The curtains are drawn, the lights are on, and now more than ever employee support and well-being have taken center stage. Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of providing their employees with the necessary tools and resources to help them balance work and personal life, and the spotlight is emphatically shifting toward how HR and People Ops teams around the country are approaching Leave of Absence (LOA) management.
One undeniable trend; teams leading the way are ditching spreadsheet tracking and carrier clunkiness in lieu of modern software solutions that are proving to play an indispensable role in elevating employee support to new heights.
The Growing Importance of Leave of Absence Management
Leaves of absence encompass a wide range of situations, all of which your employee population might need support for at any given time. As such, this puts you in a bind because at any moment you need to be prepared to administer, facilitate, and provide support for any number of leave types at a moment’s notice. From medical leaves and family emergencies to parental leaves and bereavement leaves, effectively managing LOAs is essential for maintaining employee morale, productivity, and compliance with labor laws.
As your workforce becomes more diverse, both demographically and geographically, managing leaves becomes increasingly complex. Employees expect flexibility and understanding from their employers when major life events happen, and a failure to provide this can lead to dissatisfaction and high turnover rates.
This is where leave of absence management software comes into play to save the day.
The Role of Software in LOA Management
Streamlined Request and Approval Process: If you’re like most HR leaders, your leave of absence management processes often involve a cumbersome paperwork trail and manual processes, leading to delays, confusion from employees, and exposure to potentially costly errors.
Today’s leave management software brings these processes to the modern age, allowing employees to submit leave requests online, where all the support and guidance they need for a successful leave journey is laid out for them.
Here’s how Tilt turns a leave request into an easy-to-follow leave plan for employees. The plans are tailored to an organization’s specific policies and to the employee’s specific type of leave:
With Tilt your employees know exactly what’s required of them, when it’s required, and guidance to complete each necessary step throughout their leave journey.
Transparency and Communication: Effective communication is essential for most aspects of a high-functioning enterprise, and the LOA process is certainly no exception. Good leave management software provides a centralized platform where employees can view their leave progress, easily identify what benefits they’re being covered by, and receive notifications or reminders. This transparency helps in building trust between employees and employers and eliminates misunderstandings.
Tilt’s leave map provides LOA transparency for the employee, their manager, and you in HR so every stakeholder for each leave of absence is informed of exactly where the employee is at in their journey, as well as what benefits and protections apply to them at any given moment.
Tilt also sends out reminders when important dates to ensure your employees are never missing out on benefits they qualify for. If they need assistance along any step of the way, our Leave Success Managers provide 1-1 support so that your employees aren’t being left in the dark.
Compliance and Documentation: When it comes to employee support, there’s no bigger bummer than non-compliance with labor laws and company policies. From automated FMLA tracking to ensuring payroll accuracy to secure file storage to educating managers on LOA faux pas, leave management software can help ensure that employees take leaves within the limits defined by laws and company policies.
Good leave management software can also generate accurate documentation, which is crucial for audits and legal purposes.
Tilt makes keeping track of LOAs a breeze by tracking pay across all sources (i.e. insurance carrier, state benefits, etc…) securely storing sensitive documents, and tracking FMLA hours in real-time. All of these details should be the furthest thing from your employee’s minds, and with Tilt, they can rest assured that they’re being supported while you are assured your organization is compliant.
On top of that, Tilt’s team of in-house leave experts ensures that our platform is always up-to-date with the latest leave laws across the country, and can help support you and your employees through complex leave scenarios.
Payroll Perks: Leave management software can make your payroll nightmares a thing of the past. By syncing your leave management software with payroll, you can ensure that employee leaves are accurately reflected in payroll calculations and benefits administration. This means you can reduce costly errors and have confidence that your employee population receives the correct compensation and benefits during their leaves.
Tilt makes the payroll process a breeze by giving your payroll team direct access to the payroll portal within the platform. Tilt even supports employees who might be on different pay schedules.
All pay data can be exported via .csv, and payroll gets an accurate, real-time breakdown (including any adjustments that may have occurred) of how much your employees on leave are getting paid, and from what source. We do all the top-up calculations for your payroll teams to eliminate all guesswork and clerical errors.
Reduced Administrative Burden for HR: Perhaps the most underrated role software plays in leave of absence management is all the time HR and People Ops teams get back by no longer having to manage leaves of absence. Depending on the size of your team and the number of leaves you have to manage, a good LOA software could save you 10-15 hours a week.
Instead of tracking down medical certs and cross-checking Excel spreadsheets from separate systems, or Googling leave laws in states you’ve never stepped foot in, leave management software frees you up to do the work you actually care about…like elevating your employees even further.
Choosing the Right Leave Management Software
Selecting the right leave management software is crucial for reaping these benefits. When evaluating options, consider the following factors:
- Scalability: Ensure that the software can accommodate your company’s growth and changing leave management needs.
- Integration: Look for software that can integrate with your existing HRIS.
- User-Friendly Interface: Software is only as good as it is easy to use. A user-friendly interface is essential to encourage employee adoption.
- Compliance Consideration: Verify that the software has robust compliance capabilities to ensure adherence to labor laws and company policies.
- Reporting and Analytics: Evaluate the reporting and analytics capabilities to be confident that data is accurate, accessible, and secure.
- Support and Training: Consider the level of support you and your employees will receive, as well as what training is provided to ensure a smooth leave of absence journey.
- Reliability: It never hurts to do some research and ask around. Make sure the leave management software you select has a good reputation for delivering on its promises while not exposing you to unforeseen burdens or risks.
- Manage all leave types: Ensure that the solution you choose can support all types of leaves. It’s important to provide a consistent experience to your employee population no matter the leave. Not doing so could lead to compliance risks.
Leave Management Software for a Better Employee Experience
When employees have access to an empathetic leave management system like Tilt, they feel more empowered, valued, and supported throughout their leave of absence journey.
With Tilt, you demonstrate a level of caring about your employees’ well-being and work-life balance, leading to higher job satisfaction and retention rates and a more human-centric experience overall.
The right leave management software can transform this process from a burdensome administrative task into a streamlined, transparent, and efficient system that benefits both employees and employers.
A solution like Tilt elevates your employee support efforts, improves compliance, enhances workforce planning, and ultimately creates a more positive work environment. As the business landscape continues to evolve, embracing technology like Tilt’s leave management software is not just a choice; it’s a necessity for organizations that want to attract and retain top talent while ensuring the well-being of their workforce.
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.
