Absence Management Services vs. HR Automation Platforms

Managing employee leaves of absence can be a time-consuming responsibility for your human resources department. Absence management services are third-party providers who do the work for you, fielding leave of absence requests and verifying eligibility for federal and state leave laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

You can also access absence management services online, in the form of HR platforms that automate the LoA process and reduce the workload for your HR team. Let’s take a look at the advantages of absence management services, and how HR automation is changing the way absence management works.

What Are Absence Management Services?

Absence management services are third-party companies that help you approve and manage employee absences. Many of them offer absence management support from start to finish, which means they’ll handle inquiries from employees, assess eligibility, and help you ensure compliance with any applicable leave laws.

This might include verifying a medical certification under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or tracking intermittent FMLA leave. Some services also handle short-term disability leave and can facilitate communications with your insurance company.

Absence Management Services vs. Software

Absence management software is essentially a DIY version of absence management in which you handle the work in house with the help of leave of absence automation.

These tools offer the best of both worlds: a cloud-based platform that can automatically track employee absences and assess their eligibility for leave, without the added costs of outsourcing the work to a third-party provider.

For example, Pulpstream facilitates LoA management, claims management, and the return to work process with an easy-to-use, no-code interface. You can use a built-in rules engine to ensure compliance with FMLA and other state and federal laws.

Are Absence Management Services Worth It?

For small companies, absence management may be an afterthought: employees can just add their planned absences to a shared calendar and they’re good to go. But as your company grows, you may need to comply with additional leave laws.

Absence management services can be helpful if your leave administration workload is more than your team can handle. Even organizations with a large HR department may benefit from outsourcing or digitizing their leave of absence management system.

Here are three benefits of using absence management services or software.

Compliance

In some states, employment laws are only getting more and more complex. New sick leave and medical leave laws are coming into play in Delaware, Washington, Oregon, and several other states. Even if you have FMLA compliance under control, new laws can throw a curveball and introduce new obligations you didn’t know you had.

Whether it’s tracking accrued leave or calculating payroll deductions to a state leave program, absence management tools like Pulpstream keep you on track.

Efficiency

Instead of printing out FMLA forms and other analog documents, you can use absence management software to digitize the process, reducing the workload for your HR team and making it easier for employees to initiate and update leave requests.

From an employee self-service portal to automatic notifications by email or SMS, digital leave management solutions allow you to automate recurring HR tasks and streamline workflows so they take less time and cost less money.

Analytics

Digitizing the absence management process makes it easier to track attendance and identify problems in real-time. You can use this data to plan for upcoming absences, address frequent absenteeism, or anticipate the need for overtime.

At a larger scale, you can use attendance data for workforce analytics, which can help with succession planning and other long-term decision-making.

What Types of Leave Do Employers Need to Manage?

Absence management services and software can vary in their capabilities and areas of focus. Many focus on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) because it applies in all 50 states. But if you have employees in multiple states, your needs may be even more complex. Here are four types of leave that employers should be ready to handle.

FMLA Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act is one of the most comprehensive leave laws in the U.S., providing up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees with a qualifying family or medical condition. Private employers with at least 50 employees are bound by it.

Employees are entitled to return to the same position, and to maintain their health care while on leave. Since an employee may use FMLA leave intermittently, or for multiple conditions, it’s important to track FMLA leave accurately and maintain appropriate medical documentation to ensure they don’t exceed their leave entitlements.

ADA Leave

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodation” to employees with a qualifying disability. Since a leave of absence or reduced work schedule could be considered a reasonable accommodation, you may need to track ADA leave as part of your absence management process.

Your absence management service or software solution can help you determine if the ADA applies and guide you through the ADA interactive process.

Disability Leave

Some states, including New York and California, require employers to have a short-term disability insurance policy, which provides temporary wage replacement if an employee has to take a leave of absence due to short-term disability. Some employers also offer long-term disability insurance as an employee benefit.

Paid Family Leave

Some employees may be entitled to paid Paid Family Leave (PFL) or Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML). These programs offer wage replacement to employees while they’re on parental leave or another qualifying type of leave.

Best Practices for Absence Management

Whether you outsource absence management to a third-party, or use an HR platform to handle absence management in house, here are three best practices to follow to make the process easier for employees and HR team members alike.

1. Create a leave of absence policy.

A leave of absence policy standardizes your guidelines and lets employees know what to expect. Are they entitled to a leave of absence under FMLA or another employment law? Does your company offer a more generous parental leave policy?

In addition to informing employees of their rights, an effective leave of absence policy should include a remote work policy and how FMLA applies to distributed teams.

2. Respond to employees promptly.

No one wants delays in the leave of absence process: not your employee — who may have an urgent reason for taking leave — and not their manager, who has to update the schedule to cover for them. Even though employees are expected to provide advance notice when taking most types of leave, this isn’t always practical or possible.

By using an absence management service or HR automation platform, you can ensure that someone is available to respond to requests in a timely manner, and automatically notify employees whether their request has been approved or rejected.

3. Facilitate the return to work process.

The return to work process is designed to get employees back to the workplace after taking a leave of absence under FMLA or filing a disability claim. Employees have a right to reinstatement under some leave laws, so the Stay at Work/Return to Work process is a key part of any absence management system.

With Pulpstream, it’s easy to keep the lines of communication open with employees to prepare for their return to work and request a fitness-for-duty certification.

Improve Compliance with an Absence Management Solution

Absence management services can boost the productivity of your HR team — whether you use a third-party service provider or do the work in-house with the help of an HR automation platform. Effective absence management isn’t just about cutting costs or ensuring compliance, but about providing a better employee experience.

When employees can submit their leave requests electronically and don’t have to stress out about paperwork, they’re less likely to make last-minute requests or take unplanned absences. Pulpstream’s no-code platform does the work for you, with a built-in routing to get leave requests acted on quickly and processed more accurately.

Contact the team today to request a free demo and see how it works!