OneSource Virtual blog

Managing employee benefits is one of HR’s most important responsibilities, but it’s also one of the most challenging. Ensuring regulatory compliance, managing enrollments, answering employee questions, and overseeing vendor relationships all eat up time and resources — time that could be spent on more strategic work, like vendor negotiations and renewals.

Absence management wasn’t always as difficult as it is now. In the past, when an employee requested time off, a manager approved it, HR tracked it, and payroll adjusted accordingly. But things are more complicated now, with today’s patchwork of federal, state, and local leave laws; rising leave-of-absence rates; and the operational complexity that comes with multistate or hybrid workforces. Absence management is now its own discipline and carries real consequences when handled poorly.