It can be very challenging for employers to keep track of changing and varying leave regulations, especially while juggling other business responsibilities and working to achieve business objectives. Compliance with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and other leave laws falls at the far end of the difficulty spectrum for employers, according to Paul D. Taylor, vice president, Group Disability Product Management for MetLife. Leave laws continually change, and while federal laws provide basic guidance for all employers, nuances often come into play in the form of state and municipal laws and regulations. What's more, says Taylor, is that in the employee benefits space, most leave legislation is relatively new. "That means that there hasn't been much practical application yet, so legislation is still subject to a lot of interpretation, which further complicates administration for employers."

Additional factors that pose administrative challenges to employers when it comes to absence management are flexible work arrangements, intermittent claims, and the "rolling" method of determining leave entitlement. Many companies, in order to attract and retain top talent, offer flexible work arrangements to better meet the lifestyle needs of their employees. These arrangements can be very difficult to track if there isn't a centralized and flexible administration system in place. On the back end, intermittent claims often present great difficulty for employers with respect to claims management. There can be situations in which an employee requires time off every other week for medical appointments, for example, and keeping track of these absences can be challenging. With a rolling 12-month calendar, an employer must look back over the last 12 months from the date of an employee's initial leave request, add all FMLA time the employee has used during the previous 12 months, and then subtract that total from the employee's leave allotment. "Making sure leave time becomes available as the calendar progresses can be complicated without the right system in place," says Taylor.

Those employers that choose to implement a total absence management program, whether handled in-house or outsourced, are likely to find that their organization benefits from the following: reduced absence abuse; reduced costs in terms of lost time at work and productivity loss; and better reporting for managers, which enable better workforce management. A program can be administered in-house if an employer is able to find a way to invest in the necessary technology. Many times, though, employers find that outsourcing the program is a valuable investment. The "pros" for outsourcing absence management include reducing the challenge of staying current with regulatory and compliance changes - those that are enacted and proposed. According to Taylor, "Staying current with all of these changes can be a full-time job for someone or several people. It can greatly benefit an employer to have an expert in leave administration stay on top of all of these regulations on their behalf."