Leave’s new look: 2023 trends HR should know

Two new reports illustrate that employee expectations are high and getting higher. A March 2023 Unum survey shows that 87% of employers recognize that their employees expect more from them in terms of care and understanding.1 And the latest “BEAT” study from LIMRA shows that employees overwhelmingly value paid time off and other leave and insurance benefits, even more than flexible work schedules.2 In this episode, two of the foremost U.S. leave experts — Unum’s Ellen McCann and Angel Bennett — discuss the implications for employers in this tough post-pandemic labor market.  

• Employers are catching up.  [01:47]
• Diversity is driving change.  [04:30]
• Complexity is here to stay. [06:03]
• Paid leave is getting hotter.[07:11]
• Employers can’t do it alone. [09:40]
• Companies that outsource free up time. [10:37]
• Care impacts the bottom line.  [14:38]
• One key message? [17:28]

Read the full show notes here. 

Transcript

00:00:01:14 - 00:00:04:02
Clare Morin
Today on H.R. Trends.

00:00:04:03 - 00:00:25:09
Ellen McCann
So employers are recognizing that their role is not just to give someone a paycheck. It's to support that employee both financially, emotionally and support their family obligations as well. And what I think employers are realizing is that when they do that, it may not seem as if it's in their best interest. Initially, it doesn't directly impact their bottom line.

00:00:25:09 - 00:00:37:08
Ellen McCann
They might not think, but when they do that, it does actually impact their bottom line because it has employees who are staying at work, who aren't leaving the workforce, who are taking less time off in the long run.

00:00:37:09 - 00:00:59:15
Angel K Bennett
A few other things I thought were really interesting? It was 55% of the request that I see coming in. So the most frequent was around parental leave, which is on point with what we're seeing right also. But we also had a lot that said, you know, 49% behind bereavement. So bereavement was really highlighted as something that people were using caregiver leave at 43%.

00:00:59:15 - 00:01:04:06
Angel K Bennett
That's huge.

00:01:04:08 - 00:01:32:08
Clare Morin
Welcome to HR Trends. I'm your host, Claire Morin. And today we are talking about 2023 leave trends. We have with us two of the foremost leave experts in the United States, Ellen McCann of Unum and Angel Bennett. Ellen, welcome is amazing to have you back. You've been on the podcast numerous times and the audience always loves your insights.

00:01:32:09 - 00:01:35:05
Ellen McCann
Thank you. Claire I'm really excited to be back.

00:01:35:06 - 00:01:44:00
Clare Morin
And Angel, first time on the HR Trends podcast, however, we've seen you on many Unum and Sherm webinars. Welcome, Angel.

00:01:44:02 - 00:01:46:15
Angel K Bennett
Thank you. Yes, very excited to be here.

00:01:47:01 - 00:02:14:08
Clare Morin
And what a great time to bring you both in to talk about leave because of course we're recording this end of May 2023. We're in this new world of work where we know employee expectations have really shifted since the pandemic, and two brand new reports have just come out that are showing how expectations are really remaining strong. And Ellen, I'd love to ask you about this.

00:02:14:08 - 00:02:58:13
Clare Morin
I'm just going to reference a couple of data points. A brand new survey from Unum from March 2023 showing that 87% of employers agree that today's employees have greater expectations for how their employer demonstrates care and understanding for them. And also from LIMRA May 2023, beat study showing the importance of benefits. So according to them, right, employees today are overwhelmingly pointing to paid time off benefits, including vacation and sick time as the most important paid family or medical leave and flexible work schedules are also considered very or extremely important.

00:02:59:01 - 00:03:05:08
Clare Morin
By more than seven in ten employees. Ellen, what are your thoughts on this?

00:03:05:09 - 00:03:27:12
Ellen McCann
Clare, I'm not surprised by those statistics at all. I'm actually glad to see that employers are starting to to recognize what we've seen employee expectations be, And we've seen that rise over the last couple of years. What I think might be a little bit new in the in this data is that employers are now also finally recognizing it and acknowledging it, which is how we make change.

00:03:27:12 - 00:03:54:08
Ellen McCann
Right. So employee expectations can rise. But if employers don't recognize that and acknowledge it, it's hard to change. So I'm not surprised at all. I think employees through the pandemic, there are a lot of obviously very terrible things that happened in the pandemic, but there were some silver linings as well. And one of that was that employees realized the value of time off and a lot of employees, unfortunately realized they didn't have enough time off to take care of the things they needed to take care of.

00:03:54:12 - 00:04:17:01
Ellen McCann
So their expectation now is that their employer will continue to provide that even in a post-pandemic world. And employers are realizing that they didn't provide enough benefits for their employees. And they're seeing the direct correlation between employee retention and attraction. And having a robust leave program. So this is our new normal. This is what employees are expecting.

00:04:17:01 - 00:04:30:15
Ellen McCann
And hopefully employers are recognizing as well that in order to have a competitive total rewards package, they need to have those robust benefits so that employees can feel supported for and cared by their employer.

00:04:31:00 - 00:04:40:14
Clare Morin
Angel, what are your thoughts also as somebody who's leading the paid leave, you know, function for so many employers here at Unum as a benefits provider?

00:04:40:15 - 00:05:01:02
Angel K Bennett
Yeah, I think so. I think the workforce has obviously changed since the pandemic, but I do think it started changing even before that as far as what people were looking for from a leave program. I think the pandemic came in, though, and it just accelerated it right further, highlighted the need and just accelerated how quickly employers and employees feel like, hey, they have to move.

00:05:01:02 - 00:05:29:02
Angel K Bennett
Right. I also think the pandemic also further highlighted just how diverse our workforce is, right? Because you had people in so many different stages of life that highlighted the importance of the need for the time away because everything kind of came to a head right as part of the pandemic. So I think it's really important for employers to continue to recognize that diverse workforce, that diverse population of employees that are looking for different types of programs.

00:05:29:03 - 00:05:51:08
Angel K Bennett
I also think like the the old way of thinking, and I think it's probably even an old way of thinking just prior to pandemic of like, Hey, what do we need to do for a program to really minimize the impact on us, right? As employers like that was the focus. Now, that's not the focus anymore, right? The focus is on that employee and that employee experience and work life balance.

00:05:51:08 - 00:06:02:10
Angel K Bennett
Right. Further highlighted again as a result of the pandemic. So all of those things, I think, really did drive and accelerate forward the need for different types of leaves. From an employee perspective.

00:06:02:11 - 00:06:26:08
Clare Morin
It's so true. And I wanted us to come back to that about how employers are changing their leave programs. But before we get that, the sheer legal landscape too, and what everyone is sort of dealing with in our audience. Ellen, you recently presented at the Health Benefits Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, and you said this line that really hit me.

00:06:26:08 - 00:06:42:02
Clare Morin
You said the complexity of the legal landscape for leave is no longer a trend, is the new normal. It's not going to get less complex. Can you talk us through what some of the key things are to know right, right now around that PFML landscape?

00:06:42:03 - 00:07:02:07
Ellen McCann
Clare I think this is again, always a space that's been complex, but we're just seeing a lot of different kinds of laws that employers have to contend with. And one absence could have five or six different protections attached to it. And employers have to understand how they all work together. Do they run at the same time or concurrently?

00:07:02:11 - 00:07:24:11
Ellen McCann
Do they run consecutively? How do I put this puzzle together, whether for my employees? And what we're really seeing is we saw growth, of course, in unpaid leave laws. And we know the FMLA can set the floor, but states can go above that and they can pass laws that are more protective for their employees. And many states certainly have done that, and they're continuing to do that.

00:07:24:14 - 00:07:47:04
Ellen McCann
I think we added 23 new unpaid leave laws to our service last year, just as an example. But where we're really seeing a lot of energy being focused is in the paid leave space. So we know 11 states and the District of Columbia now have passed a paid family and medical leave program. A few of those aren't yet in in force, but they've already been passed.

00:07:47:05 - 00:08:11:00
Ellen McCann
We know at least five states are looking seriously at passing one this year. And we've seen a different variety of states come to the forefront with other types of models that we hadn't seen before. So in New Hampshire and Vermont are great examples of those aren't mandatory programs, they're voluntary programs. And so we're seeing all of these different ways of attacking the same problem.

00:08:11:02 - 00:08:32:15
Ellen McCann
And the problem is that a huge percentage of American employees don't have enough paid leave. And so these these programs, whether they're mandatory or voluntary, are aimed at trying to give them enough paid leave. And employers are going to have to figure out what their response will be even to the voluntary programs. Right. So that it might not be mandated that they participate.

00:08:33:02 - 00:08:59:06
Ellen McCann
But if they don't and all of their competitors in that state of New Hampshire, or Vermont, let's use those as examples, participate. Where does that leave me as an employer from a competitive advantage? Then we're also seeing states, Virginia took the lead here where they're saying, hey, we're going to allow you to have as an insurance product paid family leave that insurance companies can sell to employers and they can offer to their employees on a voluntary basis.

00:08:59:07 - 00:09:21:04
Ellen McCann
A few other states have already fallen in line with that. So all these different flavors and I think we're seeing states that we didn't expect to be able to pass a full fledged mandatory PFML program, come up with creative ways to get something passed. Again, maybe it's voluntary, but get something passed to help employees in those states.

00:09:21:06 - 00:09:41:05
Ellen McCann
Employers have to keep up with these changes, understand how they apply, and in these voluntary states, decide if they want to participate or not and offer those benefits to their employees. So the complexity can be overwhelming at times, but it isn't something that we can expect to go away any time in the near future.

00:09:41:06 - 00:09:55:11
Clare Morin
Wow. And just I mean, it just makes me think if you're not outsourcing, leave, If you're not working with a partner such as Unum, that is a huge amount of work to be keeping on top of all that right?

00:09:55:12 - 00:10:27:08
Ellen McCann
Correct. Absolutely. I mean, that's it is hard to keep up with everything. It's hard to know what's coming. Some state laws are, you know, a couple of months before they're supposed to be passed, they get extended or, you know, a bill passes and it didn't receive a lot of fanfare and it catches people off guard. So having a partner that can have a legal team that's monitoring pending legislation, keeping track of it the entire way so they're ready to go ahead and comply with that or offer a product as soon as that law passes.

00:10:27:09 - 00:10:37:08
Ellen McCann
Really is a way a lot of employers have found that they can meet their compliance obligations and stay ahead of the curve on some of these issues.

00:10:37:09 - 00:11:06:05
Clare Morin
And you know, it's interesting how you did the survey in March 2023, and it's really showing that leave benefits are considered a strength with a lot of plans for expansion. So to your point, the employee expectations are there, but we're also seeing employers are seeing the benefits of offering leave. So an example here, 51% are likely to expand their offerings in the coming year.

00:11:06:06 - 00:11:30:09
Clare Morin
These companies tend to be those that already offer more benefits and who describe their leave offering as comprehensive to begin with. So that's really interesting. And they already, already outsource their leave management. So that's really interesting. Those who are outsourcing, they're seeing the benefits of it and they're expanding their offerings. Also, 23% of employers say they're unlikely to expand.

00:11:30:10 - 00:11:40:10
Clare Morin
So really, one in five is not looking to expand explicitly. Angel, I love your thoughts on this data. And what is it saying to you?

00:11:40:11 - 00:12:05:03
Angel K Bennett
Yeah. So there's so much good in this survey, right, that has come out like information that we've been able to glean from it. But I think the key point, right, is that the environment is changing, is changing rapidly. And employers understand that if they're going to stay competitive, it's got to change with it, Right. You've got to be able to continue to evolve your programs or you're not going to stay competitive and you're going to be left behind, which in this environment, no one wants to be left behind.

00:12:05:03 - 00:12:27:04
Angel K Bennett
Right? Like they want to continue to be able to attract and retain that really good talent. I also thought, like a few other things I thought were really interesting because 55% of the requests that they see coming in, so the most frequent was around parental leave, which is on point with what we're seeing right also. But we also had a lot that said, you know, 49% behind bereavement.

00:12:27:04 - 00:12:49:03
Angel K Bennett
So bereavement was really highlighted as something that people were using. Caregiver leave at 43%. That's huge, right? And then when you look at like the other places where they're like most frequently requested it starting to turn off when you got to STD and FMLA. So they're really highlighting these other leaves programs that are outside of just what we consider to be traditional type leave programs.

00:12:49:03 - 00:13:17:04
Angel K Bennett
Right? Like when you just think, oh, FMLA, STD, their own medical, you know, now they're really highlighting these very specific types of programs that people are wanting and they're utilizing right. Also thought it was really interesting that they go on to talk about how much support they have to provide their employees when they go out on leave. 43% said they provide moderate support, but 35% said they provide significant support to their employees when they go out on leave.

00:13:17:08 - 00:13:43:08
Angel K Bennett
So their teams are having to walk them through the entire leave process. Right. Because they want to help their employees through this. What's usually a complex process. And it's either a really wonderful time in their life or a really hard time in their life. Right. One of those two things, I think it just further shows how much time it takes from an H.R. department to not just help their employees with their leave requests, but also back to their adding all of these programs.

00:13:43:08 - 00:14:03:08
Angel K Bennett
And they're looking into what everybody else is doing, right? Like, that's a lot of time on your H.R. departments, right? So they're having to spend a lot of their time really focused on leave and not just having somebody apply for it, but also like, how do I continue to think about what I need to do next, right? Like what programs I need to do next.

00:14:03:09 - 00:14:22:01
Angel K Bennett
Also thought is interesting in that survey as well, that 6% of employers said they only offer what is required by law only 6%. Everybody else said they had something above what is required by law. Like, I think that just shows right. There's so much out there to Elon's point a few minutes ago that's happening in the legal landscape.

00:14:22:02 - 00:14:38:04
Angel K Bennett
There's so many things changing, right? But employers are still trying to keep up with all of that, which is a lot. But they're also trying to go above what is required. Right. So it really shows how important, how much they understand, how important it is and how much time it takes. Right. How how impactful that is to the HR

00:14:38:04 - 00:14:40:00
Angel K Bennett
Department.

00:14:40:02 - 00:14:59:06
Clare Morin
So true. And you know, just to clarify the Unum survey, this is non-customers says as companies across the U.S. across sizes and we're going to be linking through to some of the insights from our show notes so you can read more. But Ellen, I'd love for you to pick up on that too. And you know that rise in bereavement leave the caregiving leave.

00:14:59:06 - 00:15:02:03
Clare Morin
And what does that saying to you?

00:15:02:04 - 00:15:19:09
Ellen McCann
It's saying really that employees are expecting their employers to care for them, which we started out talking about. And, and that's a little bit of a new concept for a lot of employers who think my job is to have my employee, you know, come to work and I pay them, I provide them with these benefits. I give them what's legally required.

00:15:19:13 - 00:15:46:11
Ellen McCann
And that's the end of my job. This whole concept of care for some employers was kind of a squishy concept that they really couldn't embrace before the pandemic. And now they're saying, Nope, my employees expect more from me. They expect me to take care of them financially, emotionally. Employees are having a lot more mental health claims. We all know that that's just on the rise and employees are more comfortable asking for help and support there.

00:15:46:12 - 00:16:08:02
Ellen McCann
So employers are recognizing that their role is not just to give someone a paycheck, it's to support that employee both financially, emotionally and support their family obligations as well. And what I think employers are realizing is that when they do that, it may not seem as if it's in their best interest initially. It doesn't directly impact their bottom line.

00:16:08:02 - 00:16:29:04
Ellen McCann
They might not think, but when they do that, it does actually impact their bottom line because it has employees who are staying at work who aren't leaving the workforce, who are taking less time off in the long run because they got the time they needed it when they needed it. So that condition didn't turn into something much more chronic or catastrophic.

00:16:29:05 - 00:16:52:11
Ellen McCann
So helping care for their employees, right when the need is there is a way that does help their bottom line. And employers are starting, I think, to connect those dots and realize that caring for my employees is also a way I can care for our, you know, longevity as a corporation and our success as a corporation. And so those two are really, I think, coming together very nicely for employers.

00:16:52:11 - 00:17:06:09
Ellen McCann
And it's it's nice to see that evolution because a little bit of leave today may prevent someone from either going out four months later or not coming back at all later. And so that that's one way employers are starting to look at this.

00:17:06:11 - 00:17:33:09
Clare Morin
It's so true. And particularly in this labor market, that is continuing to be very tight, isn't it? And how I think recent data of 1.7 jobs for every one human in the United States. Right. And that that the sheer loyalty or gain if you are allowing employee to be there for their family or for themselves at a time of need please you say I'd love for us to finish with one key message that we can leave with our audience.

00:17:33:09 - 00:17:45:06
Clare Morin
And I'm including that pun there, Angel. If you were going to give our audience one key message as they continue to kind of be looking at their leave programs, what would it be?

00:17:45:08 - 00:18:05:08
Angel K Bennett
Yeah. So anytime I have a chance to say this, I say, and Ellen's probably tired of hearing it, but think be on paid parental leave. Right. Like that is not a one size fits all type policy. Right. It is very much for a certain population at a certain time in their life. Right. Think about having something that's more inclusive to people at different stages of their life.

00:18:05:11 - 00:18:25:07
Angel K Bennett
Now, I'm not saying don't do paid parental leaves because that's important. It's kind of table stakes now, right? Like most employers have some type of paid parental leave program. But think beyond that. Think about like, what can I do that's really going to impact, you know, a much wider population in my workforce. And I, you know, Ellen and I've seen a lot of unique policies come through.

00:18:25:07 - 00:18:43:08
Angel K Bennett
I feel like we're getting more and more and we get all excited and, you know, have to call each other. Look at this policy. I just never heard of this program before. Right. So employers are getting really like they're coming up with some really unique types of policies to give their employees to make it more inclusive. So I would just encourage everybody to do that.

00:18:43:09 - 00:18:45:06
Clare Morin
Ellen, what about you?

00:18:45:08 - 00:19:11:15
Ellen McCann
I think piggybacking off what Angel said, I agree 100% with everything she said, and it's really what types of benefits you're offering is so important. But I think employers, you shouldn't stop there. Look at how you're applying those policies in your workforce to make sure that they are inclusive and equitable in their application. So one of the things I always advise to employers is look at how you're defining when the employee can take leave, whether it's bereavement or whether it's caregiver.

00:19:12:03 - 00:19:43:08
Ellen McCann
Are you telling them who their family members are or what relationships are important enough that they can take leave when that person passes away or needs care? It is very simple to say, wait a minute, I need to look at this and look, maybe I only provide bereavement leave if someone's child, parent or spouse passes away. What about the rest of my employees who might have chosen families and or they have different types of relationships where their roommate might be as close to them as their brother or sister?

00:19:43:09 - 00:20:07:06
Ellen McCann
And we're seeing those relationships more and more in our in our employee populations. It doesn't take a lot to want it in your policy to let the employee decide who's important enough to them to take that leave. And that's something that your employees will appreciate and they will feel valued and they'll feel as if that employer really is looking at this through an equitable and an inclusive lens.

00:20:07:07 - 00:20:26:03
Ellen McCann
And that's something I think a lot of employers are looking now. To Angel's point, what more can I offer as far as a benefit? And that's great. We want to be doing that, but don't stop there. Look and see how are my benefits applying to my entire population, not just to one or two segments of it.

00:20:26:04 - 00:20:43:12
Clare Morin
Amazing. Ellen and Angel, thank you so much. And for the audience, they both spoke on a recent webinar that was phenomenal. It was enormous and moves thousands of people and we have a link to that in our show description. So thank you both so much for coming on the show and just sharing these insights.

00:20:43:13 - 00:20:46:08
Ellen McCann
Thank you, Clare. I really enjoyed it as always.

00:20:46:08 - 00:20:51:15
Angel K Bennett
Thank you.

00:20:52:00 - 00:20:57:14
Clare Morin
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