The Leave of Absence (LOA) marketplace has been quite active since 2004, when Hewitt Associates conducted its first ever The Nuts and Bolts of Leaves of Absence survey. New legislation has been passed, updates are being made to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), and new laws are under consideration at the state and federal levels for paid family sick time. Now more than ever, employers want to understand prevalent practices in both policy and design of leaves of absence.
To address this, Hewitt recently reprised its survey, The Nuts and Bolts of Leaves of Absence. More than 200 organizations with 1,000 or more U.S.-based employees, representing programs affecting nearly 3.6 million employees, provided insight about leaves of absence in place at their organizations. Specifically, they discussed:
- Philosophy around LOAs;
- Policy and structure;
- Design highlights (by type of LOA);
- FMLA and design;
- Maternity/paternity/parental LOA issues;
- State-level LOA issues;
- Length of the LOA and job guarantees;
- Administration and outsourcing;
- Pay practices;
- Notification, communication, and certification;
- Integration points; and
- Measurement: costs and utilization.
The survey report provides data highlights, key comparisons to our 2003/2004 LOA survey, plus an analysis of the information we collected.
Click here to access a PDF of the survey findings.
Printed copies of the survey findings are available by contacting the Information Desk at Hewitt Associates at (847) 295-5000 or infodesk@hewitt.com.
