We’re living in an age where individuals are encouraged to share the most intimate details of their personal lives for the world to see. Or at least for their 57 followers who are mostly family members and bots to see.
And while we gloss over terms and conditions as we knowingly or unknowingly give up our information to the data-harvesting internet overlords, one element remains true, personal or sensitive information as it pertains to an employee leave of absence must remain under digital lock and key.
As an HR or People Ops pro, you need to be asking yourself three privacy and security questions:
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- Are our current leave of absence management processes exposing the organization to security and privacy risks?
- How can we ensure our employee information remains secure and private when an employee takes a leave of absence?
- Does my organization know the consequences of having employee leave data that isn’t secure?
- How would I feel if I had sensitive information of my own that my organization wasn’t safeguarding?
A fourth question might be:
While we can’t answer that 4th question for you, let’s break down the potential consequences of mishandling employee leave data, identify potential vulnerabilities in your existing process, and discuss alternatives to keep your organization compliant.
HR Leave Management: How to Secure Sensitive Employee Data
The HR leave management process is a complex one, and if you’re like most HR and People Ops pros out there you’re quite literally doing the best you can with the resources and systems you’ve been dealt. While those resources may vary from organization to organization, the rules and regulations pertaining to employee data remain situationally agnostic. The same rules apply across the board.
So what vulnerabilities should you be on the lookout for in your leave of absence management process, and how can you shore up any gaps?
Employee Records Management: If sensitive employee information, say from a medical certification, is required for an employee to take leave, it’s vital to ensure those documents aren’t able to be accessed or mishandled by unauthorized personnel from within or outside your organization.
The employee’s manager, for example, should not be involved in document procurement or have access to sensitive employee information. If important employee documents are being emailed back and forth, the risk increases of the documents being sent to people who shouldn’t have access, and they become difficult to track and store.
If you’re looking at outsourcing your leave of absence management to a vendor, ensure that their technology is SOC 2 compliant and that employees can upload important documents directly into the platform so their security and privacy remain intact.
Here at Tilt, our ability to manage your leaves of absence comes with privacy and security woven throughout our technology. You can read more about it here, and as it pertains to managing employee records, we allow direct uploads into the platform only HR and the employee have access. Speaking of access…
Data Access and Permissions: Email threads and spreadsheets shared drives are messy to manage, and that extends beyond the actual data that lives within them. Ensuring you have adequate control over who has access to employee data can greatly decrease the likelihood of data exposure or misuse.
If employees who are not directly involved in managing the leave of absence process have access to sensitive information, or if that information lives in a digital environment that is unwieldy to control, your organization is more vulnerable to security risks than you may realize.
Role-based access control is baked right into the Tilt platform. Tilt gives platform access to you in HR, the employee, the employee’s manager, and payroll because we know that the key to leave of absence efficacy is transparency for all stakeholders, however, never at the expense of private employee information security.
Your payroll team and the employee’s manager are kept in the loop on all things leave to provide a truly holistic leave management experience, but they won’t have access to important information they aren’t supposed to have access to. They’ll strictly see what they need to know, including educational material as seen above, and nothing more.
3rd-Party Form Filing: If you’re looking at external solutions for leave management and you have questions about the capability of form filing for your employees, it’s important to understand the security and privacy risks associated with 3rd-party form filing as well.
The security and privacy risks of allowing 3rd-parties to file forms on your employee’s behalf are as numerous as they are severe. Removing your employees from the process may seem like a process win, but in fact, you’re inviting security and privacy risks into the equation.
For example, by allowing someone who is not the employee to file on their behalf, what this actually means is that the vendor has all of the employee’s personal information, which includes their social security number and access to medical information, and by signing a Power of Attorney, the employee could be removed from the process entirely.
Similarly, if an employee is removed from the process, they might still think a form needs to be filed, in which case duplicative forms are filed which can cause the whole process to come to a halt while the confusion gets sorted out.
On that front, you’ll be relying on a 3rd party and their response time to address any issues that may arise in the form filing process. Whether duplicate filings occurred or perhaps they made an error or missed a submission deadline, all of which you as HR and the employee would not be privy to until it’s too late.
To mitigate these potential consequences and to ensure your employees are supported, establish a clear and easy process for employees to follow when submitting forms and documents for their leave. Keep them in charge of their own form filing process, but make it straightforward.
If you are looking to outsource your leave administration, make sure that the solution guides employees through the process safely and securely, and provides resources and support, but does not do the actual filing of the forms on the employee’s behalf.
Consequences of Mishandling Sensitive Employee Leave Data
Now the fun part! Mishandling sensitive employee information, especially in the case of an employee who has taken a leave of absence, can have significant consequences for both your organization and the affected employee.
It’s not always obvious just how important it is to have security and privacy measures in place for an employee taking a leave of absence, so here are a few consequences your organization should consider:
Legal and regulatory repercussions: Privacy laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) here in the US, require organizations to protect employee information. Mishandling such data can lead to legal actions, fines, or sanctions, and the penalties aren’t cheap.
Productivity and operational disruptions: They also can be time-consuming. Dealing with the fallout of a data breach or privacy violation can be extremely disruptive to your organization’s operations as it may divert significant resources from your regular business objectives and affect overall productivity.
Lawsuits and legal claims: Employees whose sensitive information is mishandled may file lawsuits against the organization for negligence, invasion of privacy, or data breaches, leading to legal costs and potential damages.
Damage to the organization’s reputation: News of data breaches or privacy violations can harm your organization’s reputation. Negative publicity may influence existing and potential hires, customers, clients, and business partners, impacting your brand and credibility.
Loss of trust: Mishandling employee information can erode trust between employees and your organization. After a privacy breach or mishandling of employee information, you may need to invest in initiatives to rebuild trust, instill confidence that the situation has been rectified, and demonstrate your commitment to data security. This sounds like a lot of work because it is a lot of work, and costly to boot.
Increased cybersecurity threats: Mishandled employee data can be a target for cybercriminals, leading to further data breaches and cybersecurity threats. This can expose not only sensitive employee information but also the organization’s broader data assets.
Employee turnover: Employees who have had their sensitive information mishandled may choose to leave the organization, leading to turnover and recruitment costs. High turnover can also disrupt your organization’s workflow and damage team cohesion.
Ongoing compliance issues: If your organization fails to meet compliance requirements it can lead to additional audits, penalties, or restrictions on the operation of your business.
Understanding what’s at stake for your organization and the employees you support is of the utmost importance when evaluating your leave of absence processes. So let’s take a look at potential vulnerabilities of your existing process and how to safeguard your employee information moving forward.
Tilt Keeps Your Leave of Absence Data Secure
Tilt believes that when it comes to employee data security and privacy there can be no shortcuts, and it all starts with question number 4 at the top. “How would I feel if I had sensitive information of my own that my organization wasn’t safeguarding?”
The consequences of getting it wrong are the institutional sticks put in place to reprimand organizations who go off course, but the carrot dangled in front of you is the opportunity to do the right thing by your people and keep their private lives private.
Keeping sensitive employee information protected throughout your leave management process is an incredibly important element of an effective and healthy leave management ecosystem, and in doing so you’ll keep your organization running smoothly and compliantly.
With Tilt, your employee data stays safe, secure, and centralized under one digital roof. We’ll never put your organization at risk by filing forms on behalf of your employees, and by removing problematic spreadsheets, shared drives, email threads, and access control worries, all you’ll have left to do is sleep easy by night and do the work you love by day.
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.
