How busy is your job? It’s a simple question with perhaps a not-so-simple answer. There’s a good chance that if you’re in HR, however, you’d be justified to color your response with a few expletives like this:
“I. Am. Busy.”
It’s an HR professional’s refrain as old as time, yet it appears to be echoing louder year after year.
“The rate of change in HR in recent years has been eye-watering, thanks to the pandemic and seismic shifts in the workplace—and the world itself,” according to this year’s The Changing Face of HR Report by Sage. The report also reveals that 91 percent of HR leaders and 96 percent of C-suite executives recognize that HR’s role has changed dramatically over the past five years.
In an interesting development, Sage found that 57 percent of HR leaders said they love their profession, but 62 percent are considering exiting it.
HR Leaders Seek To Reduce Team Stress
What the numbers in the study tell us is that executives are aware that HR and People Ops teams are dealing with unprecedented levels of stress, which is an important step, because even the HR and People Ops professionals who are passionate about the work they’re doing have had just about enough.
This bears out in the turnover numbers HR is experiencing across the board.
HR and People Ops professionals need help, and leadership is feeling the effects of that demand first-hand. A recent Gartner survey revealed that 51% of CHROs have noticed an uptick in requests for support from their teams, and as many as 45% of CHROs are finding it more difficult to handle the conflicting demands on their time.
“The volume of business demands on HR has gone up since the pandemic,” explains Mark Whittle, vice president of Gartner’s HR practice. “The difference between what senior leaders want and what employees want has also widened,” he adds. “For a people-pleasing business like HR, it’s uncomfortable ground.”
The pressure is on for leadership to find innovative ways to alleviate the burdens currently burying HR teams across the counter.
Tilt Recap: The data shows that modern leaders recognize that the levels of stress HR teams are dealing with is becoming untenable. HR has become a high-turnover function within many businesses, and the search for innovative solutions to alleviate the many HR burdens being faced today is on.
HR Is Embracing New Leave of Absence Management Solutions
One of the most complex and stress-inducing elements of the HR function is leave of absence management. While many organizations approach employee leaves in their own (sometimes unconventional…and sometimes non-compliant) ways, modern leaders are realizing the need for a streamlined and automated approach to managing their organization’s LOAs.
A solution like Tilt automates the leave of absence process for HR teams through an easy-to-navigate platform while delivering seamlessly empathetic support for employees in their time of need.
Tilt makes leave management easy no matter the leave type and no matter the state, but why are leaves of absence so stressful for HR teams to manage to begin with?
Leaves of absence are unpredictable and derailing. That busy Reddit user up top logs in every day knowing they have a mountain of responsibilities on their shoulders they barely have the bandwidth for, but there’s no way to prepare for an unpreparable life event happening to an employee.
When a request comes across their inbox, they’ve got no choice but to stop what they’re doing and shift into leave management support mode.
Leaves of absence are complex. Varying leave types. Dispersed workforces. FMLA tracking. Document storage. Evolving leave laws. Rogue managers crossing the line. Confusing state processes. Non-responsive carriers. Payroll. Changing leave dates. Changing leave reasons (i.e. caregiver to bereavement). Fielding questions employees have throughout their journey.
A single leave of absence has more delicate moving parts than a Swiss timepiece, which is why time seems to stop when a leave goes sideways and HR is called upon to compliantly provide support at a moment’s notice.
Manual processes don’t scale. From monitoring leave benefit usage to payroll calculations to adjusting leave start and stop dates, there are numerous layers to leave that simply can’t be scaled with manual processes.
As employers enhance their leave benefit offerings (yay!) it puts even more pressure on HR teams to be able to create compliant leave plans and successfully support the growing number of employees taking leave year after year.
Strategic initiatives get put on the back burner. Without automating steps like leave eligibility and developing personalized leave plans for each specific employee, HR quickly becomes buried under a mountain of manual tasks that keep them from delivering on their organizational promises and passion projects.
When leave of absence management pulls HR away from progressing on the strategic initiatives they’ve set out to accomplish for the year, HR pros feel the added stress of not moving the business forward as they intended, which adds to the stress they’re already feeling of effectively supporting their employee population.
Our previous solution was not able to scale with our business, especially as our location and employee needs became more complex as we’ve grown. We now feel so comfortable with Tilt managing our leaves and have a great relationship with our Customer Success Manager and Leave Success Manager. We know when we reach out to Tilt, they have it covered, and follow through for us as Admins and for our employees. We now can place more energy and focus into other areas of the business, thanks to all the time saved by Tilt.
Tilt Recap: A significant component of the stress equation plaguing HR teams today is the often burdensome leave of absence management function. Manual processes and outdated systems don’t equip modern People Teams with the capability to effectively and efficiently handle the unpredictability, complexity and empathy required to support today’s workforce when major life events occur. This builds frustration within HR teams as they face burnout and watch their strategic initiatives suffer.
Tilt’s Leave of Absence Management Solution Makes Leave Easy
Tilt’s unique approach to leave of absence management is the perfect blend of automation and humanization. The complexities of the leave process are simplified under Tilt’s secure digital roof, providing scalable leave support for employees and an automated single source of truth for HR teams to rely on for all leave information across the country.
“HR needs to get serious about digitalization,” Whittle adds. “Investing in technology and automation will take away a lot of the drudge work in HR and allow them to focus on higher-value tasks.”
When a leave request comes in, Tilt’s technology determines FMLA and leave eligibility automatically, and creates personalized leave plans for every employee needing a leave. HR, payroll and the employee’s manager are also kept in the loop through their own dashboard so everyone is on the same page throughout every step of the leave.
Curious about what the HR dashboard experience is like? Take a spin for yourself:
Above all else, leaves of absence are a human experience, so relying on Tilt’s technology to navigate the complexities of the leave process itself is only half of the equation.
Tilt humanizes the leave experience through, well, humans! Tilt’s Leave Success Managers (AKA LSMs, AKA Empathy Warriors) act as an extension of your HR team to deliver expert-backed guidance for your employees when they need it. This means HR teams no longer are stressing out about leave laws they’re unsure about, and answering questions about state programs in states they’ve never stepped foot in.
Tilt’s LSMs also work directly with carriers…all carriers…to help bridge any gaps in the leave process you’re likely experiencing today.
Catrina (my LSM) and the Tilt team displayed the best combination of professionalism and compassion during a very difficult time for me. I felt supported during my time away and felt prepared for my return when the time came.
HR teams today need relief. They’re overworked, understaffed, and are looking for a lifeline.
Tilt Recap: Tilt gives HR teams the one gift they’ve been waiting for, an effective automated solution to leave of absence management that delivers a level of support to employees that exceeds their own standards, especially given the scarcity of capacity to support leaves the way they need to be supported.
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.
