This year the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) celebrates 15 years since its inception in 1993. FMLA was a groundbreaking law that allowed millions of working Americans to take critical time off when necessary without jeopardizing their jobs.

FMLA has evolved over the ears with new regulations and compliance requirements for both employees and employers, and it will continue to change. This requires employers to make sure they understand and enforce the regulations to avoid liability. The burden of proof, or documentation, is in the hands of the employer.

A common violation employers make regarding FMLA compliance is unknowingly denying leave to eligible employees. Eligible employees must meet the following criteria: employed with the company for 12 months; worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the previous consecutive 12 months; and, the employee has not already used the 12 available weeks of leave. Many times, this issue is due to inaccurate time recording of employee work hours and time off.

Today, many employers use workforce management software to manage all aspects of employee time to accurately record all hours worked, all types of time off, including vacation, bereavement, FMLA leave, workman’s compensation, etc. By tracking and storing this information, the employer has the necessary documentation to meet federal and state compliance regulations, as this information must be kept by the employer for three years.

Many workforce management systems automate the attendance process and monitor conditions that can alert managers of possible FMLA scenarios while they are developing. This helps employers lower absence costs and simplify the management of FMLA events.

FMLA provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for any of the following reasons for eligible employees:

1. The birth and care of the newborn child of the employee
2. The placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care
3. To care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition
4. To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition

The Caregiver Military Leave provides up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave within a 12-month period to care for a spouse, son, daughter, parent, or nearest blood relative caring for a recovering service member. All of the FMLA eligibility requirements and provisions hold true for the Caregiver Military Leave.
Currently, FMLA is only implemented at organizations with 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius, but there are a lot of organizations, lawmakers, and employees who are pushing to lower the employee number to 25 employees. This will impact a lot more employers in the U.S.

How do Employers Help Manage FMLA?
Many organizations have turned to technology and implemented workforce management software to help manage FMLA. Workforce management software  helps employees and employers manages the complex details of FMLA tracking. 

Here are a few issues employers face when it comes to FMLA and how workforce management software helps solve these issues.

Employees need to submit FMLA requests
Software Solution: Workforce management software offers employee self-service functionality for time-off requests that may qualify for FMLA

Insufficient monitoring & alerts of possible FMLA scenarios
Software Solution: Workforce management software pre-defines alerts to notify managers of possible FMLA conditions and routes approvals to the manager and/or HR

Employees need to submit documentation & fill out forms for FMLA leave
Software Solution: Workforce management software electronically alerts HR to an FMLA request, so the proper forms are routed to the employee

Only employees who worked 1,250 hours in the last year are eligible
Software Solution: Workforce management software automatically verifies employee FMLA eligibility, and issues a warning when the employee is not eligible

Sick time can be used in conjunction with FMLA
Software Solution: Workforce management software provides mechanisms to automatically use paid sick time before FMLA leave is taken so the employee cannot take more than 12 consecutive weeks of leave.