Shhhhh…hear that? If you need to turn down the volume on that episode of Schitt’s Creek you’re streaming in the background go ahead, but when it’s nice and quiet and you listen ever so closely you’ll hear it. It’s the subtle sound of employees grumbling over the experiences they’ve had while taking a leave of absence at your organization.
And it’s not for a lack of effort on your part. You’ve likely either inherited inefficient and ineffective legacy systems to manage your LOAs, or you simply don’t have the bandwidth to keep up to date on leave laws, administer your policies consistently, guide employees through all the programs they have to apply for, and answer the multitude of urgent leave-related questions that your employees may have at a moment’s notice.
LOAs…they’re a lot, and unfortunately if you’re relying on having to manually update spreadsheets while coordinating between disparate and outdated systems (looking at you state departments and some…not all…STD carriers) only to provide a cold and cloudy user experience to employees is a rocky foundation to build your employee experience empire upon.
Tilt Recap: Leaves are complex, and traditional approaches to managing them put People Ops leaders at a disadvantage for their successful administration, thus putting your employee experience at risk when they need it most.
Where Traditional LOA Processes Fall Short on Employee Experience
We don’t need to sell you on the importance of employee experience. You wouldn’t be in People Operations if the employee experience wasn’t near and dear to your heart, but there is much debate and many philosophies around the best ways to achieve your employee experience goals.
A prevailing philosophy on this front requires focusing on the foundation of how employers are addressing employee well-being. There are countless reasons why an employee might need to take a leave of absence. Still, whether it’s welcoming a new member into the family or saying final goodbyes to one, odds are that your employee needs to take time away from work because a major, and very human, life event has occurred.
These defining employee moments hold a tremendous amount of sway in the psyche of your employees, and if employees aren’t feeling supported properly throughout their journey it can turn those low grumbles into loud roars if antiquated processes aren’t modernized.
If you’re manually managing your LOAs, or likely providing your employees with:
- A level of service limited by inaccurate and outdated information
- On-the-fly leave law information
- Antiquated technologies that siloes information
- Blindspots in workforce planning
- Uncertainty about pay
- Data security risks
- People Ops support with a bandwidth stretched far too thin
- A solution that doesn’t guide them with empathy or alleviate the many pain points they can face throughout a leave
The old way of managing leaves is more than just a thorn in your side, it’s setting the leave and your overall employee experience up for failure and can contribute to resentment in your employee population,
Tilt Recap: Traditional methods of manually updating spreadsheets, coordinating across separate systems, and navigating confusing processes to manage LOAs puts a tremendous strain on People Ops’ bandwidth and can’t deliver the level of service required to provide a positive leave experience for employees.
How Modern Leave Technology Boosts Your Employee Experience
If you’re looking to turn those negative employee experiences surrounding LOAs into positive ones, a modern leave management software might be exactly what you need.
The right leave management software:
- Replaces your manual processes with automation
- Keeps you compliant with the latest leave laws
- Empathetically guide employees throughout the entire leave journey
- Provides human support when employees need extra care
- Emphasizes transparency so People Ops, the employee on leave, and their managers have one source of truth, and that source is accurate and available on demand.
- Delivers a positive experience so employees return feeling supported and engaged
- Clear and comprehensive pay calculations that break down how much an employee can be expected to receive and from what sources (i.e. company benefit, state program or STD provider).
- Alleviates People Ops administrative burdens without removing visibility into the process
- Provides safe and secure storage of sensitive information and documentation
The right LOA management software can turn your least favorite to-do into your biggest ally in your quest to keep employee engagement strong in the wake of the often unpredictable world of leaves of absence.
Leaves don’t have to be hard for you or your employees to navigate, but the traditional processes being used must be reevaluated for modern times and modern needs. Building a strong employee experience foundation starts with ensuring your employees trust that when their lives demand attention and they must pull away, their employer has the tools in place to make that transition as seamless and supported as possible.
Tilt Recap: Approach the employee experience as the foundation of your organization’s health and the tools you have in place for leave of absence support can either put a crack in that foundation or solidify it for years to come. Adopting modern technologies that match modern workplace philosophies is not only in the best interest of your employees but frees People Ops up to spend more time improving the employee experience elsewhere.
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.
