For decades, leave of absence has been stuck in a one-size-fits-all time capsule and buried under heaps of bureaucratic bias.
And if we can be honest together, it’s not aging well.
Policies built around a narrow set of qualifying events and legacy systems can’t keep pace with today’s workforce realities. Employees now expect, and deserve, support for a wide range of life moments: caregiving, mental health challenges, fertility journeys, bereavement, and more. But most leave programs weren’t designed with these in mind.
“Ever since the passing of FMLA, leave has been treated as an afterthought,” said Jen Henderson, CEO of Tilt, in a recent conversation with Bereave CEO Justin Clifford. “No need to point fingers. It’s just been the default, not a designed component of the employee journey.”
The good news? HR leaders have an opportunity to change the story. By rethinking rigid policies and prioritizing flexibility and compliance, they can meet modern needs, retain top talent, and turn leave into a true strategic advantage.
Leaves of Absence Aren’t Rare…They’re Rising
It’s time to shift our thinking from if employees will need leave to when. People are not going to stop having babies. People are not going to stop having medical procedures or losing loved ones. Leave is here to stay, and the volume at which employees are expecting employers to support them in their times of need is increasing.
That’s no exaggeration. In 2017, about 7% of employees took a leave annually. Today, that number has more than doubled to 15% and continues to climb. Tailwinds like increasing state-level paid leave legislation, heightened mental health awareness, and a broader definition of caregiving are all contributing to this upward trajectory.
This isn’t just about time off. It’s about creating systems that honor the realities of modern life while remaining legally sound. That’s where the friction often begins.
The Old Way of Managing Leave Can’t Keep Up
Traditional leave policies were written with a narrow framework in mind. Limiting policy to maternity leave and short-term disability ignores major life events employees regularly face. And the systems that were designed to manage those policies weren’t built with flexibility or compliance in mind. They were designed for a simpler, less inclusive era of work, and even then they rarely provided compliance confidence or consistency.
Old-school leave management tools often relied on spreadsheets, siloed HR systems, or generic time-off trackers, none of which were equipped to handle the nuances of real-world leave scenarios.
If they struggled to compliantly manage a straightforward parental leave, they’re even less equipped to address the complex, modern leave landscape that includes mental health, caregiving, and gender-agnostic parental leave across multiple states.
“Bereavement was not treated as a leave qualifying event with any sort of regularity historically,” says Jen. “There are multiple paths to parenting as well, which encompass far more than the person who is carrying the child. It’s recognizing that there are multiple paths to parenting and offering equitable access to caring for that child, no matter how you came to welcome that child to your life.”
These nuances matter. So does how employees are supported when they’re navigating them.
Take caregivers, for example. Nearly all employees have caregiving responsibilities, with 45% taking several days off from work per month for those duties. And it’s not just about time, they also need help. In fact, more than half of caregivers consider quitting during their leave, and are 3X more likely to do so than before they left.
Building Leave Flexibility Without Breaking Compliance
It’s tempting to view leave flexibility and compliance as opposing forces. But with the right approach and the right tools, they can go hand in hand.
Some leading companies are doing just that by adopting more inclusive, empathy-forward leave policies. “Companies are building out much more inclusive types of leave plans,” says Jen. They call them empathy leaves or compassionate leave and put it on a rolling 12 months and say, ‘You get 30 days on a rolling 12 months because life’s going to throw stuff at you and you should have the flexibility to take care of it.’”
These flexible approaches to leave policy don’t just check a box, they reflect a values-driven culture that sees employees as humans first. And they make room for life’s less predictable events while remaining compliant with increasingly complex regulations across states and leave types.
That’s no small task. Between changing laws, differing eligibility rules, and the nuances of leave transitions (say, from parental to caregiver to bereavement), it’s a lot for any HR team to manage manually or off the side of their desk.
Why Default Thinking Is the Real Risk of Leave of Absence
It’s human nature to resist change, especially when it challenges long-held beliefs or entrenched ways of working. In many organizations, the approach to leave management hasn’t evolved, not because people don’t care, but because it’s cognitively and culturally easier to stick with the familiar.
Shifting mindsets around leave by viewing it not as a disruption, but as a strategic imperative, requires unlearning decades of default thinking.
“What has been accepted as the norm of how leave of absence is managed is breaking bones in a lot of ways,” says Jen. “To get people to think about it differently, to see it differently, to really embrace it as a competitive advantage and not an inconvenience for an employee.”
So, why the disconnect?
Part of it is inertia. “The way that it’s always been done is a very, very powerful undercurrent of how organizations run,” she explains. “The default mindset is very strong.”
But default isn’t a strategy.
Today’s HR leaders can’t afford to rely on outdated playbooks, especially when the risk of non-compliance, employee attrition, and brand reputation are on the line.
Modern Leave Management That’s Compliant by Design
Modern leave programs aren’t just about keeping up with laws, they’re about keeping up with people. As employee needs evolve, the systems that support them should too. Historically it seemed like a pipe dream to offer flexible, inclusive leave policy and support to employees without compromising on compliance.
This is exactly what Tilt is designed to do.
By combining automated workflows with expert and empathetic human support, Tilt helps HR teams confidently navigate everything from multi-state leave laws to nuanced policies around mental health, caregiving, fertility, and grief. It’s a smarter, more supportive way to manage leave, and one that exceeds today’s standards and can scale for tomorrow’s expectations.
The result? Confidence. Clarity. Compassion. All in one place.
Because supporting employees through life’s hardest and most meaningful moments shouldn’t feel like a compliance gamble. It should feel like progress.
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.
