Today’s world of leave of absence management is a complex affair. Your systems and processes are as dispersed as your employee population. Your budget is being eaten up by solutions that don’t alleviate the burdens. Your employees are facing stigmas that could lead to lawsuits, and 1-800 numbers that aren’t giving them the answers they need to feel supported.
In a vacuum, People Ops teams need a leave management solution that simply handles all aspects of your employees’ leaves. In the real world, however, you also have to answer to leadership teams who understand the importance of leave of absence management, but also have a magnifying glass on compliance risks and budget.
Tilt not only manage all aspects of your leaves and make your employees’ experience an empathetically supported journey, but we do so while consolidating your systems into one easy-to-use platform, ensuring your eligible employees are subsidizing their pay with applicable state benefit programs, reducing your compliance risk by educating employees and their managers, and automating important tasks like FMLA determination and payroll adjustments.
Risks associated with Leave of Absence Management
There are a plethora of risks associated with leave management, perhaps none greater than the risk of you pulling out your hair from trying to keep up with everything else you’re required to do as a People leader in your organization. The risks we’ll focus on here, however, are the ones that are going to matter to the leaders in your organization because they’re the risks that could lead to legal hot water, dissatisfied employees, and a hit to your bottom line.
Risk 1: Personal data on the loose
Whether it’s a medical certification or pay information, a leave of absence journey requires the sharing of sensitive information about your employees. Storing this information across multiple systems, in a tangled trail of emails, or in a slew of spreadsheet tabs is asking for trouble. The kind of trouble that can lead to employee distrust and potential legal action if it gets lost or people outside of your organization get a hold of it.
How Tilt stores your data
Tilt’s platform gives People Ops a window into every aspect of every leave all under one roof. Accurate pay data, important documents, and critical dates throughout the leave are all easily visible and accessible for the appropriate parties of each individual leave. Our secure platform (more on that here) ensures that your employee’s leave data is secure. Employees can take legal action against employers if they are victims of an employer data breach, so stay secure and avoid unforeseen legal expenses with Tilt.
Risk 2: 3rd-party form filing
Some People Ops teams might have a leave management solution that takes care of your employee’s form filing for them. On the surface this seems like a big win for your bandwidth, but uncovering what’s actually happening is a nightmare-level risk waiting to happen. In order for someone other than the employee themself to apply for state benefits, that person has to impersonate the employee submitting the claim.
Not only does this pose a serious legal risk if anything goes wrong (a missed deadline date, inaccurate information etc…), it leaves you and your employee completely in the dark throughout the process. Your employee has no paper trail or proof of communicating with the State, your 3rd party does. Yikes. What happens if your leaves increase and your 3rd party doesn’t have the bandwidth to file on their behalf? Double yikes.
How Tilt reduces form filing risk
Tilt’s approach to form filing is the only scalable solution that both eases your administrative burden and keeps your employees in control of their own paperwork. We walk your employees through every step of the process, send reminders when important deadlines are approaching, and have 1-1 support to answer any questions that might arise. We have an in-house team of leave law experts supporting our platform and team to ensure your people are getting the most up-to-date and empathetic support.
We make it easy to keep your employees part of the process and since it’s your own employees doing the filing, we mitigate both compliance risks and scaling concerns. Missing out on state benefits can have a huge financial impact on your employees, and if you’re paying 100% of their benefits today, it can be a major cost savings your leadership team can’t ignore.
Risk 4: Giving inaccurate leave guidance
Employees are going to have questions about leave. For many of them it’s their first time ever going through the process, and others who have gone through it before might find that process is entirely different. Giving your employees an accurate resource, a single-source or truth they can turn to for leave guidance can help you avoid giving inaccurate information and gives your employees peace of mind and saves them from mistakes that could cost them, or your organization, serious bucks.
How Tilt gives your employees accurate leave guidance
Instead of us tooting our own horn, let’s hear what one of our customers says about it:
“There is high attrition in tech, so people are always changing and so it makes it so difficult for employees to have confidence in knowing where to go for leave questions, but Tilt being that streamlined and consolidated go-to resource for leaves is extremely helpful. Employees shouldn’t be asking me about medical leave in the general Slack channel. The name association of Tilt amongst employees is huge, and also is the one spot where they know they can go for anything leave-related. Tilt automatically streamlines everything. Before employees were like, ‘here are the 8 people I tried going to in order to figure out what I needed to do for leave.’”
Risk 5: Employee turnover
There are several junctions along a leave of absence journey that if mishandled could lead to employee dissatisfaction and ultimately sticking your team with the responsibility of spending time and effort to replace talent. It’s a real risk every People Ops pro is aware of, but isn’t necessarily equipped to manage.
The turning point might happen when their manager shames them in an effort to talk them out of a leave they’re qualified for (thi$ i$ illegal, btw). It might happen when their caregiver leave turns into bereavement leave and all you can do is email them a 1-800 number to call. Or it might happen when they return to work and they feel completely forgotten about and unsupported in their re-boarding. The risks of employee turnover are real with a bad leave experience, and it’s a risk that can prove really expensive.
How Tilt creates a positive employee experience
Tilt’s platform streamlines every step of their leave, yes. Tilt’s platform also makes understanding payment information (like how much money is coming from the State vs. your organization etc…), true. What alleviates the risk of employee turnover the most is our Leave Success Managers (LSMs). Our Empathy Warriors. Don’t take it from the guy writing the blog though:
“I am more than satisfied with my experience with Tilt. Kelly Thomas (my LSM) has been extremely helpful throughout this process. She even reached out to me a second time to remind me that I had an upcoming date; very helpful as I forgot. I don’t want to take another leave of absence; however if I do, I’m very glad Tilt will be there to help me through.” – Daniel D., Candidate Experience Representative @ Checkr
“The experience I had with Tilt was OUTSTANDING! I greatly appreciate the Tilt team, especially my LSM Nic for helping me throughout my leave. The only thing I had to focus on was getting better. Keep up the excellent work!! Kudos!!!!” – Delpheus E., Customer Support Specialist @ Bamboo Health
“My leave experience was great, top to bottom. There was a very ‘personal touch’ as well that took my positive experience over the top. Very appreciative of my company teaming up with Tilt, no question!” – Stormie W., Compliance Administrator @ Athens Administrators
Reduce Risks and Increase Savings with Tilt
Leave management risks are expensive and your C-suite knows it. Turnover costs are expensive and your team knows it. Applying for state benefits can be a nightmare yet could mean massive savings for organizations that offer employees fully-paid leave. Even if you know all this, how can you manage leaves effectively and efficiently to avoid these risks and costs?
Tilt takes on the task of managing your least-favorite to-do, it’s true, and we do so while making your department shine in the way that matters most to leadership. No more unnecessarily overpaying employees. No more fielding employee leave law questions about New York that you couldn’t possibly be qualified to answer confidently. No more crossing your fingers that Gary in Tulsa knows his employee’s rights and won’t illegally pressure them to return to work before they have to.
Tilt gives your people a positive leave experience while alleviating your risks and administrative burdens, all while saving your bottom line in a significant way.
When it comes to leave management you can exhale. We’ve got this.
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.
