Many Organizations Do Not Adequately Manage Employee Leave – According to New Study by HR.com’s Research Institute

Many Human Resources (HR) professionals reveal that their organizations do not handle leave management well. In fact, only 15% of companies say their leave management is excellent, indicating there is a great deal of room for improvement in this critical area of talent management.

HR.com’s Research Institute conducted this study, How Today’s Organizations Manage Employee Leave: Improve this critical yet often overlooked talent management task, in partnership with Unum Group, a leading provider of financial protection benefits in the U.S. and U.K. and the leading provider of disability income protection in the world. The research insights cover the biggest challenges of leave management, how organizations are using technology or outsourcing to help with leave management, and what differentiates organizations that are more effective at managing leave from those that are less effective.

Study analysis reveals that leave management will not be getting any simpler. A large majority (85%) agree and strongly agree that they will need to deal with new laws and regulations relating to leave. Further, three-quarters indicate employee leave issues will only grow more complex in the future. If companies do not have leave under control now, things will only get worse until leave practices are improved.

“It’s not surprising to hear that tracking employee leave and keeping up with ongoing regulation changes is challenging when so many of the HR processes are still performed manually,” stated Debbie McGrath, Chief Instigator and CEO of HR.com. “They need management support to ensure companies are updating processes and technology and educating managers.”

There are several roadblocks for HR professionals that make talent management in the area of employee leave policies difficult to deal with. Just over one-third of HR professionals report they still have manual processes for tracking and managing leave. In an era when technology has become central to so many HR processes, this is a surprising statistic.

The most commonly cited challenge for HR is training managers on the leave policies, with just over half (53%) reporting that training managers is moderately or very difficult.

For more information on the Employee Leave 2019 survey and to gain seven key strategic takeaways from this exclusive HR.com research, in partnership with Unum, the full research report is available for free download:

DOWNLOAD RESEARCH REPORT   https://web.hr.com/ypci

The survey was fielded in the first quarter of 2019. There were complete responses from 281 participating HR professionals representing a broad cross-section of employers.

About Unum
Unum Group is a leading provider of financial protection benefits in the United States and the United Kingdom and the leading provider of disability income protection in the world. Its businesses are Unum US, Colonial Life, Unum UK, and Unum Poland. Unum’s portfolio includes disability, life, accident and critical illness, dental and vision coverage, which help protect millions of working people and their families in the event of an illness or injury. Unum also provides stop-loss coverage to help self-insured employers protect against unanticipated medical costs. The company reported revenues of $11.6 billion in 2018, and provided $7.2 billion in benefits. Please visit www.unum.com

About HR.com and the HR Research Institute
The HR Research Institute operates as HR.com’s research arm. HR.com is committed to creating inspired and informed workforces by maximizing the potential of HR professionals around the world. Over 1.2 million HR professionals rely on HR.com as the foremost trusted industry resource for education, career development, and compliance. Offerings include 85+ primary research reports from the HR Research Institute, 400+ annual webcasts, the most comprehensive HR certification exam preparation program supporting SHRM and HRCI certification, legal compliance guidance programming, an on-demand training library housing thousands of lessons and tips, and 13 monthly-themed and interactive HR ePublications. HR.com and hr.com/featuredresearch

For more information, contact:
Debbie McGrath
Chief Instigator and CEO, HR.com
[email protected]
877-472-6648
www.HR.com