Leave Genius Blog

Managing leaves is difficult in and of itself, and now it's an even bigger challenge due to the global health pandemic. The cause of the pandemic, COVID-19, has definitely made an impact on all areas of leave management:

• Many leave teams have had to adjust and are working remotely, which can be extremely challenging without access to a leave law resource.
• Since there are higher volumes of employees taking medical leave and caring for sick family members, operating with a spreadsheet-driven leave process has become unsustainable.
• Numerous HR/Benefits teams have seen layoffs in the past few weeks, leaving them with more work and few resources. 
• New leave laws are being added and leave laws are constantly being updated, therefore staying up-to-date is crucial, now more than ever.  

Fortunately, our parent company, Presagia has created a new infographic, The 5 W's of Unpaid State Family Medical Leave to help you stay informed about the fundamentals of unpaid state family and medical leave laws, which can overlap with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).

In the first part of this blog series, we examined the importance of cloud-based leave management technology, how our parent company, Presagia, is managing the new leave legislation that has been enacted in response to COVID-19, and provided other useful resources for employers during this pandemic. 

In the second part, we're taking a look at how you can build a solid foundation for your leave management technology, the importance of being consistent and having good communication, and form requirements for employers during COVID-19. 

The global health pandemic caused by COVID-19 has affected everyone's lives and professional workplaces. This time has brought about much chaos and extra work, especially for employers and leave case managers who are trying to manage leaves and stay on top of their workload. 

Our parent company, Presagia, is contributing a column to each issue of this year's @Work Magazine, a publication by the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC). If you haven't had a chance to check out this excellent resource, we highly recommend that you do! DMEC provides best practice resources for our complex industry and @Work is one of many excellent resources that we always stay on top of! 

This year's column, Absence & Accommodation Technology, focuses on walking employers through the many considerations they should have as they start to look for leave and accommodation technology, dive into the review process, implement their solution, and maintain a healthy relationship with their vendor post go-live. We’ll also be giving an insider’s look at the many pitfalls employers make when assessing and managing technology, with an eye to helping them avoid these common missteps.

As we did with last year's Technology and Absence Management series, we've created this blog series to share each 2020 column with you! To kick things off, here is January's column which discusses how to lay the groundwork for new absence management technology, before even beginning the search.

Welcome to Part 4 of our blog series all about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)! Hopefully you’ve had time to check out the new whitepaper, Everything You Need to Know About the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by our parent company, Presagia. If not, you can download it here!

In the fourth and final part of this series, we'll look at the interactive process and the technology that supports managing accommodations. 

Welcome to Part 3 of our blog series all about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)! Hopefully you’ve had time to check out the new whitepaper, Everything You Need to Know About the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by our parent company, Presagia. If not, you can download it here!

In the third post of this series, we’ll look at not only the ADA but how the ADA differs and interacts with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). 

We know that these are difficult and uncertain times for everyone, especially leave case managers. As much as things may be uncertain, something we know for a fact is that the House of Representative and Senate passed new leave legislation on March 18, 2020 titled the Families First Coronavirus Response Act in response to this public health emergency. 

Welcome to Part 2 of our blog series all about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)! Hopefully you’ve had time to check out the new whitepaper, Everything You Need to Know About the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by our parent company, Presagia. If not, you can download it here!

In the second post of this series, we’ll look at ADA basics, like what “disability” means under the ADA, who’s covered, and the risks of non-compliance.

As you may know, providing employees with reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) is one of the most challenging aspects of absence management. To help clear up some of the ADA confusion, we've decided to share a great new resource created by our parent company, Presagia! 

Presagia has authored a brand new whitepaper to help you better understand your obligations under this complex piece of legislation, and how technology can help! To celebrate its release, we’re also going to explore key elements of ADA compliance in this new blog series!

In the first post of this series, we're sharing the new ADA whitepaper for you!

Leave case managers and employers are constantly being bombarded with new information. This includes new leave laws, updates to existing leave laws and much more! Along with these changes and updates made in 2019, we also saw opinion letters produced by the US Department of Labor (DOL).  

The Wage and Hour Division of the DOL often generates model forms and opinion letters for case managers and employers on topics such as the FMLA. To help you stay compliant, we've written a brief summary of the three DOL opinion letters from 2019: