Leave Genius Blog

As you may know, a wealth of absence management technology is available to help employers transform how they manage employees’ leaves and accommodations. This is a topic we’re very familiar with here at Leave Genius. In fact, our parent company, Presagia, is a regular contributor to the Disability Management Employer Coalition’s (DMEC) @Work Magazine on this topic. DMEC is the most focused industry group for the world of absence management, producing conferences, education, content, and more on best-practices to further how we manage employees’ leaves of absence and accommodations. 

Presagia's 2019 @Work column, Technology & Absence Management, delved into the technology that can support a stronger, more holistic leave management and accommodation strategy. We’re excited to announce that these columns have been refreshed and revamped in Presagia's new whitepaper, Technology & Absence Management: Using Leave & Accommodation Software To Support Your Absence Program.

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! In this post, we're sharing the May column, which reviews the functionality to prioritize while looking for an accommodation management system!

We've seen a lot of change this year, notably when it came to leave legislation at the federal, state and local levels with regards to COVID-19. For many, especially leave case managers who are handling an overwhelming number of medical and quarantine leave cases, it's been difficult having to stay on top of these changes. 

So far this year we've seen a lot of change, especially when it came to leave legislation at the federal, state and local levels in response to COVID-19. 

Likewise, leave case managers have had their hands full dealing with an ever-increasing amount of employees taking leave because of medical reasons, or to care for a family member who is in quarantine or ill. On top of this, they have to constantly stay up-to-date with new and updated leave laws!

The first part of this series covered the importance of planning ahead (i.e. reviewing and updating old policies), the types of records you should be keeping in the midst of bringing back employees during a pandemic, and guidance on returning employees who were ill because of COVID-19. 

In the second part, we'll be diving into the value of keeping open communication with your employees during a pandemic, the option of a phased approach to slowly bring back employees into the workplace and providing accommodations to employees who've had COVID-19. 

As you know, employers and employees are currently navigating the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19 in their work environment. This pandemic has brought major changes to the workplace, including working remotely, leave case managers processing more leaves due to employees caring for family member or having to self-isolate, and new leave laws being implemented like the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). 

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! In this post, we're sharing the March column, which discusses the features you should be prioritizing during your search for new absence management technology!

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.