Feeling the squeeze yet?
The increased pressure HR leaders now face to make data-driven decisions has become undeniable, and one hidden source of valuable insight that organizations often overlook is leave of absence management.
And it’s not from a lack of want.
HR teams would love to leverage leave of absence data to proactively predict workforce trends, boost operational output, and increase employee productivity and sentiment, but manually tracking LOAs on spreadsheets or having information housed across multiple systems makes capturing and leveraging this important data nearly impossible.
Modernizing your approach to leave management can transform your process from a tedious task on a checklist into a critical strategic asset.
When HR teams have the tools to drive informed decisions and align their efforts with organizational success the sky’s the limit on what can be achieved.
What is The Strategic Importance of Leave Data in Modern HR?
Leave data holds more power than HR teams may realize.
Beyond simply tracking start and end dates and crunching pay calculations, leave data can offer rich insights that allow teams to analyze patterns in policy usage, can help predict upcoming and ongoing staffing shortages and enable better workforce planning and resource allocation.
Additionally, leave data can often signal broader issues, such as burnout or work-life balance challenges that impact overall productivity and morale.
The financial side shouldn’t be overlooked either. Properly managing leave can lead to cost savings by reducing the need for last-minute temp hires or overtime. On the compliance front, having accurate data that is securely stored is crucial for avoiding penalties related to regulatory breaches, which could result from overlooked or mishandled leaves.
Essentially, leave data isn’t just about compliance or filling in gaps. When properly utilized, it becomes a core component of workforce optimization and strategic planning that leadership now depends on HR for.
If you want to bridge the gap in your own organization, you’ll need to align your people analytics initiatives with metrics that matter most to executives. By doing so, you can demonstrate your programs’ fiscal value.
How to Transform Leave Management Into a Strategic Asset
Turning leave management into a strategic asset begins with recognizing its value beyond operational necessity, which you’ve likely done if you’ve made it this far down the blog.
It also requires getting leadership to see your vision.
More specifically, the C-suite needs to see realistic financial projections with and without a modern leave solution. Transform the language of HR to terminology that executives appreciate and value and they too will see the benefit of a modernized leave approach.
According to Lattice’s State of People Strategy Report, 45% of HR professionals report increased pressure to justify program spend, while just 27% believe the C-suite recognizes HR’s impact on business revenue.
HR leaders must bridge the data gap to elevate team and organizational growth.
Not only does accurate leave data help you align your team’s goals with your organization’s workforce optimization desires, there are other tangible benefits employers are likely to experience when managing leaves with modern tools.
A recent Tilt survey of HR leaders across multiple industries found that employers who use a dedicated leave management solution experience:
- Employees more likely to hit their OKRs in the year following the leave (generating more revenue)
- Employees more likely to still be employed with their organization a year after returning from leave (improving retention rates)
- Being able to offer more leave policies (improving the employee experience).
The study also showed that organizations experiencing significant growth saw on average 3x the number of employees taking leave compared to organizations on the decline.
Leave is good for business, meaning with the right tools HR can be the driver of organizational growth.
Key Steps for HR Teams to Start Leveraging Leave Data
To fully leverage leave data as a strategic resource, you first need to assess your current processes.
The truth is that HR can’t become a high-business impact function unless it adds analytic capabilities, and the key to this shift often lies in modernizing outdated processes, starting with leave management.
Modern leave management solutions, like Tilt, syncs with your HRIS, creates accurate, consistent, and compliant leave plans, tracks changes to leave parameters in real-time, calculates payroll, guides state benefit applications, and provides 1-1 employee support.
Tilt’s leave management platform is designed to eliminate the hassle of manual tracking while providing HR teams with comprehensive, real-time data that can be used to move the needly at your organization.
From understanding employee well-being through leave patterns to ensuring compliance with evolving regulations, to more effective workforce planning, Tilt transforms leave from a compliance task into a strategic asset.
Once a modern leave management tool is in place, the next step is to regularly analyze the data. With these insights, HR can develop strategies to reduce unnecessary leaves, address workforce imbalances, and improve overall employee satisfaction. Research shows that companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable, and leveraging leave data can be a crucial driver in realizing those gains.
By transforming leave management with data-driven solutions like Tilt, HR teams can move beyond paperwork and start making impactful, strategic decisions that align with the company’s goals while improving employee experience and well-being.
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.
