FMLA Process Automation Explained: A Step-by-Step Guide

Handling leave of absence requests in a timely manner isn’t just good for employees — it also makes things easier for your HR team. In addition to ensuring employees can take time off when they most need it, efficient leave management helps you plan ahead for employee absences and ensure compliance with employment law.

But employment laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can be complex, and processing these requests manually takes time. Using leave of absence process automation can reduce the time spent on each request from 8 hours to as little as 15 minutes, helping you process FMLA leave entitlements quickly and efficiently.

Here’s how to use FMLA process automation to cut down on paperwork, reduce your administrative burden, and improve employee relations.

What Is FMLA Process Automation?

Process automation is the practice of using software to perform key steps in a workflow, either with or without human oversight. In this case, it refers to the use of automation to streamline compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), an employment law that applies to covered employers in all 50 states.

Human resources teams can use FMLA process automation to assess employee leave requests against FMLA eligibility criteria, track leave balances, and send out email and SMS notifications to team members in real-time. Plus, you can use a leave of absence management platform to enforce your own leave policies or state leave laws.

Who Can Benefit From FMLA Process Automation?

FMLA process automation is a cost-effective solution for employers who are bogged down by FMLA administration and want to meet their obligations under federal law. According to the Department of Labor (DOL.gov), covered employers are:

• State, local, and federal government agencies
• Public and private schools and educational departments
• Private-sector employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles

These employers must provide up to 12 weeks of employee leave in a 12-month period to eligible employees for certain qualifying reasons. Some types of leave that fall under FMLA regulations include parental leave, military family leave, and medical leave.

An employee may even be eligible to take intermittent leave to treat their own serious health condition or to take care of an ill or injured family member. If an employee isn’t eligible for FMLA, they may still be entitled to unpaid leave under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or paid leave under state sick leave laws.

Why Use FMLA Process Automation?

Using FMLA process automation benefits at least three groups of people that have a stake in the leave administration process:

• Your employees benefit from an improved experience and the ability to manage their own leave requests using a self-service portal.
• Your HR team will spend less time on straightforward cases and can focus on resolving more complex employee relations issues.
• Managers get advance notice of upcoming absences and can adjust workloads and staffing levels accordingly.

Although it can play a key role in your leave program, business process automation isn’t just for FMLA administration. You can apply many of the same practices to other areas of your business, from employee onboarding to employee benefits administration.

5 Steps to Effective FMLA Process Automation

FMLA process automation starts with identifying tasks that can be automated. The goal isn’t to remove human decision-makers entirely, but to reduce the need for your team members to perform repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Here are five steps in the leave management process that are prime candidates for automation.

1. Field incoming leave requests.

First, make it easy for your employees to submit leave of absence requests. Instead of relying on paper forms and designation notices, digitize the process so employees can do the majority of the paperwork online. Not only does this mean you can respond to it more efficiently, it creates a digital paper trail to help you ensure HR compliance.

Pulpstream’s cloud-based leave management platform is built for this purpose, with a self-service portal that employees can log into to submit their own LoA requests from their desktop, tablet, or even a mobile phone.

2. Assess eligibility for FMLA.

Next, assess eligibility for FMLA by determining whether the employee has a qualifying reason for taking leave and meets the other criteria. Both full and part-time employees are eligible for FMLA leave, but must have worked for you for at least 12 months in all, including 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months.

Since the criteria are so specific, use Pulpstream’s built-in rule engine to automatically check eligibility for state and federal leave laws. This reduces the risk of human error, and allows you to maintain compliance with multiple employment laws at once.

3. Request supporting documents.

If an employee takes a leave of absence for medical reasons, their employer may ask them to obtain a medical certification from their healthcare provider. This is to confirm their eligibility for leave and reduce the opportunity for FMLA abuse. If you request a medical certification, they have 15 calendar days to provide it.

When you use Pulpstream’s leave management platform, you can send email and SMS notifications directly to employees to ensure they don’t overlook your request. Plus, they can use their self-service portal to upload sensitive documents directly to the cloud, in accordance with FMLA and ADA confidentiality requirements.

4. Track leave balances.

FMLA leave tracking benefits both you and your employees by allowing them to use some or all of their leave without exceeding their leave entitlement. This is especially important in cases of intermittent leave, in which an employee takes leave in small increments — as little as 15 minutes — making it difficult to calculate manually.

Pulpstream allows you to track employee attendance, FMLA leave, and accrued leave all in one place, without the need for external time-cards or time-tracking software. It’s easy for employees to look up their own FMLA leave balance at a glance.

5. Facilitate reinstatement.

Finally, FMLA entitles employees to be reinstated in the same job or an equivalent one when they’re ready to return to work. Depending on their reason for taking leave, they may need to provide a fitness-for-duty certification from their healthcare provider.

If they’re unable to return to work due to a workplace injury, they may also be entitled to short-term disability insurance or workers’ compensation.

Pulpstream’s software helps HR teams navigate the ADA interactive process, workers’ compensation process, and other complex workflows. Use our modern, cloud-based interface to simplify employee case management and facilitate their return to work.

Implement FMLA Process Automation with Pulpstream

FMLA process automation helps HR teams comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by streamlining workflows and automating time-consuming tasks. Use HR automation software to field incoming leave requests, automatically approve or deny clear-cut cases, and ask for information to resolve more complex requests.

FMLA’s strict eligibility requirements — as well as a patchwork of state leave laws that may overlap — make it hard to keep track of FMLA leave without the aid of software. Process automation helps you reduce human error and effort at the same time.

Pulpstream’s business process automation tools do just that. Our cloud-based platform helps you manage FMLA leave for the modern workforce, empowering employees with a self-service portal and retaining a digital paper trail to show compliance.

Request a demo today to see how process automation can have an impact!