Today’s insurance brokers face a complicated landscape of employee benefits. From learning the ins and outs of paid family and medical leave (PFML) in the states you serve, to the growing demand for benefits like Group Life /AD&D, and Worksite (Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity & Accident), it’s a lot to manage.

At The DBL Center, we know that required and voluntary employee benefits aren’t your bread-and-butter as an insurance broker. These benefits represent a value-add for your clients and, in the case of statutory benefits, a no-brainer for you to earn recurring commissions with automatic renewals.

The DBL Center is here, with sophisticated technology tools like our Net Revenue Tracker and Net Revenue Tracker Pro, to help you respond to Requests for Proposals and generate quotes with a few clicks. You can share these reports with your clients to help create effective benefit plans.

In a past post, we addressed how to address risk gaps in your clients’ coverage to open additional revenue streams and boost commissions.

But what if you could fill another pain point for your clients, build their trust, and help them save even more time and money?

The DBL Center partners with outsourced absence management firms to help you do exactly that. And, as with generating quotes through our Net Revenue Tracker Pro, all you need to do is provide The DBL Center with the information we need to create a proposal and quote.

Why Companies Need Outsourced Absence Management Today

The DBL Center’s VP, Business Development and Disability Underwriter Sonja Spruiel shared the advantages of outsourced management with us. “In the ever-changing landscape of required paid family medical leave and federal, state, and local leave changes, including paid sick leave, and then federally mandated FMLA for employer over 50 lives, absence management can be a huge task for employers,” she said.

She noted that many employers manage sick leave and other paid time off on a spreadsheet. But intermittent leave, and even the ability to take off hours, rather than single days or 40 hours in a week, complicates things for employers and their understaffed, overworked HR departments.

Solid absence management processes aren’t just important from a payroll perspective, Spruiel pointed out. “It becomes a compliance issue,” she said. “If I take leave right now and my boss doesn’t have me fill out my federal FMLA paperwork, then in 12 weeks if I don’t come back, my employer can’t tell me that my FMLA is expiring.”

By law, according to the Department of Labor website, employers have five business days, unless there are extenuating circumstances, to tell an employee if leave is designated as FMLA. The employer must also tell the worker how many hours, days, or weeks will be used as FMLA, if it is known. If the time is unknown, the employer must tell the worker upon request if they are still protected by FMLA.

Employer Responsibilities for Absence Management

Absence management encompasses the following insurance benefits and laws:

• Short-term disability
• Long term disability
• Statutory disability
• Workers’ compensation
• Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
• Paid Family and Medical Leave (in states where it applies)
• State and Local Sick Leave
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance

When an employer takes on the duties of absence management in-house, they must coordinate plans and policy provisions, ensure consistent and compliant management, and communicate in a timely manner to employees and managers.

On top of this, HR departments and benefits managers must support the employee experience to maintain or employee satisfaction, reduce absenteeism, and facilitate a smooth return-to-work for employees after their leave has run out.

It’s no wonder employers struggle with so many facets of managing leave, employee benefits claims, and absences.

Let The DBL Center Become Your One Stop Shop

Many top carriers who write DBL and PFL, long-term disability, ancillary benefits, and PFML for DBL Center brokers also provide absence management services. “Offering absence management as an additional service really allows our brokers to take a consultative approach and build trust,” Spruiel said.

As brokers can show their clients why it’s easier to write all types of employee benefits under one roof, offering one point-of-contact and white-glove customer service, the insurance broker becomes an indispensable partner.

The addition of absence management services “makes it a sticky program,” Sonja said. “Clients can write DBL, LTD, Group Life, and all these other benefits and also gain a service they need that saves them time and money.”

FAQs

What is the meaning of absence management?

Absence management deals with an employer’s policies and programs for paid sick leave, disability, PFML, and other reasons an employee might be out of work, the administration of leave paperwork, tracking of absences, and efforts to reduce absenteeism and maximize workplace productivity.

 What is the role of HR in absence management?

The human resources or human capital management department plays a significant role in absence management, including tracking time off and documentation, helping with employee benefits claims, and maintaining open lines of communication with employees preparing to take leave.