Absence management isn’t just about tracking who’s out. It’s how HR teams support employees through some of the most challenging and personal moments of their lives. At its core, absence management is the process of handling employee leave, from the initial request through return to work.
Leave may be provided by federal laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. It could also be made available through a state or local statute. Companies, too, provide their own unique policies, like parental leave and sick leave.
Absence management encompasses the work human resources puts into an employee’s leave from the moment an absence is requested to the time that worker comes back to work. It includes tracking requests, documenting leave milestones, calculating eligibility, communicating with stakeholders, and facilitating employees’ transition back to the workplace.
A successful absence management program achieves three key goals: It ensures compliance, reduces administrative burden, and offers genuine support for employees. This article discusses common pitfalls that keep organizations from succeeding in these areas. We will also dive into how to use technology to build a robust approach to absence management.
Why Absence Management is So Challenging
Let’s paint a picture of what today’s HR teams and leave managers face. First, they’re fielding more employee absence requests. According to our 2025 State of Leave and Accommodations Report, 57% of HR professionals reported an increase in leave requests. Of those, 40% said requests surged by 41-60%.
Why is this happening? One reason: Employees feel empowered to ask for time off. In our Leave of Absence Experience and Business Impact Report, a whopping 85% of employees said they are somewhat or very comfortable asking for leave. Today’s workers know that leave is available to them, and they’re not afraid to take it.
As leave managers deal with more requests, they’re also confronted with cases that are more complex. Leave managers still field plenty of requests for straightforward situations like knee replacements and predictable illnesses, of course. But a growing number of employees are asking for leave to deal with far more complex issues: their mental health, caregiving, and pregnancy, for example.
These issues are complicated because they’re unpredictable. While doctors can confidently anticipate when a patient can return to work after a hip replacement, it’s tougher to tell when someone with major depressive disorder will be able to head back to the office. Likewise, someone caring for an aging parent or a sick child may have little to no foresight into how their responsibilities will impact their work. These individuals may need leave suddenly and at varying intervals.
HR’s growing and increasingly complex workload doesn’t just come down to employees, however. It’s also made more complicated by the evolving protections offered by federal, state, and local law. New laws like the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act require HR to accommodate employees swiftly and generously. Meanwhile, long-existing laws like the FMLA and the Americans with Disabilities Act offer provisions that often overlap with those of other laws, new and old.
It’s clear that leave managers have a complicated job. But it’s also high stakes. As caseloads grow and leave laws multiply, HR’s opportunity for error swells, too. Hardworking leave managers may make a mistake interpreting a law’s requirements, forget a deadline, or simply handle cases inconsistently. These slip-ups come with an array of consequences, from courtroom drama and expensive fines to dissatisfied employees and tarnished reputations.
The potential for these consequences only grows when leave managers handle leave manually. Despite the overwhelmingly complex nature of leave management in 2025, many organizations relegate this gargantuan task to spreadsheets, email trails, and back-of-the-napkin calculations. This approach only exacerbates the complications that accompany today’s leave management.
What an Effective Absence Management Program Looks Like
Leave management is tough to get right. Employers don’t have a choice, however: They can’t afford to botch leave management. Still, building a seamless absence management program is both challenging and time consuming — unless you have the right tools.
By creating an absence management program that works, you can boost compliance, simplify your workload, and enhance the employee experience. Here are the hallmarks of an effective absence management program.
Centralized Case Tracking and Documentation
It all starts with intake. Employees, managers, and HR need one, centralized location for case tracking. A leave tracking platform unifies what is often a disparate process. When all parties have one place to go, it’s easier to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Accurate Eligibility and Entitlement Calculations
Employers can’t risk inaccurate eligibility and entitlement calculations. They need mechanisms that can accurately account for employees’ unique calendars, hours worked, and job codes to properly determine who’s eligible for what. Once employees are on leave, HR needs to track how much leave employees have taken to ensure there’s an accurate representation of how much they have left.
Consistent Communication with Employees and Managers
A good leave management program is about more than how much leave employees can take. It’s also about how the leave is handled. Employers need to offer leave in a way that’s consistent. Some of this comes down to compliance: Some leave laws have timelines employers need to stick to. But employers also need to handle leave in a way that’s non-discriminatory. Every employee should be treated with respect, and their requests should be handled similarly — even across large, complex workforces.
Intelligently Automated Workflows and Templates
When organizations leverage automation, they can ensure both timeliness and consistence. Take an FMLA management workflow, for example. When an employee requests FMLA leave, they’re automatically sent an information packet and a personalized response, kicking off the certification process. If it’s determined that an employee is eligible for leave, that determination will trigger the next steps in the absence management workflow, such as a paperwork packet being sent.
Insights that Power Refinement
It’s not enough to simply implement the right technology. You also need processes that reveal your progress and pinpoint areas for improvement. Insights for reporting, trends, and compliance monitoring highlight your teams wins and help you get strategic about your goals.
How AbsenceSoft Simplifies Absence Management
How can your organization build an absence management program with these attributes? Technology fuels effective absence management. With absence management software like AbsenceSoft, employers can use technology to boost compliance, accelerate efficiency, and improve employees’ experience.
Here are several features employers can expect when they transform their leave process with AbsenceSoft:
- ACE Compliance Engine™ simplifies and improves compliance by tracking more than 200 laws in addition to and custom policies.
- Workflows intelligently automate complex steps and to-dos and can be configured for custom workplace policies.
- ACE Packet Generator sends compliant documents automatically, keeping your team on track with deadlines and providing a consistent experience for employees.
- Return-to-work support ensures smooth transitions. The AbsenceSoft platform sends automated reminders to employees, managers, and HR, streamlining communications and ensuring everyone’s ready for a worker’s return.
- Self-service portal gives employees and managers 24/7 access, from any device. Employees can submit a leave request at any time, even from their smartphone.
- Insights and reporting show real-time caseloads, employee leave usage, and overdue tasks.
When a national healthcare system employing more than 30,000 people implemented AbsenceSoft, it scrapped its manual processes for our technology-forward approach. Its five-person team was able to manage 174% more cases as a result.
The Need for Intelligent, Compliant Automation
The role of HR is shifting alongside innovations in technology. While HR teams have served as administrative support for decades, they’re now able to pass some of that workload on to technology and step into a more strategic role.
Automation doesn’t just offer the opportunity for greater efficiency, however. Intelligent automation also reduces errors, flags risks, and handles repeatable processes. In the context of absence management, this technology is very powerful. When applied correctly, AI improves compliance, lightens HR’s workload, and elevates the employee experience.
It’s worth noting, however, that AI must be incorporated into absence management thoughtfully. It’s critical that systems blend automation with plenty of human oversight to ensure that the absence management process remains compliant, personalized, and supportive.
Manual Systems Aren’t Built for Today’s Demands
When HR handles absence management manually, all sorts of consequences can occur. The team may miss deadlines, take on excess risk, and face burnout from a heavy administrative workload.
With the right technology, HR can avoid these pitfalls. Modern absence management systems help HR stay compliant, responsive, and consistent. Taking a technology-powered approach to leave makes for a better experience for the organization, HR, and employees alike.
In today’s environment, absence management is too complex, too burdensome, and too important to manage by hand. To learn how your organization could benefit from purpose-built leave management technology, book a demo with AbsenceSoft today.