Absence management

Last updated

Absence management, also known as leave management, is a combination of employer policies, procedures, or programs designed to handle employee leaves of absence and minimize the impact of those absences on the employer. [1] Absence management programs aim to maximize productivity by supporting an employee from initial absence through return-to-work and stay-at-work plans. [2]

Contents

In 2015, the CDC Foundation estimated that physical injury or illness costs US employers $225.8 billion annually. [3] The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that depression cost employers an additional $44 billion annually. [4] The reasons and costs for employee absence have been well studied for decades. Since the early 2000s studies have increasingly consider the reasons and costs for presenteeism which occurs when workers who are not fully productive still attend work. Injury, illness, stress, anxiety, or depression can diminish productivity, imposing increased costs on the employer and potentially impacting others in the workforce. [5]

To balance the costs of absence with the health and well-being of the workforce, companies rely on absence management programs to explicitly track and manage the cause and costs of absenteeism.

Absence management legislation (US)

The United States lags other industrialized countries when it comes to federally mandated paid leave including parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child, employee illness, or to care for a sick child, spouse, or another close relative. [6] The United States is one of seven countries in the world that does not guarantee paid maternity leave, along with Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Suriname. [7] The United States also lags behind other industrialized countries when it comes to federally mandated paid vacation time. Paid holiday entitlement in the European Union is set at a minimum of four weeks (20 days) per year, exclusive of bank holidays. The US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, last amended in 2009, doesn't mandate any paid vacation, instead stating that these matters are left to an agreement between employer and employee. [8]

A 2018 study by Project: Time Off showed that US workers left 662 million vacation days unused. The study cited fear — fear of missing out, fear of returning to a pile of work, fear of being seen as under-performing, and fear of being seen as replaceable — as the most common reason why workers did not use their vacation time. [9]

The push for federally mandated standards for paid leave laws has been ongoing for over 100 years. [10] As a result, there is a complex patchwork of federal, state, and local laws which offer workers protection for unpaid leave, based on a variety of different factors. This patchwork of laws makes it increasingly difficult for employers to remain in compliance. [11]

The federal laws that impact absence management include:

In the absence of a unifying federal law requiring paid family and medical leave, many states and municipalities are passing their own leave laws. As of 2021, nine states and the District of Columbia had active paid family leave programs with another three states set to implement newly passed laws. [17] In 2019, an estimated 30 municipalities require paid sick leave. With these distinct laws, leave duration, accrual, use, and reporting requirements vary, making compliance difficult for employers. [18]

Absence management in the pandemic era

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, American workers were instructed to stay home. Service sector workers, comprising nearly 20% of the American workforce, were deemed essential workers and asked to continue working, risking exposure to a highly contagious and potentially lethal disease. Workers in these jobs earn very low wages.55% of them had no paid sick leave, creating financial insecurity for those that may miss work. Paid sick leave allows those who are sick to recover and protects those who are healthy against the spread of illness. [19] Then there were those who considered “workations” — if they were remote, why not work from a vacation destination without using their PTO? Finally, many people chose not to use their PTO at all, resulting in employers seeing unused time balloon to unhealthy levels. [20]

The federal government passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which went into effect on April 1, 2020. FFCRA reimbursed private employers with fewer than 500 employees with tax credits for the cost of providing paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave for special reasons related to COVID-19. These temporary rules expired on December 31, 2020. [21]

According to Mercer (US) Inc., a human resource consulting firm, publication, “States, Cities Tackle COVID-19 Paid Leave. Including OSHA’s ETS Paid Leave Requirements”, [22] some states and local authorities implemented new paid leave requirements while others modified existing laws to accommodate employees' needs. In a July 2021 revision, the authors went on to state:

State and local activity on paid leave issues continue to evolve. The expired federal emergency paid sick and family leave requirements under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) (Pub. L. No. 116-127) — applicable only to employers with fewer than 500 employees — did not preempt any state or local paid leave mandates but did provide corresponding tax credits to an employer for qualified wages provided for the required paid leave. Many state and local emergency leave laws were enacted to cover larger employers and employees exempt from the federal law but without the corresponding tax credits. In some cases, the state/local requirement covers employers of all sizes.The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (Pub. L. No. 116-260) extended the corresponding tax credits for employers subject to the FFCRA that voluntarily continued to provide any unused paid FFCRA leave through March 31, 2021. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) (Pub. L. No. 117-2), effective April 1, 2021, enhanced the tax credits for voluntarily provided FFCRA-qualifying paid leave through Sept. 30, 2021.

The publication goes on to discuss 32 distinct state, city, or county emergency paid leave benefits and an additional 13 COVID-19 guidance recommendations for existing paid leave laws.

Many of the country's largest employers, such as Walmart, Amazon, and Starbucks took it upon themselves to update their policies. Walmart, for example, began offering its hourly associated up to two weeks at 100% salary plus partial pay for up to 26 weeks with medical certification. The company would also allow for paid leave to recover from the side effects of a COVID-19 vaccine. [23]

On November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a mandatory workplace safety rule including paid leave for employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccination plus time to recover from any vaccine side effects. The rule, covering employers with more than 100 employees would have required vaccination or regular testing but was struck down in court in January 2022, before it went into full effect. The back and forth on rules like these had employers constantly scrambling to keep up. [21]

Options for implementing an absence management program

In 2021, 55 percent of surveyed companies cited compliance as a top priority. Employers are placing a new strategic focus on absence management, creating more formal programs and policies. The number of companies with formal programs is expected to grow from 50 percent to 63 percent within two years. [11] Programs can be managed internally (in-sourcing), managed through a combination of internal resources and an external partner (co-sourcing), or managed by a third-party administrator or insurance carrier (outsourcing). There are also a growing number of technology solutions to help regardless of the model chosen.

In-sourced leave and absence management programs rely on internal benefits-related or HR staff for the intake of new claims and overseeing all leave management activities in coordination with short-term disability and workers’ compensation claims. The employer is responsible for tracking, reporting, and compliance with all laws and regulations. Technology solutions are prevalent for employers who run their own programs, especially for larger programs. 60% of employers with 5,000+ employees and 80% of companies with 20,000 employees rely on a technology solution. Technology capabilities also increase with employer size, with smaller companies relying on payroll systems, mid-sized employers using HRIS systems, and large employers investing in leave management software. [24]

In a co-sourced model, an employer partners with an external vendor, keeping some elements of the program internally while relying on the vendor for additional expertise. A company may rely on a vendor's technology platform while maintaining internal staff for leave intake and management. This model allows an employer to manage the process in-house using a more sophisticated technology platform than they would likely not have access to on their own. The vendor is responsible for maintaining the platform, making real-time updates to the system. This solution tends to result in better compliance and consistency than in-sourced programs, however, the employee experience is still dependent on front-line managers and/or in-house leave management teams. Third-party software, for example, can help HR professionals track a variety of leaves, return-to-work dates, and can automate a lot of mundane tasks. [11]

Outsourcing relies exclusively on a partner to run the entire program. Many HR and insurance organizations offer these services.

See also

Related Research Articles

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance." The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993</span> US labor law

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law requiring covered employers to provide employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. The FMLA was a major part of President Bill Clinton's first-term domestic agenda, and he signed it into law on February 5, 1993. The FMLA is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor.

Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives. Human resource management is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies and systems. HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee-benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and reward management, such as managing pay and employee benefits systems. HR also concerns itself with organizational change and industrial relations, or the balancing of organizational practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Employee benefits</span> Non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to normal wages or salaries

Employee benefits and benefits in kind, also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks, include various types of non-wage compensation provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Instances where an employee exchanges (cash) wages for some other form of benefit is generally referred to as a "salary packaging" or "salary exchange" arrangement. In most countries, most kinds of employee benefits are taxable to at least some degree. Examples of these benefits include: housing furnished or not, with or without free utilities; group insurance ; disability income protection; retirement benefits; daycare; tuition reimbursement; sick leave; vacation ; social security; profit sharing; employer student loan contributions; conveyancing; long service leave; domestic help (servants); and other specialized benefits.

An employee handbook, sometimes also known as an employee manual, staff handbook, or company policy manual, is a book given to employees by an employer.

California's Paid Family Leave (PFL) insurance program, which is also known as the Family Temporary Disability Insurance (FTDI) program, is a law enacted in 2002 that extends unemployment disability compensation to cover individuals who take time off work to care for a seriously ill family member or bond with a new minor child. If eligible, you can receive benefit payments for up to eight weeks. Payments are about 60 to 70 percent of your weekly wages earned 5 to 18 months before your claim start date. You will receive payments by debit card or check. Benefits equal approximately 70% of earnings and have a maximum per week, for a total of up to six weeks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society for Human Resource Management</span> Professional human resources membership association

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a professional human resources membership association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. SHRM promotes the role of HR as a profession and provides education, certification, and networking to its members, while lobbying Congress on issues pertinent to labor management.

Annual leave is a period of paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes. Depending on the employer's policies, differing number of days may be offered, and the employee may be required to give a certain amount of advance notice, may have to coordinate with the employer to be sure that staffing is available during the employee's absence, and other requirements may have to be met. The vast majority of countries today mandate a minimum amount of paid annual leave by law.

Sick leave is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sick leave is intended for health-related purposes. Sick leave can include a mental health day and taking time away from work to go to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Some policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Menstrual leave is another type of time off work for a health-related reason, but it is not always paid.

Paid time off, planned time off, or personal time off (PTO), is a policy in some employee handbooks that provides a bank of hours in which the employer pools sick days, vacation days, and personal days that allows employees to use as the need or desire arises. This policy pertains mainly to the United States, where there are no federal legal requirements for a minimum number of paid vacation days. Instead, U.S. companies determine the amount of paid time off that will be allotted to employees, while keeping in mind the payoff in recruiting and retaining employees.

A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, or employment-related, and law often mandates them. Each country has its own system of reasonable accommodations. The United Nations use this term in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, saying refusal to make accommodation results in discrimination. It defines a "reasonable accommodation" as:

... necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938</span> United States wage law

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 29 U.S.C. § 203 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppressive child labor". It applies to employees engaged in interstate commerce or employed by an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, unless the employer can claim an exemption from coverage. The Act was enacted by the 75th Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Labor Code</span> Collection of Californian civil law statutes

The California Labor Code, more formally known as "the Labor Code", is a collection of civil law statutes for the State of California. The code is made up of statutes which govern the general obligations and rights of persons within the jurisdiction of the State of California. The stated goal of the Department of Industrial Relations is to promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners of California, to improve their working conditions and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment."

Work–life balance in the United States is having enough time for work and enough time to have a personal life in the United States. Related, though broader, terms include lifestyle balance and life balance. The most important thing in work and life is the personal ability to demonstrate and meet the needs of work and personal life in order to achieve goals. People should learn to deal with role engagement management, role conflict management and managing life needs to achieve balance. Balance is about how to properly achieve the desired work and life satisfaction and needs in a conflict situation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commission de la construction du Québec</span>

The Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) is responsible for the application of the laws and regulations that govern the construction industry in the province of Québec. Funded by the industry's employers and employees, the CCQ offers numerous services in the areas of social services, vocational training, workforce management, and application of the construction industry's collective agreements.

Parental leave is regulated in the United States by US labor law and state law. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for parents of newborn or newly adopted children if they work for a company with 50 or more employees. As of October 1, 2020, the same policy has been extended to caregivers of sick family members, or a partner in direct relation to the birth of the child therefore responsible for the care of the mother. Although 12 weeks are allowed to them, on average American fathers only take 10 days off, due to financial need. Beginning in 2020, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island required paid parental leave to employees, including those a part of 50 or less employees. There is no paid paternity leave in the United States currently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SECURE Act</span> 2019 United States federal legislation

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019, Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law  116–94 (text)(PDF), was signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 20, 2019 as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Families First Coronavirus Response Act</span> 2020 US federal law, "Phase 2" of pandemic relief

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act is an Act of Congress meant to respond to the economic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The act provides funding for free coronavirus testing, 14-day paid leave for American workers affected by the pandemic, and increased funding for food stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sick leave in the United States</span>

The United States federal government requires unpaid leave for serious illnesses, but does not require that employees have access to paid sick leave to address their own short-term illnesses or the short-term illness of a family member. However, a number of states and localities do require some or all employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers.

The Biden administration COVID-19 action plan, also called the Path out of the Pandemic, is a substantial increase in the use of vaccination mandates as part of the U.S. federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic announced by President Joe Biden on September 9, 2021, to be carried out by officials in the Biden administration. The plan included various announced prospective efforts, as well as the issuance of several executive orders.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of Absence Management - Gartner Human Resources Glossary". Gartner. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  2. ↑ Secretariat, Treasury Board of Canada (2011-07-14). "The Fundamentals of Disability Management". www.canada.ca. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  3. ↑ "Worker Illness and Injury Costs U.S. Employers $225.8 Billion Annually | CDC Foundation". www.cdcfoundation.org. 28 January 2015. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  4. ↑ Stewart, WF; Ricci, JA; Chee, E; Hahn, SR; Morganstein, D (2003). "Cost of Lost Productive Work Time Among US Workers With Depression". JAMA. 289 (23): 3135–3144. doi:10.1001/jama.289.23.3135. PMID   12813119.
  5. ↑ Kaiser, Calr P. (2018). "Absenteeism, Presenteeism, and Workplace Climate: A Taxonomy of Employee Attendance Behaviors" (PDF). NEBA: Nebraska Economics and Business Association. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  6. ↑ Miller, Claire Cain (2021-10-25). "The World 'Has Found a Way to Do This': The U.S. Lags on Paid Leave". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-08-07.
  7. ↑ "Is paid leave available for both parents of infants?". UCLA World. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  8. ↑ Dishman, Lydia (2018-08-24). "Americans have been fighting for paid vacation for 100 years". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  9. ↑ Achor, Shawn; Gielan, Michelle (2016-07-13). "The Data-Driven Case for Vacation". Harvard Business Review. ISSN   0017-8012 . Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  10. ↑ Dishman, Lydia (2018-08-24). "Americans have been fighting for paid vacation for 100 years". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-08-07.
  11. 1 2 3 Zielinski, Dave (2021-10-05). "Choosing the Right Leave Management Vendor Pays Off". SHRM. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
  12. ↑ "The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". www.eeoc.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  13. ↑ "ADA.gov homepage". www.ada.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  14. ↑ "Family and Medical Leave Act | U.S. Department of Labor". www.dol.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  15. ↑ "USERRA | U.S. Department of Labor". www.dol.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  16. ↑ "ADA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". www.eeoc.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  17. ↑ "State Paid Family Leave Laws Across the U.S. | Bipartisan Policy Center". bipartisanpolicy.org. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  18. ↑ "A List of States and Cities with Paid Sick Leave Laws". Workest. 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  19. ↑ "Essential and Vulnerable: Service-Sector Workers and Paid Sick Leave". The Shift Project. 2020-04-15. Retrieved 2022-08-07.
  20. ↑ Grensing-Pophal, Lin; Grensing-Pophal, Lin (2021-08-27). "Managing Paid Leave During the Pandemic and Beyond". SHRM. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  21. 1 2 "Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Questions and Answers | U.S. Department of Labor". www.dol.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  22. ↑ Marshall, Katharine, et al. “States, Cities Tackle COVID-19 Paid Leave - Including OSHA’s ETS Paid Leave Requirements.” Www.mercer.com, 6 Jan. 2022,
  23. ↑ Cavale, Siddharth; Naidu, Richa (2022-01-06). "Walmart halves paid leave for COVID-positive workers". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
  24. ↑ "2020 DMEC Employer Leave Management Survey White Paper". Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC). 2021-03-22. Retrieved 2022-02-20.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.