With constant change in workplace culture, employee expectations and technology, state and local HR directors face both challenges and opportunities in their management of leave programs. “The pace of change is only getting faster and faster,” said Bryon Bass, chief executive officer of the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) in an October 15 webinar, presented by the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE).

A nonprofit that serves both the private and public sectors, DMEC is focused on keeping HR directors current with workplace leave management and accommodation trends while encouraging sharing of promising practices across sectors. In a clear message to the leaders of public sector HR there is a lot to learn from private sector approaches as well as an opportunity, as a significant state employer. to provide a model of solid practices that innovate responsibly.

The webinar focused on several specific areas where leave practice has been rapidly evolving.

New and Changing Benefits

Bass and fellow webinar speaker, Deborah LaBonar, DMEC director of Benchmarking & Research, spoke about the many shifts in benefits, including employers’ efforts to streamline leave processes, and the expansion of different types of leave, both paid and unpaid.

One rapidly changing benefit in both the public and private sectors is paid parental leave. “It’s now offered by 42 percent of employers, up from just 29 percent a few years ago, LaBonar said. Changes are also common in approaches to paid family leave. This includes both an expansion of who qualifies for leave, and who counts as being part of an employee’s family.

“Trends show how expectations and practices are shifting across the country,” said LaBonar. By keeping an eye on what’s happening both in and outside of the public sector, HR leaders can help stay in touch with what the workforce will be expecting in the future.

Speaking about the value of this broad outlook for her own members, Leslie Scott Parker, executive director of NASPE, said the webinar’s focus on broader labor trends helped states to see what they might want to implement for their own employees – especially when states are seeking to be “an employer of choice.” 

Mental Illness in the workplace

Noting that each year one in five adults experience a mental health condition, Bass said that mental health has become a standout workplace issue for employers’ leave and accommodation practices. “There’s a mental health crisis that we have an opportunity to help with,” he said. “In my experience, this is something that used to be rarely in the top ten of the diagnostic categories of short-term disability and leave claims. It’s now the top three for most organizations.”

According to DMEC, mental illness in the workplace contributes to both absenteeism and presenteeism, when individuals may be at work physically, but without a focus on their job functions. Other related negative effects include higher accident rates and productivity loss, with an impact also on organizational costs. How to help?  “We can start by educating employees on mental health leave eligibility and their right to access benefits and request accommodations for mental health conditions.,” said Bass. “It’s really expanding the definition of injury under workers compensation systems to include mental health related injuries.”

Return to Work Policies and Practices

A big focus at DMEC involves the actions that can be taken to keep people at work when reasonable accommodation is needed and then getting individuals who have been on medical or personal leave back on the job when they’re ready.

Bass described past research, which shows that the longer someone is on extended leave and out of work, the less likely it is that they will return. Bass recalled one study that DMEC was involved with in the years prior to the pandemic that showed that for every 30 days an employee was out of work, the chance of returning decreased by 50 percent. 

Case management, modified duties and workplace accommodations can help employers avoid negative separation effects on both individuals and the organization. Tech advances, including evolving AI tools, also can assist in keeping individuals in touch with their employers.

When it’s time to come back to work, Employee Assistance Programs can help by providing sensitivity training to a team that will be working with the returning individual. Employers can assist by promoting education (not just internally, but also to the medical establishment) and by providing resources for individuals and innovative programs. One example is a centralized accommodation fund that can help individual organizational divisions afford accommodations that can eat into tight budgets. 

Not only individuals but workplaces benefit. “When people can’t return, we lose a lot of experienced talent, with public costs rising through higher benefit use and lower tax revenues.”

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