Opinion: We don’t need no stinkin’ FMLA policies!
January 21, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Employment law, FMLA, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Leave, Records documentation, policies
What if Congress revamped the Family and Medical Leave Act and no one cared?
That’s unlikely to happen, but with all the buzz surrounding the recently approved amendments to the FMLA, we were surprised by the results of a poll of 450 HR managers in which they were asked if they tracked FMLA leave.
About two-thirds said they didn’t bother.
Could this be the start of an HR managers’ protest against regulations in the workplace? Probably not. But it does show that quite a few people are taking an interesting approach to the dilemma of tracking FMLA leave. They don’t.
Plus, nearly all who said that also said their companies had strict policies about tracking the leave. When asked why they don’t follow the policies, many said, in effect, “Who’s got the time or resources?”
Getting the job done
That’s something you no doubt can understand. There may be more to it, however. In a real-world workplace – far from Capitol Hill lawmakers – HR managers seem able to gauge:
- the people they work with, their reliability, what’s important to them, and
- what needs to get done and what’s back-burner material.
You understand what keeps people happy and motivated, and sometimes it takes more than just following regulations and policies. That’s what puts the “human” in human resources.
Now, we’d be the last to encourage HR managers to ignore regulations and policies. Too much of that can result in the next sentence you hear beginning with, “Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but …”
We, however, do want to congratulate people on figuring out how to get the job done when sometimes it seems every force of nature and government is conspiring against you.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Congress is certainly a large part of the problem for HR professionals. Who has the time or money to review and comply with all the laws Congress passes? Have you tried to read the Federal Register? They continually bombard us with unfunded mandates which forces us to “cut corners”. God help us if we ever get hauled in to court.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
FMLA/PDL/CFRA: trying to track all of these and make sure we’re in compliance with our Union contract…oh, and don’t forget the intermittant leaveNightmare! So, we end up only tracking those who are not in the Union, and that’s spotty at best.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Congress has lost touch with most Americans. They consider your ideas only if you have a lobbyist or lots of money to “donate” to their campaigns or pet projects. From stupid legislation such as the FMLA to nationalizing private businesses, the Federal government has overstepped its bounds. Few people trust Congress to have anyone’s best interest but their own (Congress) in mind when they pass these idiotic laws. When unjust laws are passed, people simply stop obeying them.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
While I support the intent of much of our body of labor laws and regulations, it is very disappointing that we expend our overstretched HR resources on compliance with laws that have little impact in saving jobs, growing the top line, or building the economy.
As an HR Executive that interfaces with our Board and Executive team, these are not the type of issues on which I want to expend time. This is part of the reason that HR has a challenging time getting a seat at the table.
So, I find that I may send out an e-mail to the Executives, but I will not bring these issues to them in our meetings since it is hardly relevant to growing the top line, effectively manage our costs and protecting the company from our current market turbulence.
The new FMLA, e-verify and equal pay regulations are the newest regulations sent to us by Congress. Can anyone share with me how these regulations (and spending our precious HR resources to comply with them) help us to save/create jobs while our economy continues its dramatic decline?
February 5th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Sr HR:
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on something that many HR professionals have trouble understanding. The issue of “getting a seat at the table” has been a concept I have heard over and over during my 4 years in HR. My career in HR is just starting and I have high hopes for my future in this industry, so, this concept of a “seat at that table” will be important to me as my career develops. Rather than saying “HR should have a seat at the table” I have tried to discover “HOW do we get a seat at the table”. What I have recently discovered is that HR once had a spot at the table in many organizations, but so many companies have removed HR’s seat from the senior leadership team meetings for very reason you brought up: we focus on issues that mean nothing to the goals of the business and the result is we not only take time away from projects that are more aligned with the company’s strategic goals (such as succession and staff planning), but we loose credibility in the eyes of senior leadership. I am currently working on revising my company’s FMLA policy (yes I’m a little late, but it hasn’t been my top priority) and you have given me a lot to consider. I have been researching other companies’ best practices on the new FMLA regulation and some of these HR people have lost their minds. One organization has a Leave of Absence policy 50 pages long with 15 different forms…oh, and this may come as no surprise to you: their HR department puts 90% of the responsibility on the department supervisors to manage the leave of absence process, deal with the paperwork, approve or deny the leave, and track the employee’s FMLA in great detail.
Just a guess, but I’m sure that HR department lost their seat a long time ago! I’m going to take this in a different direction and focus on three things 1) what is the minimum to ensure we are in compliance, 2) how to make the process easier for department leaders and 3) nothing else so I can go back to focusing on more effective projects that matter to growing our business.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts!
March 30th, 2009 at 6:42 am
This is a good discussion, and one which will never be read by a single decisionmaker. There is no small business that comes close to compliance. These politicians say they are pro-growth, but each policy and regulation proves it is not sensible to add jobs in the US.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Frances Ruby said it best. At what point do we stop allowing these arrogant, lazy, self-important slugs we somehow end up electing to Congress to manipulate and pass whatever labor law they like in return for re-election votes ? FMLA had nice intentions, but did anyone really think it wasn’t going to become a political toy with hundreds of interchangeable parts ?
August 21st, 2009 at 11:32 am
I don’t understand what all the grumbling is about! I manage union and non-union workers and managers for a large company; and union members are more apt to abuse leave benefits which warrant close scrutiny. When employees know you are monitoring absenteeism, their behavior changes. Complying is not hard. There are inexpensive software applications that should be used if you can’t afford a third party or you don’t want to spend a lot of time on it yourself.
The benefits work wonders for morale which in turn affects the bottom line. Getting a seat at the table is easy: be strategic in recruiting, training, and especially managing staff; stay engaged with the employees and decision makers. In other words communicate, communicate, communicate in language that is important to your listener. Diligently complying with regulations builds credibility as well as proving how your efforts improve the profit margin and lowers risk management costs.
Too many employers gamble on legal risks and they often lose because of it. If you do get in a bind, a consistent record of following the rules will win points in court. Your reputation depends on it.
And one last thing, employers who end up with represented employees do not understand the human element of their business. We learned the hard way 10 years ago and we are still paying for it. We make the best of it by proving we can be a profitable even if labor costs are high – the way we do it is focusing on what makes our employees happy. Believe it or not they like the boundaries especially because it affects the lazy workers more than the motivated ones. If you have kids you know that the harder the work/decision; the better the outcome. There is a reason HR professionals go through the certification process – knowledge. Stop the blame game and get to work!