What is a best practice for Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)?

To help you implement best practices for FMLA, we asked HR experts and business leaders this question for their best pieces of advice. From displaying policies prominently to verifying eligibility, there are several ways to ensure best practices for FMLA.

Here are five FMLA Best Practices:

• Display Policies Prominently
• Enforce Notification Requirements
• Be Equitable
• Allow Flexible Notice 
• Verify Eligibility

Display Policies Prominently

Employees should never have to guess at which FLMA polices are applicable to them. Businesses are legally required to have these policies prominently displayed in places where employees are able to view them. Thankfully, it’s not as if this information is particularly hard to come by.

You can find downloadable work posters of all kinds on the Department of Labor website.

Keep this information available to all employees to make sure both your business and employees themselves are able to understand rights employees have when it comes to family and medical leave.

Boye Fajinmi, TheFutureParty

Enforce Notification Requirements

One best practice for FMLA is to enforce notification requirements. In any case of foreseeable FMLA leave, an employee must give a minimum of 30 days’ notice. This helps the company and employee alike keep track of the dates involved. If notice is not given, employers retain the right to delay FMLA leave until 30 days after the employee provides proper notice.

Phillip Akhzar, Arka

Be Equitable

Be generous and equitable. For example, in this day and age, remember that it’s not just maternity leave, it’s parental leave. And remember that with families in different types of arrangements, there may be other family members in need of your employee’s support. Your job is to try and make sure the benefit has the same level of accessibility to each employee.

Marcus Hutsen, Patriot Coolers

Allow Flexible Notice 

A best practice for FMLA is to allow flexibility for issuing notices. Most companies fail to live up to their employees’ expectations of an FMLA policy because they have stringent notice issue demands. Allow your employees to offer notice as late as their emergency demands. This move helps them be more open to using their FMLA without legal consequences.

Mehtab Ahmed, LoansJury

Verify Eligibility 

Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) grants employees 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period for specified medical reasons. To ensure best practice, make sure the reason for the leave qualifies. Not all health conditions are considered severe, and not all requests for FMLA are for qualifying reasons.

Before approving the FMLA leave, one should ensure that employees are entitled to it.

Employees should also give at least 30 days of notice before applying and submitting the required medical certificates, which will help them get approval for their Family and Medical Leave (FMLA).

Shashank Kothari, CocoLoan

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