Decoding the world of employee leave

It’s never been easy to manage employee leave.

Each state or local government is influenced by a different set of local codes, federal policies, collective bargaining agreements and administrative payroll processes, all of which can change due to the needs and circumstances of the individual government—meaning no two leave management approaches are the same.

Due to the decentralized HR functions of many governments, initiating a unified approach to leave management is difficult and time-consuming, if not outright impossible. This puts governments at risk for leave liability—being responsible for paying out accumulated unused leave upon employee resignation or retirement—and abuse of leave programs by employees trying to take advantage of their employer’s ill-equipped system.

Even the terminology can be confusing: Unlike the catch-all paid-time-off programs in the private sector, many governments still offer specific types of leave, including vacation, sick leave, compensatory time, unpaid leave and the ever-elusive administrative leave.

Yet research has consistently found that employee leave programs are some of the most highly valued employee benefits. In their recent analysis of leave management, state and local government experts Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene traced a clear connection between efficient leave management and an empowering employee experience: “When leave is not managed fairly and consistently, it can negatively impact an entity’s finances, spur time-consuming lawsuits, complicate staff management, and lead to the deterioration of employee morale and engagement.”

The good news is that leave management can become a seamless and efficient process within the larger digital transformation initiatives of state and local governments. Intelligent technologies and creative departmental strategies can help transform the age-old challenge of leave management into a strategic differentiator for employees, people managers and populations alike.

Barrett and Greene’s research outlines several solutions to the most common leave management challenges administrators face today:

• Automation: Automated leave systems are constantly updated with employee leave balances and accruals, as well as the latest leave rules and regulations. This can help people managers and decision-makers quickly answer questions and easily approve leave requests. Automation also removes the need for manual calculations, reducing human error and offering greater levels of accuracy and confidence.
• Data analysis: One of the major advantages of having automated systems for recording the use of leave is that it enables entities to analyze how and when leave is used, spot trends and patterns, and uncover ways in which leave may be misused by employees. Data analysis can also monitor and make sense of specific or granular leave circumstances that may be difficult to analyze by hand. All of this removes taxing manual work from the shoulders of HR and payroll professionals, freeing them up to focus more on strategic, employee-facing initiatives.
• Centralized administration: Rules and regulations governing the way leave is allocated can be so complex that some public sector entities have created specialized units to accurately answer supervisor and employee questions. These internal experts can help to ensure equitable leave use and solve problems when they arise.

Most importantly, although investment in new technology is a critical focus area, it isn’t the final step in effective leave management. As Barrett and Greene report, supervisors need guidance and training to make certain that leave policies are followed effectively.

It is the combination if intelligent and automated solutions with powerful change management and training programs that is key to facilitating a leave management program that empowers employees and helps to strengthen workplace culture within state and local government entities.

Jennifer Dowd is director of the public sector practice at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group), a global provider of HCM, payroll, HR service delivery and workforce management cloud software solutions.