Your employees need time off, but do you have time to manage their leaves of absence? The process is a challenge spanning beyond simply approving leaves and welcoming employees when they return. Here’s what you need to know about LOA management.
What is LOA Management
Leave of absence (LOA) management is a challenge spanning beyond approving time off. Your HR team coordinates across multiple levels of state and federal laws, manages documentation timelines and employee communication, coordinates with payroll and benefits, handles return-to-work accommodations, and everything in between. For many businesses, especially those lacking dedicated HR teams, LOA management is one of the most time-consuming and high-stakes HR processes.
LOA Management Today
53% of HR leaders reported an increase in leave requests in 2025, the third year in a row that LOA requests have risen.
66% of leaders who noticed an uptick in requests reported an increase of over 20%, and 20% reported an increase by 41% or more.
The addition of Gen Z to the workforce has added variety to leave request reasons. Older generations are taking leave to handle medical conditions, caregiving, and bereavement, while younger generations are taking leave to bond with new children, address mental health concerns, and care for older relatives.
Frustration with ensuring compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was cited as the #1 challenge in leave management, with managing intermittent leave and reduced schedules as the second.
8% of organizations are struggling with the growing number of state leave laws and have yet to find a way to manage them, and 41% are managing them manually.
60% of organizations plan to invest more in LOA management in 2026.
LOA Complexities
Overlapping Regulations: LOA management requires navigating both federal (FMLA and ADA) and state-specific paid leave regulations. Laws may intersect, leave length determinations may stack, and compliance changes based on location.
High Stakes: Mistakes in LOA management are costly and can lead to employee dissatisfaction, compliance violations, legal issues, and even fines or other penalties.
Individualized Processes: Every case is different, meaning there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Administering LOA requires nuanced expertise, careful consideration, and case-by-case management.
Cross-Functional Coordination: Ensuring employee pay and benefits are coordinated is tricky but essential. Calculating gap pay, supplemental pay, STD and state benefit claim forms requires time and care, as errors can create compliance issues and impact employees during vulnerable times.
Time and Expertise: Many organizations don’t have a dedicated HR team, often relying on a single individual, likely not a leave management specialist, to handle these challenging processes. This puts companies at risk of compliance errors and burning out essential employees.
Employee Experience: Employees taking leave are already in stressful situations, and poor communication, unclear timelines, and disorganization can compound this stress.
Best Practices
Assess and standardize your current process as much as possible to ensure cases are managed consistently.
Assign dedicated LOA ownership to prevent details from falling through the cracks.
Integrate LOA management into your HR systems, such as payroll, benefits, and your HRIS, for a seamless process.
Prioritize clear, consistent, and compassionate communication with employees to mitigate their stress.
Stay ahead of compliance by investing in guidance on federal and state legislation, especially for complex cases and multi-location workforces.
Systematically collect and organize all documentation to protect your employees and your organization.
The PuzzleHR Difference
Leave of absence management can feel like a maze. PuzzleHR’s LOA Management solution provides the way out.
A client approached PuzzleHR for assistance in building an HR infrastructure to support their growing business, with a focus on leave management. They lacked a dedicated HR function and were managing LOA cases without guidance or established systems, putting them at risk.
PuzzleHR assigned a dedicated LOA Case Manager who assessed the client’s existing processes, standardized procedures, and integrated LOA management into their broader HR ecosystem. The case manager handled the entire process, from collecting employee documentation to providing guidance on return-to-work accommodations and more.
LOA cases were processed smoothly. The approach ensured compliance, reduced regulatory risk, and minimized the internal team’s administrative burden.
By transferring LOA management to PuzzleHR, the client’s team was able to refocus on their core roles and rest assured knowing their team was taken care of.
