Workforce Absence Management Programs Services

Workforce Absence Management

Build and foster effective absence management programs.

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Absence management programs are critical to employers and employees alike.

Employees need to be away from work for a variety of reasons including their own health, care of their family, personal time and vacation. For employers, this means that providing the right leave management programs is essential to staying competitive in the marketplace as well as ensuring leave policy compliance with local, state leave laws and federal regulations.

Workforce absence management programs are often multi-faceted and include:

Short and Long Term Disability - These programs provide income protection during extended health challenges and are a key part of effective disability management within a broader absence management program.
FMLA / State Leave of Absence - Employers must balance FMLA compliance with evolving state leave laws, ensuring employees receive legally required protections while minimizing regulatory risk.
State / Local Paid Leave Requirements - Varying paid family and medical leave (PFML) and sick leave mandates can complicate leave administration, making consistent absence compliance essential.
Workers’ Compensation - Supporting employees through workers’ compensation leave not only meets legal requirements but also helps reduce productivity loss from absences.
Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick, & Flexible Time Off) - Offering flexible leave management options helps boost employee well-being and strengthen your position in a competitive talent market.
Other Company Leaves - Beyond mandated programs, custom absence management solutions reflect organizational culture and improve overall workforce productivity.
Parental leave (maternity, paternity, adoption) - Comprehensive parental leave policies support family needs, enhance retention, and demonstrate commitment to employee well-being.
Disability leave - Structured disability leave ensures employees get the support they need, while consistent leave policy compliance helps protect employers.
Military leave (USERRA) - Honoring military leave obligations shows respect for service members and supports strong absence management services that meet federal requirements.
Intermittent leave - Managing intermittent leave requires careful tracking and absence analytics to balance flexibility with operational efficiency.
Bereavement leave - Providing bereavement leave demonstrates empathy while aligning with best practices for leave administration and workforce support.
Jury duty / civic obligations - Covering civic responsibilities within your absence management program ensures compliance and fosters a culture of fairness and accountability.

Programs like these are offered not only to meet absence compliance and regulatory requirements but also to recruit and retain talent. And this is just the start. It’s not enough to just provide leave policies but also to include how you bring those employees back from leave. Return-to-work programs usually differ, and employers are equally challenged with ADA accommodations, accommodation management, and consistent return-to-work practices.

Whether you have 10 or 10,000 employees, the complex world of absence management impacts every business. We can help you navigate through these intricate issues. HUB helps organizations reduce the cost of absenteeism, track absenteeism rates and design absence management solutions that balance risk mitigation, employee well-being and workforce productivity. We can help you navigate through these intricate issues.

Three key questions you should be asking yourself:

Are my current workforce absence management programs encouraging employees to be away from work, and are they competitive?

Make sure your absence management program is efficient and compliant. We can help you define the cost of absenteeism to your organization, provide competitive or industry-specific analysis, track absenteeism rates, fix gaps in your absence management services and audit your vendor partners for absence compliance.

Do my managers and supervisors know what to do if one of their employees needs to be away from work?

Help your managers and supervisors follow consistent leave administration practices and support leave management. We can work with you to develop and deliver training, refine existing resources and create new ones that emphasize risk mitigation and leave policy compliance.

Are my employees returning to work effectively?

Improve compliance and enable your employees to be most productive through structured return-to-work programs. We can help identify gaps in your current process, align your return-to-work practices with ADA accommodations and measure the positive impact of successful employee reintegration, including stay-at-work programs and options for modified duty or light duty.

Three key questions you should be asking yourself:

Are my current workforce absence programs encouraging employees to be away from work and are they competitive?

Make sure your absence programs are efficient and compliant. We can help you define the cost of absence to your organization, provide competitive or industry-specific analysis, fix gaps in your absence programs, and audit your vendor partners.

Do my managers /supervisors know what to do if one of their employees need to be away from work?

Help your managers and supervisors do the right thing at the right time. We can work with you to you develop and deliver training, as well as refine existing resources (or create new ones) for your management team.

Are my employees returning to work?

Improve compliance and enable your employees to be most productive. We can help identify gaps in your current return to work process, align your return to work process with ADA, and measure the positive impact of employees return from leave.

Workforce Absence Management Updates

Stay on top of new developments in federal legislation.

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5 Key Trends – and 5 Important Steps in Workforce Absence Management Survey

Learn the major trends the Survey revealed and the impact on absence management policies.

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Employers Maintain Policies That Keep Pace With Today’s Workforce

HUB International provides insights into the growing complexity of absence management and evolving leave policies for small and medium-sized businesses.

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How Competition for Talent is Driving Changes in Absence Management

Learn how organizations are modifying their workforce absence management strategies to attract and retain a skilled workforce.

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A Manager's Guide to Workforce Absence Management

Learn more about properly managing leave of absence requests, and understand common scenarios businesses may encounter.

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Workforce Absence Management FAQs

Why is Absence Management important?

Because of the demand for lower prices and streamlined operations, absence management has become a mandatory process in today’s highly competitive business world. With employees absent an average of 6.9 days per year at $725 per employee, absences have a clear financial cost. Absences also cause workplace disruption (such as workload rearrangement or shift rescheduling), negative attitudes from co-workers handling extra work, and even increased payroll integration errors. Strong programs help address the cost of absenteeism and reduce overall productivity loss from absences.

How do absence management programs protect against losses in productivity?

Absence management programs automate scheduling for easier handling of sick leave policy, vacations, and other absences. These systems also provide data on production levels that facilitate adjustment of workers and hours based on changing output requirements. These programs increase HR efficiencies by identifying absence trends before problems occur and by generating absence reporting metrics that support new strategies, policies, processes, and procedures. This leads to stronger absence compliance and helps track absenteeism rates.

How do absence management programs save money?

Absence management solutions drive savings in multiple ways. The biggest savings come from automated leave administration and payroll integration, which eliminate errors that cause employee frustration, additional HR work, and accounting correction costs. Compliance features also help companies avoid the financial and reputational impact of ignoring state leave laws, FMLA compliance or mandatory rest requirements which is a critical step in effective risk mitigation.

What role does workforce absence management software play in a well-rounded workforce absence management program?

Companies that include absence management software and time and attendance tools in their absence management program benefit from valuable functionality. These systems generate absence analytics that provide insight into absence forecasting, highlight nonstandard or unauthorized leave patterns, and support HRIS integration. Together, they streamline operations, reduce costs and improve employee self-service portal access to leave balances.

How do you create a workforce management policy?

To create a policy, a company should establish clear short- and long-term business objectives, using metrics on employee demographics, contracts, and performance. A strong policy should integrate leave management, align with leave policy compliance, and build in consistent return-to-work programs. Many employers engage in scenario planning with outside experts in HR technology consulting to ensure strategies address evolving state leave laws and regulatory risk. Ongoing monitoring of results and adjustments keeps the program effective.

How does intermittent leave work and how should it be managed?

Intermittent leave allows an employee to take time off in separate blocks rather than one continuous period. Managing it effectively requires clear leave administration, accurate tracking and consistent manager communication. A strong absence management program provides tools to align with FMLA compliance, reduce disruptions and improve overall absence compliance.

What metrics should businesses track to measure absence management performance

Organizations should monitor absenteeism rates, the cost of absenteeism, lost workdays per employee and return-to-work program success rates. Advanced absence analytics and absence reporting also reveal absence trends, making it easier to benchmark against industry norms, forecast with absence forecasting and improve workforce productivity.

How can absence management systems integrate with payroll and HRIS?

Integration with HRIS integration, time and attendance and payroll integration systems ensures that leave management and accruals flow seamlessly across platforms. This reduces errors, strengthens leave policy compliance and improves efficiency by giving employees access to real-time balances through an employee self-service portal.

What are the risks and penalties of noncompliance with federal and state leave laws?

Failure to follow FMLA compliance, ADA accommodations or state leave laws can result in fines, lawsuits, and reputational harm. Inconsistent leave management also creates regulatory risk and exposes employers to employee grievances. A well-structured absence management program reduces exposure through clear risk mitigation practices, manager training and accurate documentation.