WHY THIS MATTERS?
Do you have the ability and support from your employer to take time away from work to handle important personal or family responsibilities? Are you able to return with less stress and greater productivity?
- Employee leave requests rose for the third consecutive year, with 57% of organizations reporting workers asking for extended time off, mostly due to mental health needs. Source: AbsenceSoft
- Work-life balance continues to be highly valued by American workers. Paid leave is rising in importance for workers and is among the top three benefits valued most. Source: World at Work
- Full-time working caregivers have increased by double digits over the last five years. Leave to provide caregiving is one of the most important benefits workers seek yet are only offered by half of all employers. Source: Guardian Life Insurance
- Even when extended leave is offered, 37% don’t take it due to affordability because not all leave is paid, 33% feel a stigma in the workplace, 26% worry it will affect career advancement, and 26% don’t want to burden their coworkers. Source: Prudential
- Employees who take adequate time off for personal or family needs return to work more focused and productive, than if they had stayed with the burden, leading to better workplace efficiency. Source: United States Congress Joint Economic Committee
To be an employer of choice nowadays, one that attracts and retains top talent, you will need to have a clearly defined and developed leave policy that meets unique employee needs in their season of life AND fulfills business objectives.
Those who manage this well have in place an HR system that has:
- Employees who are experienced and knowledgeable about complying with emerging and complex legal and regulatory landscapes federally and throughout the many states.
- Awareness of their voluntary group insurance plans.
- A continuity of operations plan accounting for worker absence.
- A supportive returnship plan.
Back in 1993 when the federal FMLA law was created, it then was a debate between needs of workers vis-a-vis managing business obligations. Most can agree protected leave is a good thing on many levels, but it still is mostly advantageous to those with means. The inability to leave and survive financially over that time makes many people return when they are not ready or able. It is a detriment to employee morale and also to company productivity.
Enter paid FMLA. 14 jurisdictions throughout the United States, including the District of Columbia, currently offer a state-based paid leave program through taxes levied on businesses, and run similarly to a state’s unemployment insurance program providing wage replacement. All but two offer an option for businesses to opt-out of paying those taxes if they have a comparable plan in place.
SOLUTIONS
Private sector insurance products and services show more lasting promise to achieve scale for leave. Avison Strategies has worked with organizations such as the American Council of Life Insurers and their member companies to refine these plan offerings, modeled after group short-term and long-term disability insurance plans.
Avison Strategies is knowledgeable about the political debate between publicly-funded paid leave and privately-funded paid leave. We are experts in navigating existing state law and advocating for state legislative proposals that allow organizations to create comparable plans to avoid sometimes a more costly tax burden.
The issue is also personal. Avison Strategies has experience creating innovative solutions for employers and enacting them in the workplace such as those that allow for voluntary and anonymous paid leave exchange among employees.
An often unknown and underutilized tax advantaged benefit employers can use to bring workers back and ease their return is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. We have policy experience advancing and promoting the greater use of this valuable program.
We can create a solution for you that fulfills a need, is backed by research, informs market insight and satisfies public policy, while helping you measure outcomes and impacts on health, savings, retirement, economic security, and overall wellbeing for workers and engagement for employers.