Employee Leave Navigation is Best (and Confidentially) Handled by an HR Professional in Business and at Work

I work with my clients to help them navigate the maze (and/or web, depending on the day) of NYS and federal workplace compliance requirements. Every client and employee has different needs, there’s rarely a cookie-cutter approach.  Of the services I offer through my business, one of my favorite tasks is to teach up-and-coming HR professionals what I know: paying forward how much my mentors’ HR knowledge transfer to me continues to enrich the vocation and career that sustains me on several levels to this day.

I met recently with a site HR person and their management team: the HR person requested that I meet with them and the organization’s supervisors on how to best handle a complex employee leave request compounded further by the epidemic.

Since we met via Zoom, one of the managers wanted me to record the coaching on how to compassionately and compliantly walk through a leave solution that met both the needs of the employee and the organization. “I  have a better solution,” I said. “Leave discussions, because of their confidential nature, are best conducted by the HR person, not the supervisor or manager of the employee.” One of the managers actually let out a sigh of relief, and smiled broadly. “This meeting just got a whole lot better,” they replied. “No one wants our (HR) job,” I observed, smiling at my HR colleague.

It is, however, important to train managers and supervisors to refer an employee’s leave request ASAP to their HR person, as employees tend to go to their supervisor first with such requests because they interact with their supervisors all day. Any competent HR person can then handle the employee’s leave request efficiently and appropriately, as the information tends to be Protected Health Information (PHI) under HIPAA.

Do all employee leave requests go to your organization’s HR person to protect the employee’s confidential HIPAA data (and ensure overall employer compliance and risk avoidance), in business and at work?