Automation can do a tremendous amount of the heavy lifting for HR leaders when it comes to leave of absence management.

From determining FMLA to building leave plans to calculating payroll, automation is a time-saving, compliance-risk-reducing miracle for most HR teams. It’s a critical component for any successful leave of absence management solution.

By nature, leave technology also has its limitations and shouldn’t be solely relied on for a comprehensive and effective solution.

Leaves of Absence are a Human Affair

A leave of absence is like a snowflake, no two are exactly alike, and the more of them that accumulate the greater the likelihood that the experience will be a cold one.

Unlike snowflakes, which usually can be picked up via radar from miles away and far in advance, a significant life event can be completely unexpected, derailing the lives of employees and the workflow of HR teams.

Your client went from logging into work expecting it to be like any other day, and suddenly they have to figure out how to effectively and empathetically support a tragedy their employee just experienced, all while helping them navigate the complex administrative labyrinth that is leave of absence management.

So why doesn’t a tech-only solution work for leave management?

Well, let’s look at two such scenarios; a leave managed manually with help from a short-term disability carrier and a solution that relies solely on automation:

An employee just learned that their parent or guardian passed away. They’re devastated, shocked, and don’t know which way is up. They turn to your HR client seeking guidance on what they need to do and are told “Talk to the insurance company. Reach out to them.”

Insurance carriers are wonderful at handling insurance claims, but when used for managing leaves of absence they’re still an independent 3rd party who aren’t properly equipped to manage all leave types. Often employees must call a 1-800 number where it’s never the same person twice, and they’re primarily focused on the part of the leave that’s impacted by the STD policy.

The problem with that scenario is that when manually managing leaves and relying on a carrier, it becomes exceedingly difficult to account for all of the moving pieces in a leave of absence.

There’s your client’s unique company policy, and in the 13 states that have passed leave legislation, there are also state policies that must be factored in. Manually tracking leaves across multiple systems and only having outreach to that one provider is an incomplete solution, leaving that employee to feel lost in their biggest moment of need.

An employee has been on caregiver leave to support their elderly parent or guardian, only for them to pass away. They never imagined something so tragic could happen in their life, and your client has never had to manage a leave scenario like this.

Your client’s solution relies on a database that automates its employee support for leave scenarios. The employee wants to be mourning their loss and instead is searching a lifeless database for answers, but there isn’t a scenario that quite fits this scenario so now neither your client nor the employee know what their next move is.

In both scenarios, human guidance has been put on the back burner, and in both scenarios, they come up short when it comes to empowering your clients to provide tangible, valuable employee support when it’s needed most.

Whether it’s the most straightforward leave or the most complex one, if your HR client’s leave management solution can’t support all aspects of a leave, not just the administrative aspects, then they run the risk of:

Discrimination claims: An employee feeling they were treated differently while taking a leave than another colleague could be grounds for them to pursue legal action.

Reputational damage: HR leaders work hard to keep their employee populations happy, engaged, and supported. A single poor leave of absence experience can submarine the morale of an organization in one fell swoop. Sometimes that festers only internally, sometimes that spreads to social media and it’s all hands on deck. It’s a risk your clients can’t afford to take.

Employee turnover: What’s more expensive than a discrimination lawsuit and putting out reputational fires? Navigating a discrimination lawsuit while putting out reputational fires followed by an exodus of valuable employees.

The truth is that relying solely on tech and automation for some HR functions is a dream, but it can be a living nightmare for leave of absence management.

It’s well known that leave laws are evolving and maturing over time, but new ones are also regularly popping up all over the country. This means your clients who sit in Denver are responsible for knowing what leave programs apply to their employees in New York City.

Beyond that, employers are developing more robust leave policies year over year in an effort to emphasize employee well-being and stay competitive in the talent acquisition and retention game. 

If that weren’t enough, and your clients perhaps wish it were, leave requests are on the rise across the country.

The combination of complexified leave laws, robust leave policies, and an increase in employees taking them has HR and People Ops pros searching for a way to manage it all efficiently and compliantly.

If your HR clients are worried about managing all their employee leaves, no matter the leave type, there’s a good chance they’re currently managing them in one of the following ways:

• Manually through a cocktail of spreadsheets, Google Drive folders, their short-term disability carrier, and their HRIS.

• Utilizing a carrier to try and handle all leave types
• A 3rd-party vendor that isn’t an expert on everything leave, doesn’t provide human support so employees are left in the dark, doesn’t provide a tech platform so HR is left in the dark, or a combination of all three.

Leaves of absence are a complicated mess by nature. This is partially because they’re typically requested when a significant human event occurs in an employee’s life, and significant human events are rarely neat and orderly. As alluded to above, they’re also a complicated mess because the rules and regulations employees have to adhere to are also rarely neat and orderly.

So if your clients are worried about administering and managing all employee leaves of absence, here’s how you can help them achieve the LOA ease they’re so desperately seeking.

A single leave of absence has countless moving parts that must work in harmony in order for HR teams to effectively manage the employee journey from start to finish.

STD Carriers struggle to achieve this harmony because often they’re operating completely independently from other HR systems. This leads to disjointed and siloed information, data blind spots, and vast communication gaps.

The stress and strain this puts on People Ops professionals is tremendous as they try to bridge these gaps across their HRIS system, leave tracking spreadsheets, payroll database, current leave law information, workforce planning roadmaps, and the employees themselves looking for guidance.

With leave of absence management, having a single source of truth for all things leave is paramount to success. With the right solution in place, you can eliminate system gaps in data accuracy, communication breakdowns, and coordination between disability claims and other aspects of leave management.

Tilt’s leave management software takes what once was your client’s biggest headache and streamlines, automates, and simplifies the entire process for everyone involved. At Tilt, we hear things like, “Leave management is 10% of my workload, but 90% of my worry” from stressed-out and overworked HR teams. That’s of course before they implement Tilt in their life. Afterward, we hear things like:

Imagine for a moment, if you will, one of those dumpsters behind a 7-11 filled to the brim, soaked in gas, and ceremoniously lit on fire. That’s roughly what most HR and People Ops pros are dealing with when trying to effectively manage a single leave of absence (and a large reason why the ripple effects can be massive.)

More specifically, when an employee requests a leave of absence odds are that they’re responding to an email in an already cluttered inbox, then digging through their HRIS to verify FMLA and company-specific benefit eligibility, then figuring out exactly what’s needed to help support that employee and their specific leave journey.

On top of that, they need to start documenting the processes and tracking all elements of the leave, including timely facilitation of the completion and secure storage of any important paperwork that the employee might have to fill out.

This of course gets complicated when employees are spread across the country, living in states with unique leave laws and requirements that your clients need to familiarize themselves with. Your clients are being relied upon to answer questions should they arise, figure out complicated pay calculations to ensure their people are being paid, and help provide a smooth transition for their return.

Manually managing a single leave of absence is a lot. Managing multiple? It can feel like an administrative barrage.

Out with the old, in with the new. The old way of relying on manually updating spreadsheets and trying to stitch multiple data systems together are gone. Tilt streamlines the entire leave of absence tracking process through automation and innovation, creating a single source or real-time truth for all leave data across the organization.

Tilt’s solution to LOA management addresses your clients’ biggest concerns through a customizable leave management platform that makes it easy to track and administer all leaves of absence within their organization.

The ADA mandates that employers must not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities at any stage of employment, including hiring, promotion, or compensation. This legislation serves as a crucial foundation for fostering inclusive workplaces and is essential to help your clients grasp that adhering to the ADA isn’t just a legal obligation; it’s a pathway to building diverse, talented, and equitable teams. By guiding your clients in navigating ADA non-discrimination requirements, you’re not only mitigating legal risks but also helping them create environments where every individual’s potential can shine.

The FMLA is a complex law with numerous rules and regulations that your clients must adhere to and which can be challenging to navigate. Therefore, the first criterion when choosing an FMLA administrator is expertise in said FMLA regulations. 

Partner your clients up with FMLA experts with a deep understanding of the law’s requirements, including eligibility criteria, leave duration, and the various qualifying reasons for FMLA leave. Their knowledge will ensure that your clients remain compliant and avoid costly penalties.

A lot. And if your clients are using a spreadsheet, or multiple spreadsheets, or multiple systems without a single source of truth, there’s a good chance that they’re at their wit’s end trying to manage it all in real time. Let’s break down all the elements of FMLA your clients are likely currently trying to track in a spreadsheet:

Eligibility: Your HR client is required to determine whether an employee is eligible for FMLA leave. Here are the requirements:

• The employee must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months as of the date FMLA is to start
• The employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours over the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave, 
• The employee must work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Qualifying Reasons: HR leaders need to track the specific reasons for which an employee is requesting FMLA leave. Qualifying reasons include the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child, the serious health condition of the employee, or the need to care for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition.

Certification: Employers should obtain and track medical certification or documentation supporting the need for FMLA leave when possible. This documentation helps verify that the leave is being taken for a qualifying reason.

Notices: Your clients are also responsible for providing employees with required FMLA notices. This includes providing an FMLA eligibility notice, a rights and responsibilities notice, and a designation notice within the timeframes specified in the regulations.

Dates: Employers need to keep track of when FMLA starts and stops for an employee, updating dates accordingly if they change throughout the course of a leave.

Amount of Leave: Tracking the amount of FMLA leave taken by eligible employees can be a major headache for HR, but they’ve got to do it. FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period, although certain circumstances may allow for up to 26 weeks of leave for military caregiver leave. As changes occur to a leave (say the start and stop dates change, or there is intermittent usage), HR needs to stay on track of how many FMLA hours are being used up–and when the employee’s FMLA entitlement refreshes

Job Protection: The job status of employees on FMLA leave also needs to be tracked to ensure they are reinstated to their original position, or an equivalent one, upon their return from leave. This is to ensure the employee does not suffer any adverse employment actions due to taking FMLA leave.

Recordkeeping: While there is no particular order or form of records required, employers must keep the records specified by FMLA regulations for no less than three years and make them available for inspection. These records should include:

• Dates FMLA leave is taken by FMLA-eligible employees (leave must be designated in records as FMLA leave), including the hours of the leave, if FMLA leave is taken in increments of less than one full day;
• Basic payroll and identifying employee data;
• Premium payments of employee benefits.
• Copies of employee notices of leave provided to the employer under the FMLA, if in writing, and copies of all eligibility notices given to employees as required under the FMLA (copies may be maintained in employee personnel files).
• Any documents (including written and electronic records) describing employee benefits or employer policies and practices regarding the taking of paid and unpaid leave.
• Records of any dispute between the employer and an eligible employee regarding the designation of leave as FMLA leave, including any written statement from the employer or employee of the reasons for the designation and for the disagreement.

Intermittent Leave: Employers must track and manage intermittent FMLA leave, which allows eligible employees to take leave in separate blocks of time for qualifying reasons.

Military Family Leave: For eligible employees, employers must track the amount of leave taken for military family reasons, such as qualifying exigency leave or military caregiver leave.

We should mention that your clients need to track all of this for each FMLA-eligible leave they manage. Since failure to comply with FMLA requirements can result in legal liabilities and penalties, relying on a nest of spreadsheets and tabs likely has your clients praying for a better option.