Fast fact: Employer outsourcing of leave administration has more than doubled from 2012 to 2021.¹

Absence management insights

  • The Guardian Absence Management Scorecard can help you compare your efforts against similar companies and identify opportunities to strengthen your absence management program.

    Get your score
  • New adoption of best practices to manage workforce health and productivity dwindled in 2021. Learn more in our latest absence management report.

    Download now
  • Learn absence management fundamentals, and get the latest insights and best practices from our Absence Management Academy webinars.

    Register now

Absence management basics

  • Absence management refers to the ways that employers plan, track, and handle different types of employee leaves.

  • Absence management - and compliance - covers the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), jury duty, company leaves, short- and  long-term disabilityPaid Family and Medical Leave (PFML), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Absence management and employee leave types

  • FMLA is a federal law that provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per calendar year for the care of a family member, or their own serious health condition.

    Learn more about what you should know about FMLA
  • PFML laws set the standards for managing employee work absences in states where they apply. Our PFML Resource Center helps you navigate PFML laws by providing a state-by-state overview of programs and resources.

    Visit the PFML Resource Center now
  • Many absences could be due to an employee’s own health issue. Centralizing disability with FMLA and other leave types can be a best practice to help ease administration, enhance the employee experience, and improve productivity.

    Learn about Guardian Group Disability insurance

Frequently asked questions about absence management

  • Broadly speaking, managing leave and absence can be done in much the same way that HR and businesses leaders approach other operational challenges:

    1. Information needs to be gathered so that management better understands absence trends in their organization.
    2. Based on that learning and insight – and an understanding of the applicable legal and regulatory requirements – policies and processes can be defined. Managers and employees need to be educated on the newly defined practices.
    3. Ongoing data measurement tracks the success of these efforts and informs the process for making needed adjustments.
  • Discover five proven strategies that can help companies better manage leave and disability issues, and lead to improved absence management outcomes.

    Learn more
  • Absence management services and solutions help employers plan, track, and handle employee leaves while complying with federal and state leave laws. System capabilities can include administration, employee communications, claims management, return-to-work support, and reporting.

The goal of an absence management solution:

To help reduce the administrative complexity, costs, and disruption caused by employee absence.

 

Guardian Absence SolutionsSM provides a powerful technology platform with an intuitive, integrated user experience to drastically simplify administration, ensure compliance with Federal and state regulations, and help drive improved back-to-work outcomes from disability.

Learn more about Guardian Absence Solutions and get a demo

Disclaimer

1  2022 Guardian Absence Management Activity Index & Study

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