Common sense tells us that treating people with kindness increases the likelihood that kindness will be returned back to you. If there’s one thing the last few (thousand) years have taught us, however, is that common sense is rarely very common, and in the corporate world it might be even less common.
It shouldn’t be that big of a surprise then that when organizations don’t operate through a lens of compassion when managing their employee population they run the risk of not receiving compassion back when mistreatment occurs.
Gone are the days when such occurrences got swept under the PR rug. Social media has now made it all too easy for employees to fight fire with ire and drag an organization through the mud when transgressions occur. This can be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view, but regardless of how you feel about it personally, it’s definitely a thing, and a thing all People Operations team need to consider in order to keep your organization’s reputation squeaky clean.
With an ever-growing emphasis on work-life balance in tandem with supporting the very human experiences all of us encounter both inside and outside of work, the way in which leave of absence management occurs within your organization can play a major role in ensuring your employer stays elevated and out of the muck.
The ramifications of getting leave management wrong
For a majority of organizations out there you’d have good reason to think that the way in which leaves of absence are managed could use a makeover. You’re likely intimately familiar with how confusing and clunky and downright junky LOAs are to manage for you and your team.
If you think the experience is a headache for you, which we here at Tilt know it absolutely is, imagine what it’s like for the employee who has never taken a leave of absence and is terrified to even ask for one because of the stigmas their manager might have about taking leave. Or the employee who was planning to take time away from work to welcome a new addition into their family, only to have to now cope with bereavement when life’s plan took an unexpectedly drastic and tragic turn.
Real people experiencing life events outside of the workplace require a level of empathy and support from their employer that most just aren’t equipped to handle effectively. The harsh truth is that most organizations are operating with antiquated leave management systems and processes that are as difficult for you to manage as they are ineffective at delivering a positive experience for your employee population.
The old way of doing leave not only exposes your organization to employee dissatisfaction, increased turnover, and lowered morale, but also serious compliance risks. it only takes one employee who feels unfairly discriminated against or hung out to dry on their leave journey to find your org’s logo mud-caked in the media.
How good leave of absence management is good for PR
By supporting your employees through a leave of absence journey empathetically and effectively you’re empowering your organization to act from that place of kindness mentioned at the jump. A holistic leave management solution like Tilt does much more than remove all of your administrative pain points by managing your leaves for you (it’s okay to not love leave management, that’s why we exist).
Tilt’s approach to leave is obsessively human so that you won’t have to lift a finger to know your employees’ hands are being held warmly every step of the way. And not just through our platform which is as easy to use as it is educational and supportive, but through our heart-bursting Leave Success Managers (LSMs) who have a 1-1 relationship with everyone who takes a leave of absence with Tilt.
What headlines do you want your organization to be a part of? One that requires hosing off the negativity, or one that makes you triumphantly shine?
Here are a few things employees of Tilt users have had to say about their leave experience to hammer home the point that with Tilt, the narrative of your employees’ leave of absence experience is within your power.
“It was a great experience, top to bottom. There was a very ‘personal touch’ as well that took my positive experience over the top. I’m so appreciative of my company for teaming up with Tilt, no question!” – Stormie Westendorf, Compliance Administrator @ Athens
“My LSM Sabrina was such a wonderful surprise from the day we met. Navigating FMLA is confusing, and somewhat frightening to navigate on your own especially as you’re going through such a large life change. I was so happy on day one when Sabrina emailed me immediately to chat live about leave, what I needed to do, and even helped consult on strategy. Sabrina, thank you so much for all that you did to make my leave easy and enjoyable, you are the best! – Nash Cooper, Principal Product Manager @ Invoca
I am more than satisfied with my experience with Tilt. My LSM Kelly Thomas was extremely helpful throughout this process. She even reached out to me a second time to remind me that I had an upcoming date; very helpful as I forgot. I don’t want to take another leave of absence however if I do, I’m very glad Tilt will be there to help me through. – Daniel Darling, Customer Experience Rep @ Checkr
What do you want to make headlines for?
A bad leave of absence experience is a reality for far too many People Ops teams and the employee journeys they manage. Tilt makes leave as positive an experience as humanly possible for employees going through some of the most life-altering times of their lives because we know they’re a nightmare for you to manage. Compliance. Changing leave laws. Administrative burdens. Uninformed managers.
The old way of managing leaves simply exposes you to too many opportunities for a leave experience to go sideways and your organization’s reputation to be flipped upside down.
Make leave easy on yourself and your employees with Tilt, so when an employee takes to Twitter to talk about how they were treated when they needed you most, it’s not a conversation about coldness or confusion, but instead about kindness and compassion.
What headlines do you want your organization to be a part of?
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.
