Don’t look now, but the leave management landscape is becoming increasingly complex.
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and employee awareness of rights under these laws and others have made managing leave while remaining in legal and regulatory compliance more difficult than ever.
“There are an increasing number of conferences that focus on FLMA and ADA,” says Terri Rhodes, executive director of the Disability Management Employers Coalition (DMEC), the San Diego, Calif., association that focuses on integrated disability, absence management, and Return to Work solutions. “The time and resource investment is well worth the gains in employee satisfaction and productivity, as well as reducing employer liability.”
Rhodes adds that with the heightened legal and regulatory attention to leave, it’s very important that managers across an organization are involved in its planning and implementation.
“One source of leave information not only enhances efficiency,” she says, “it’s also necessary for the accountability that is a key part of leave laws and regulations.”
To make leave management more effective and successful, Rhodes offers the following 10 best practices for employers:
1) Critical training - Managers must understand the leave process and their responsibilities under it, and the law and uniformly administer leave policies.
2) Qualified HR and other staff - Appropriate managers need to be up-to-date on all absence management programs and prepared to answer employee questions about leave.
3) Collaboration across business units - Leave programs must involve HR, disability, legal and other related departments. Removing barriers between disciplines creates efficiencies and limits liability.
4) Clear, consistent processes and policies - This includes correspondence, tracking, management, decision-making and communication.
5) Centralized leave function administration - Employees should have one source for questions and answers.
6) Program evaluation - If an organization has internal system to manage or track its leave program, it should be regularly evaluated for effectiveness.
7) Outsource if necessary - If regular evaluation is not cost-effective, a company should consider outsourcing leave management. There are more options than ever, and the list continues to grow.
8) Vendor evaluation - Just because a company outsources leave management does not mean it outsources its legal responsibilities. Even with outsourcing, an organization must establish a process to update its leave programs to meet its changing business and staff needs.
9) Actionable metrics, tracking, reporting - Key metrics like lost time, costs, return-to-work rates, abuse and productivity are useful to the degree they enable managers to change leave programs to better meet the needs of employees and the organization.
10) Continuous improvement culture - While legal and regulatory compliance is essential, it is not enough to ensure a leave program helps advance strategic business goals. That requires that managers—and executives—view leave programs as an arena for new investment and training to catalyze change to maximize returns.
Rhodes explains that since leave management has become so complicated, it may be the perfect process for outsourcing.
“The growth of leave laws can make it difficult for even large organizations to properly manage,” says Rhodes, adding that outsourcing can reduce time investment and help guarantee managers have the latest information and regulatory guidance.
“Employers that accommodate work-life balance increasingly win the battle for the best talent,” Rhodes concludes. “Well-run leave programs are a competitive advantage, requiring time and resources to get right.”
