Holiday Week Headache: Absence

Managing absence is definitely one of the most challenging aspects of HR. But nothing leaves you banging your head against the wall like a holiday week. If you don’t have a cloud-based leave management system to get a handle on unscheduled absence and deduct the appropriate holiday hours for employees already on leave, it won’t be the fireworks or 4th of July celebration that causes your head pain. In a [previous series](http://optis.com/blog/intermittent-fmla-tips-stop-banging-your-head-against-wall), we outlined a number of tips to follow to keep you from banging your head against the wall as result of managing leaves in your organization. (Read [Part 1](http://optis.com/blog/intermittent-fmla-tips-stop-banging-your-head-against-wall), [Part 2](http://optis.com/blog/intermittent-fmla-tips-stop-banging-your-head-against-wall-part-2) and [Part 3](http://optis.com/blog/intermittent-fmla-tips-stop-banging-your-head-against-wall-part-3).) We can assure you that those tips are most beneficial during weeks like this, when a federal holiday falls smack in the middle of the week. For your reference, the official ruling on a holiday week from the Department of Labor is, *"When a holiday falls during a week in which an employee is taking the full week of FMLA leave, the entire week is counted as FMLA leave. However, when a holiday falls during a week when an employee is taking less than the full week of FMLA leave, the holiday is not counted as FMLA leave, unless the employee was scheduled and expected to work on the holiday and used FMLA leave for that day."* As a reminder, a few good tips to follow when managing FMLA are: 1: Excellent Tracking 2: Certification, Certification, Certification 3: Be Suspicious 4: Determine the Best Eligibility Method & Publicize It This week, it’s especially important to follow these tips closely (especially #3). However, it can be hard to verify certifications, track closely to deduct the appropriate hours based on the DOL's statement, and even be alerted to the cases that you should be suspicious of – on top of everything else you have to do. Unless, of course, you have all the data in one place along with FMLA tracking capabilities. With a cloud-based FMLA and leave management system, you’ll be able to get alerts on expiring certifications, track the days, hours and minutes that employees out on continuous leave or intermittent leave are using, and even identify trends that will help you begin to see patterns in your employees, cases, or your entire program. Does such a system exist? It sure does. You can test drive our own FMLA and leave management system, [LeaveXpert](http://optis.com/leavexpert/learning-center), for FREE for 30 days by signing up for a trial [here](https://www.leavexpert.com). You’ll gain immediate access to greater insights on your leave program and start getting a handle on leave today. The best part, being that it’s all in the cloud, you can work on it anytime, anywhere – even on Friday … poolside. Happy 4th of July, HR! Enjoy the fireworks and have a safe and happy holiday!