Managing employee leaves may be one of the bigger challenges of any human resource manager.

Never mind tracking the employer’s own policies for vacations, paid holidays, sick days and maybe personal days and paid parental leave. The regulatory landscape is awash in a patchwork of paid and unpaid state and federal leave requirements. In New England alone, every one of our states have regulations that vary from one another. As other states develop paid and unpaid leave laws, the pressure to piece together where one starts, the next ends and what to do about overlap intensifies – especially since non-compliance is not an option.

Successfully balancing leaves in this environment means HR needs to position its approach against this backdrop: Can the organization develop, produce and/or deliver necessary products or services in employees’ absence? And what will it take to offset the cost of workers that are gone?

Here’s a roadmap that will make leave management more, well, manageable.

1. Start with the policies.

From Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) to disability, it’s important to grow an understanding of leave regulations at the federal, state and local level, and how internal policies are aligned, or not. It’s important to understand which programs can run concurrently and how benefits are coordinated.

At the same time, internal leave policies should be reviewed as a whole. It’s important to identify and correct conflicts, not just between internal policies, but between them and legislated leaves. Also important: to make sure that benefits and leaves are coordinated when leaves are concurrent.

Language used to document policies is important. Mandated leaves should be described as written by the government entity responsible for them. Simple, straightforward language should be the rule, using commonly understood terms and verbiage that’s intentional – “must” and “will” instead of “may” and “should.” And finally, policies should be written broadly, but with clarity on varying circumstances.

2. Training managers on leave requirements helps avert problems.

Every organization should have a process for how supervisors handle leave requests. This starts with ensuring the employee documents the particulars (type of leave, dates and total hours), and has confirmed the leave dates are available. And, of course, should time off be denied, the employee should be notified in writing with the reason why.

It’s not always that straightforward, though. Training managers on leave rules and common situations and consequences when they go awry is a good preventive measure.

Say a manager tells an employee whose partner is expecting to take “as much time as you need” under “our unlimited” time-off policy. The employee takes four fully paid weeks, then asks for more. The manager responds that HR needs to get involved, but the employee instead applies for Massachusetts PFML and wins another 12 weeks off to continue bonding. Among the consequences: Operational delays result from the employee’s continued absence. Another employee who took leave under the PFML, asks for another four weeks of “unlimited” PTO. Finally, the FMLA Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities goes out late and the FMLA designation is delayed.

3. Be mindful of compliance issues.

It’s important to build awareness across a variety of fronts to stay compliant with the expanding world of leave programs. Specific concerns:

  • Know where your people work, which isn’t as straightforward as it once was. Hybrid workforces may have some employees working in entirely different states, and leaves are further complicated when company offices are scattered among states that may or may not have paid leave regulations. Abide by the general rule that the state where unemployment insurance is paid is the one whose leave laws must be followed. Consult an employment attorney for further guidance.
  • Stay on top of how each state’s programs work. Some have state plans for PFML benefits; others require private insurance plans. An internal policy or company-provided outsourced benefit may not satisfy state requirements. And be aware of changes to programs (like contribution rates) from one year to the next.
  • Stay on top of how each jurisdiction’s laws work with each other and with the employer’s policies. It’s key to understand which can run concurrently, how benefits are coordinated and if company policies conflict with federal, state or local laws.

This is another place where the NEHRA community can be of incredible value. Don’t go this alone!

Contact HUB’s New England offices at [email protected] to learn more about employee assistance programs, financial education programs and additional benefits to improve worker well-being.