As organizations grow, so does the opportunity to build a workplace that truly supports people through every chapter of life, including the moments when they need to step away.
Whether it’s welcoming a new baby, recovering from surgery, or caring for a loved one, taking a leave of absence is rarely just about logistics. It’s about life. And how an organization handles that moment speaks volumes about its values. At its best, a well-supported leave sends a powerful message: You matter here. We’ve got your back.
But as headcount rises and leave requests multiply, even the most well-intentioned HR teams can feel stretched thin. What starts as a handful of requests a month can quickly balloon into a steady, high-stakes stream of unique, complex cases. The result? Many teams end up in survival mode, defaulting to templated emails, outdated spreadsheets, or rigid systems just to keep up.
Compassion gets crowded out by compliance. Connection gives way to checklists. And suddenly, a process that should feel supportive starts to feel cold.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
In fact, scaling your leave program can be an opportunity to increase empathy, not lose it. With the right foundation, you can streamline the busywork and deepen the human connection that makes great employee experiences possible. This isn’t about choosing between efficiency and care, it’s about designing for both.
Let’s explore what it takes to scale leave support without sacrificing the heart of what matters most: people.
The Risk of Prioritizing LOA Process Over People
For many HR teams, leave of absence is just one line item in a much longer list of responsibilities. “Leave of absence for an HR team member is typically split between many different aspects,” says Brad Hyland, Director of Leave and Customer Success at Tilt. “Unless that person is hired directly to manage only leaves it can become a daunting process.”
That burden grows quickly.
Leave rates have consistently risen in recent years, and with ongoing shifts in state legislation and workplace policies, HR professionals are navigating more complexity than ever. Brad notes that it can take “around 20 hours on average” to manage a single leave, due to the research, compliance, and coordination involved. Multiply that by dozens, or even hundreds, of requests per year, and the workload quickly outpaces capacity.
To manage the volume, many HR leaders turn to templated emails, shared spreadsheets, and standardized checklists. And while these tools serve a purpose, they often result in what Brad describes as a depersonalized experience: “You end up going as quickly as you can through a lot of those different items. You may have template emails…and then as a result, it doesn’t seem very personal for those team members that are taking that time out of the office.”
When employees are navigating something as sensitive as a medical emergency, a pregnancy, or a loss, “cold and confusing” should never be the default. Yet that’s exactly what happens when process takes priority over people.
LOA Empathy at Scale: Not Just Possible, But Necessary
The challenge most HR leaders are facing isn’t deciding whether to streamline their leave of absence process; it’s how to do it without stripping away compassion.
Start by acknowledging that leave is very nuanced.
“Everybody’s leave is a little bit different,” Brad explains. “Even two employees taking parental leave in the same state may have entirely different timelines, needs, and emotions tied to their experience. And when people are left to navigate leave with only the step by step instructions and no human support?” Brad warns, “it’s not going to give you the support that you’re looking for.”
So, how do HR leaders support growing volumes of leave without defaulting to transactional, one-size-fits-all systems?
Here are a few best practices:
1. Standardize the Framework, Personalize the Experience
Implement consistent policies and workflows, but leave room for the human element. Clear guidelines help prevent inequities, “you don’t want to end up in a place where one person has been able to take more time than another,” Brad advises, but employees should still feel seen as individuals. That means tailoring communication preferences, adjusting for different types of leave, and offering proactive support.
2. Educate Beyond the HR Team
Scaling empathy isn’t just HR’s job. Managers play a pivotal role in shaping the employee experience. Ensure they know what they can and can’t ask, and empower them to show understanding while deferring complex questions back to HR. Having good education for those team members is really, really important.
3. Build a Consistent Communication Flow
Communication should never be a guessing game for someone going through leave. Create clear, repeatable touchpoints, but allow for choice. Some employees may prefer text updates. Others want a phone call. Above all else, never assume the way an employee wants to be communicated with while on leave. Always ask.
4. Ask for Help
Speaking of asking, this is a big one: You don’t have to do it alone. Leave is only getting more complex by the day, so HR leaders shouldn’t be scared to ask for help. Whether that means redistributing tasks, getting executive buy-in for additional resources, or exploring a tech partner, it’s okay to admit that your team’s time and empathy are finite.
Leave Experience Management: Where Technology Meets Empathy
Scaling leave effectively doesn’t mean choosing between automation and compassion; it means rethinking the foundation altogether. That’s where Leave Experience Management (LXM) comes in.
LXM platforms, like Tilt, give HR the clarity and control to own the culture of leave, while AI and automation take on the repetitive, compliance-heavy tasks that drain time and energy. That means timelines are tracked, documents stay accurate, and legal requirements are met — all without pulling HR away from the human moments that matter most.
Done right, technology doesn’t replace empathy; it safeguards it. By removing the busywork and risk from HR’s plate, LXM makes space for deeper conversations, proactive support, and the trust-building touch points that employees remember long after their leave ends.
Tilt’s LXM platform blends process automation with a human-first design to ensure every leave journey feels personal, not procedural.
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.
