Approving an employee’s leave of absence request may seem like a simple task, but a lot of things have to go right to ensure HR compliance. You need to assess an employee’s eligibility, track their leave balance accurately, and inform other stakeholders when the employee will be out of the office and when they’ll be ready to return to work.
The more manual steps involved, the more chances there are that something will go wrong. And without a standardized process in place, managers need to figure out “what’s next” on their own. The solution is leave request workflow automation.
In this article, we’ll show you how to create an efficient leave workflow and how to use no-code software to streamline the leave management process.
A leave request workflow is a process for reviewing and managing an employee’s leave of absence request. While the process may be similar for various types of leave, your workflow needs to be able to handle different outcomes, including both approvals and rejections. You’ll also need to comply with multiple leave of absence laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as well as intermittent leave requests.
Some steps in the leave request workflow are performed by the employee, while others may be handled by their manager or an HR team member. The leave request workflow may also involve third-party stakeholders, such as insurers and healthcare providers, who are asked to substantiate an employee’s claim.
Any leave request workflow is better than no workflow — but traditional HR processes leave plenty of room for human error. Here are three ways things can go wrong.
Simple mistakes can have an outsized impact. Missing leave request forms, data entry errors, and duplicate submissions can all lead to problems with an employee’s leave request — and pose legal liabilities for your human resources team.
By digitizing and automating the leave approval workflow, you can automatically pre-fill forms with the information you already have, reducing the likelihood of errors.
Verbal time off requests and even emailed requests can result in scheduling conflicts and miscommunications — even when a request has been approved. Managers may misremember the start date or fail to communicate it with other team members.
With a cloud-based leave management platform like Pulpstream, you can lock in the start date and end date, and even integrate it into your employee calendar.
Finally, leave request approvals can take time, especially if your HR department has to manually verify an employee’s leave eligibility against your company’s leave policies. A lengthy leave request process can negatively impact employee satisfaction, especially when an employee needs to take sick leave or another urgent leave type.
Pulpstream’s employee self-service platform allows employees to check on their leave request status, while a custom rules engine speeds up manager approval.
The leave request workflow will vary depending on the type of leave involved, but most leave of absence (LoA) requests will follow a similar process. Use this step-by-step guide to set up your leave request workflow and standardize your LoA templates:
Step one is the request itself. For some types of leave, you can use the official forms provided by the Department of Labor, but you can also create your own. Ideally, you’ll allow employees to submit leave requests online to reduce physical paperwork.
Remember, an employee doesn’t have to submit a written request to be eligible for leave, but the easier you make it, the more advanced notice they can provide.
Next, review the leave request and assess the employee’s eligibility. Do they count as a “covered employee” under FMLA or another applicable law? Do they have a qualifying reason for leave, such as an injury, illness, newborn child, or sick family member?
In some cases, an employee may qualify for multiple types of leave, so use a platform like Pulpstream to automatically check eligibility against a custom rule engine.
Thanks to leave of absence automation, straightforward LoA requests can be approved automatically, even without human input. More complex requests may call for additional paperwork, such as a medical certification from a healthcare provider.
If you deny an employee’s leave request, they may have the right to appeal, so take the time you need to do a thorough assessment for more complex cases.
Let the employee know once you’ve made a decision on their leave request. With leave of absence automation, you can send out an SMS or email notification any time there’s a change in an employee’s leave request status.
The employee isn’t the only person who needs to be notified. Be sure to send an email or SMS to the employee’s manager and update your workplace calendar.
Approving an employee’s leave request is only the start of the process. Keep in touch with the employee while they’re on leave and get ready to initiate the return-to-work process or ADA interactive process to ensure a smooth return to the workplace.
Using a standardized leave request workflow allows you to respect your employees’ time off work and remind their manager when it’s time to follow-up with them.
Digitizing and automating your leave management process may seem like a big leap of faith, but no-code tools make it easy to streamline the process, even if no one on your team is a coder. Here are three key features that can make all the difference.
Ready to turn your workflow chart into an easy-to-follow process? Use Pulpstream’s drag-and-drop workflow builder to turn a series of tasks into a step-by-step process. Even non-technical members of your team can navigate our intuitive interface.
The best leave management tools integrate with the software that your HR department is already using, such as payroll automation tools and time-tracking software. This way, employee leave requests are accounted for in your HR systems, and you don’t have to update them manually or configure them yourself.
Finally, cloud-based tools like Pulpstream provide a self-service portal that employees can use to initiate their own leave requests, upload supporting documents, and check on their leave request status. Not only does this reduce the administrative burden for your HR team, it also helps you comply with FMLA confidentiality requirements.
Employee leave of absence requests can be a heavy administrative burden, requiring you to verify eligibility, track leave balances, and keep stakeholders updated along the way. Using a standardized leave request workflow guides managers through the LoA approval process so they don’t have to navigate complex rules themselves.
Pulpstream’s leave management tools streamline the LoA process, with automatic email and SMS notifications, integrated tasks lists, and built-in tutorials. Plus, our cloud-based platform integrates with Workday, ADP, and other software solutions, helping you keep employee data secure and avoid data silos.
Whether you’re transforming an existing leave request workflow or designing one from scratch, our drag-and-drop tools make it easy for anyone on your team to contribute. Pulpstream saves your team time and money, and minimizes compliance issues.
Request a demo today to see how it works!