their leave journey, their dedicated LSM will be right with them every step of the way. Reminder emails, follow-ups, questions about anything and everything pertaining to a leave? You don’t have to handle those anymore, we got you. Meet one of our LSMs and what the employees they supported had to say:
” Bailee was super helpful with my leave! When I had some issues with calculating my pay and with the state benefits, she was right there to help guide me through everything! She offered to help beyond just an initial call and asked to monitor my progress so she could step in if needed. Luckily, things smoothed out very well and everything turned out just as it should have. Thanks Bailee and Tilt!” L. Mauldin – Senior Sales Coordinator at SCS Global Services
6. Manager Management
Managers are a leading cause of employment law violations, and it’s no surprise that leaves of absence are a minefield for major missteps. Selecting a vendor that understands the sensitivity around a leave of absence and equips managers with the insight and information they need to support their employees from pre-leave to re-boarding is not only critical to a positive experience for your employees, but keeps the lawsuits at bay.
How Tilt Stacks Up:
Tilt gives managers a window into their employee’s leave by giving them access to all the information they need about the specific leave, tips on what is and isn’t legal to say, and gives guidance on how to provide a soft landing for their employee’s return to the workforce. Tilt knows that a leave of absence is more than just clocking out one day and clocking in a few weeks later, these are real-life events that have real-life consequences if mismanaged.
Vendor Validation
Getting into a relationship with a vendor requires a high level of trust. You need to trust that they will deliver on what they promise and are easy to use, trust that they will be there when you and your employees need them the most, and trust that they can grow with you as your leave management demands rise.
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.
