Sorting it out and summing it up

As another year of the Lincoln Absence Advisor podcast series concludes, we’re continuing to build on what we’ve learned to help you prepare for the future. This season’s final episode highlights parting words from our diverse group of guests who offer expertise in every facet of leave management — including account management, legal compliance, operations, claims, vocational rehabilitation, and more — as they sum up a unique situations, focus on the essentials, and provide helpful insights and strategies to support your company’s leave and disability program.

© 2022 Lincoln National Corporation. All rights reserved. 
AM-LAEPS-AUD001   11/22  Z01   LCN-5080004-110322 

Transcript

Karen Batson: 0:00

Hi everyone, this is Karen Batson marketing manager from Lincoln Financial Group. In today's episode of Lincoln Absence Advisor, we've pieced together some of the best advice suggestions we've received over season three. I'll introduce each clip, give you a synopsis of what might have been covered in the episode and lead you into hearing from some great experts. Before we dive in, I just want to say thank you all for listening throughout season three, I hope you'll join us again in season four. Enjoy today's episode. So across the Lincoln Absence Advisor podcast series, we often approach the topic of the whole employee, and how important it is to consider them as individuals, especially when looking at your group benefits. In our first sound bite in which is also our first episode of season three, we're joined by Kelsey Bradbury, Susan Lawson, and Sophia Boniecki, who are from our market intelligence team. And they came and they discussed various studies that they've done around what the employer is looking for, especially now in kind of this new world, and a new focus from the employees. So in this soundbite, they give us their parting words, it's our longest sound clip in today's episode, but they give great advice on actions you may want to take and things you may want to look for.

Kelsey Bradbury: 1:19

I think it's really important to get a pulse on your specific employee base and understand from those employees who are already at your company, what's working well, what are they happy with? What makes them excited to go to work? What did they feel that's driving satisfaction, and also what could be improved and really getting that read on your employees? I think it's important from two fronts. A, it's important for anyone, whether it's in the context of work, or in the context outside of work or like a relationship, right, it's important to feel heard. And so when employees feel heard, they know that you as an employer, care about supporting them and doing right by them and that goes a long way. And then it's not just about asking the questions, right, it's about acting on it. And I think you can act on it in two ways. One way is to, you know, keep doing what you're doing when it's working well. And to address the things that employees say could be better. And then to really communicate to employees how their feedback is being incorporated. So that's one thing. The other thing is to really play to your strengths. When during, you know, when you're recruiting, because your employees are telling you that you're really good in one category or another, maybe you have a really strong paid leave program. And your employees tell you that when you ask them for feedback, well then highlight that to, you know, as a hallmark of the employee experience at your company, and use that to your advantage when you're recruiting.

Susan Lawson: 2:57

Yeah, I would build on what Kelsey said and say, it's not just about the paycheck, right? Like folks aren't changing jobs, or moving around looking for new jobs for the highest pay, right? The total package is really more about the story right now with all the things we just talked about, and responsibilities on employees plates, that, okay, you can be competitive and pay. But if you can do these new different better paid leave program, those types of things can really help you stand out. It just isn't always just about the paycheck.

Kelsey Bradbury: 3:34

And that's not to say that salary isn't important. We see it. We absolutely see it show up. And and we're seeing that employ ees do care about salary. But, it's kind of like you need to be in the you need salary to be in the mix. But once you're in the mix, the add-ons can really put you over the top. And people I mean, anecdotally, we've been hiring and Lincoln is a great place to work remotely. And we've seen folks come to us specifically because that drew them to Lincoln. And so I mean, I've seen it in the research, and I've seen it in the recruiting process firsthand.

Sophia Boniecki: 4:21

Yeah, I guess also just to further support what Kelsey was saying to and these points come from a variety of sources and studies. But one thing that I had seen to support, you know, just the importance of listening to what employees really want. And reflecting on that and being honest with yourself about that is that I did recently see that there's a pretty decent disconnect between reasons that employees have been leaving their jobs and reasons that executives think employees are leaving their jobs. For example, this one study the reasons cited by employees the top two were better compensation and better work life balance, which is really what we've been talking about this whole time. But coming from the executives, the top two reasons that they really thought employees were leaving were better benefits and better career advancement opportunities. So they're not entirely entirely wrong for the reasons, but they're not really understanding what those top reasons are. And that could be beneficial for them if they were reflecting a little bit more. And then also just to support what Kelsey was saying, another study that I had been looking at employees really do, they're asking for leaders to speak to them and speak to their department or what their specific needs are, and to tailor the things they're saying to different groups of people. So the fact that these employees are asking for that really stands out, and that's something to reflect on as well.

Karen Batson: 5:52

So in our second sound bite, we switch gears a little bit and start talking about the leave landscape. But based on a lot of questions that we receive, instead of giving our traditional update on states, we decided to dive in on the differences of state versus private plans and what you should consider, questions you should ask. So our guests from this one were Mandy Arroyo and Patrick Baltmiskis both national account executives that answer a lot of questions from employers who are making this decision. So their parting words, shared things that you really want to consider. And in very similar fashion, it's about seeking the right information from the experts around you.

Mandy Arroyo: 6:33

I would say start that engagement with your account management team that services your accounts across all of your your benefits, not just disability and paid leaves. I think the theme we Patrick and I, you know, think that's what's successful with us is being proactive and keeping those lines of communication open, and really tracking what decisions need to be made. And when and if you need to making sure that you're you're bringing the right parties together. So sometimes procurements involved. And like I said, legal, and and so there's a lot of people who have stake in this game that want to make an informed decision. So we're here to educate them, and help them through that process. So that it becomes an easy decision to make once you have all the facts.

Patrick Baltmiskis: 7:22

Yeah, Mandy hit it right on Oh, I think I would say in addition is use your experts. Mandy mentioned some of your internal partners. But that's what Lincoln's here for as a third party vendor and really an extension of our customers, ask the questions, get the guidance, let our product and legal team and your account service team help guide you through the implications and really kind of what what the important pieces are in making your decision.

Karen Batson: 7:54

Our third clip comes from actually our most popular episode of the season FMLA, a cornerstone of job protection. And FMLA has been around for a long time. So it might be surprising that we wanted to dive into this subject. But we continue to get questions about FMLA, especially how it fits in the current leave landscape. So we brought the three folks that I go to the most often, Trish Zuniga from our compliance team, Annie Jantz from our product team and Lauren Hagen from our claims Best Practices team. And we talked about their perspectives around job protection and FMLA. And why it's important.

Trish Zuniga: 8:31

Well, for me, we've been talking about the FMLA all this time, but what I wish that more employees and employers knew is that you don't have to invoke those four letters all at the same time, you don't have to say the magic words FMLA for an employee to avail of these rights under this law. So employers, if an employee tells you that they need to take time off to have surgery, that's enough information for you to be on notice that this employer needs to take job protected time under the FMLA.

Lauren Hagen: 9:06

Yeah, that's a great call out. I think for me, it's understanding that this is a benefit for the employees, right, it's definitely for them and for their protection. So it can be different than some maybe some of the other benefits that you as the employer are building. And that's your your plan and your process. So I think it's just remembering that but also remembering that there is opportunities right under the FMLA to still have conversations with your employees. It's not like you can't, you know, speak to them talk to them, you know, you can still ask them questions and keep that line of communication open. So that one they have the use of it, but that they're also using it within the rights right within the rights that they have. So I think that's important.

Annie Jantz: 9:48

Yeah, I mean, you guys both make great points. I don't know that there's a whole lot left. The only thing that I would, I guess just reinforce again from something that we said is that at education is so important for frontline managers to understand and even like what Trish said, knowing what those words are, because it may not be FMLA. If they come in, you know, your employee comes in and says something to you. So I think it's it's really that is just education, educating yourself. And just understanding what these, what these regulations mean and how it impacts your organization.

Karen Batson: 10:27

The next episode we're highlighting is called first point of contact and first point of support. And, honestly, it's a hidden gem in season three, as being a host and listening to all these conversations, it is very apparent how central the manager's role is when it comes to your leave strategy. So we're joined by Tracy Duncan, whose absence consultant manager, Sarah Montgomery, who's AVP and our legal department, and Stacy Pick who's a manager of vocational services. And we talk about how do we make it easier for the manager? So what you're hearing is their parting words, and really the most important thing, I will say they will say it a lot, and they need that educational information, and how can you share it best? And just so you're not caught off guard, we're starting mid conversation, I have just asked them, if you could name one thing that the employer could do to support their managers in this responsibility, what would it be?

Tracey Duncan: 11:26

Aside from that neon sign that we talked about?

Sarah Montgomery: 11:30

I was gonna say that's, that's, I love that one.

Stacey Pick: 11:32

Yeah, that's my favorite, too.

Tracey Duncan: 11:34

And maybe a checklist as well. I'm a big list person, though. So that might be specific to my preferences. I love having a checklist of things in case I as a manager might not have thought of an out of office message or turning on access when someone comes back, or those kind of logistical things, just something a roadmap, if you will, for a manager to have at their fingertips, very helpful.

Stacey Pick: 11:57

I think even even guidelines in regards to do's and don'ts of things that you can you can't talk about, you should you shouldn't do, I think that would be helpful also.

Sarah Montgomery: 12:07

as soon as you know an employee wants leave while they're out. You know, as Stacey was saying was a great idea is like, because the employees out doesn't mean that there isn't all of these things go in the company that would be helpful. And let them know that like upon return, we were keeping track of things for you, we want you to help as you get back and to get reacclimated and to feel that you can transition back quickly to that, you know, keeping track of announcements and little things that have gone on in the company and making them feel welcome back on their first day. But then also stay in touch with them, you know, as they returned to work to make sure that it's going well, and that they're not pushing themselves too hard. Or if they need more time, you know, need to look at options if there's anything that might be impeding their full return to work that they talk about it and to keep the kind of lines of communication open so that the return to work is successful.

Karen Batson: 13:05

We talk about parental leave quite a bit across the show. And in season one in season two, we discussed maternity leave and different aspects. So we thought it was important in season three to dive into paternity leave. We're joined by Sean Hutchinson, VP of group benefits marketing, Joe McGovern, VP of actuarial and Nate Schoedel, AVP of account management And they talk about their experiences as fathers taking paternity leave, and then marrying it with their experience here and group benefits. Their parting words will be similar to things that you've heard, just pay attention, communicate and connect.

Nate Schoedel: 13:45

Yeah, I would say work with your leadership team to get them comfortable with the process, what it looks like, and be supportive, because I think that management level really sets the tone of what your experience looks like. I noted in both of my scenarios, I had an extremely supportive manager who not only just walked me through it, but helped me go through and divide up my responsibilities and provide coverage for them and make sure I was in make sure I was in a good spot. And I know Sean had mentioned this a couple of times about the productivity it does pay dividends because I would say you know, whether you use a week or 10 weeks you're using it usually out of necessity from a parental leave like your whether it's you know, in Joe's case, looking for childcare, you know, my kids, we had some some health issues with our daughter at three months old. Being able to just step away and take care and get your house in good order really does lend itself well for when you come back to work, you are more productive. Like if I'm comparing and contrasting the shorter levers to longer leave, I would definitely say there's probably times on my first leave or you know, when I returned to work, I might have been a little bit distracted and probably didn't come back with a full level of productivity as I did with my second because of that time off. So I would say just understand that when people are taking it it's they're utilizing it for good reason and then also to just that manage your support is that absolutely crucial to set that culture and tone across the organization.

Sean Hutchinson: 15:03

My thought from an employer promote it, if you have it promote it, like, let everyone know that it exists and what it can do for you, and encourage that time because, you know, like we've said, we've all come back more productive as a result of it. And like, if you have to search for information, and it's hard to find, or you don't have that personal support, I think you might not take advantage of that benefit that's there, that's going to make you come back and be more productive. So I think the education and communication around it could be so key to be able to achieve that that benefit.

Joe McGovern: 15:32

Yeah, I would echo what Sean and Nate have said, I think the benefit itself is going to make better fathers and better fathers are going to make better employees down the line. So I think it is long term. You know, there's long term benefits to offering this to employees and removing some of the stigma, I think associated with fathers going out on leave. And really, from the top down championing this benefit and encouraging employees to take it, I think that will go a long ways.

Karen Batson: 16:06

So it wouldn't be a season if we didn't talk about the newest paid family and medical leave programs. And that's what we do in this episode we're highlighting next, which is actually a two parter. What's next for state family and medical leave? Now these parting words you're going to hear from our guests in product and legal are probably the most practical advice you'll hear on today's episode. And that's how to get the right information in this very complex landscape.

Kristin Seidman: 16:33

I think we've we've talked about the state websites, also, obviously, a shameless plug for ourselves again, but Lincoln Absence Advisor is a great resource. And LFG.com has a lot of information on the various programs that we try and keep updated as there are changes to each of these programs.

Marissa Mayfield: 16:53

Yeah, I will just add to Kristin's point around the state's websites, most of them also have newsletters that they offer. So if you are interested in information around a particular state, go out on their website, and sign up for their newsletter. Because if there's something pertinent that they're doing, and they have a newsletter, nine times out of 10 is going to hit that communication. And so you want to make sure that you're on the receiving end of the latest information.

Trish Zuniga: 17:21

And I'll say that compliance with all of these PFML mandates are very confusing, even I'm confused a lot of the time. And the way to just deal with that is to go back to the basics. So ask yourself, those five W's and one H come up with a plan. I think one of the most important questions you have to ask yourself as an employer, is the question on when? And when are those effective dates and the law? And what are those dates for complying with your employer responsibilities? And is there an end date to when you have to comply with that. And a lot of the times if you have these employer responsibilities, you might also have penalties for non compliance. So just remember those building blocks of dealing with you know, a behemoth of a PFML law. Ask yourself those basic questions and then just come up with a plan to tackle it.

Karen Batson: 18:24

Our next parting words comes from an episode called Exploring the interactive process in everything we do under Lincoln Absence Advisor, there's always questions about the ADA. And for us, we really like to highlight the interactive process as it really helps you and it helps the employee. So we discuss what that interactive process entails. We're joined by Annie Jantz, from our product team and Melissa Michuda from our vocational team to really walk through what they see and best practices.

Annie Jantz: 18:56

I'll go first, I guess on this one, what I hope that everyone took away from this is that it is a very individual process. While you can have a full process that you go through as an employer and walk through the steps, it is very individual to that person. There are a lot of disabilities in the workplace today. So it's it's good to be aware of that and to make sure that your processes support that a lot of them are invisible. So you're not necessarily aware that somebody's dealing with a disability. And it's important to treat everyone as individuals walk through that look at the accommodations know that one person with one condition may not be the same as the second person with the exact same condition, they can still have some differences in what their their limitations may be.

Melissa Michuda: 19:42

Absolutely. And just to add to that, just to let employers know, it's not so scary, and it's not so intimidating and that they're probably already doing the process. They just don't realize it maybe it's just not formally, but most likely the steps that they're already taking fall into that interactive process.

Karen Batson: 20:04

Next up is supplemental health. We don't talk about this product set on the Lincoln Absence Advisor podcast, as we focus on leave and disability. But it was interesting to have a conversation with Ryan Goethals and Jeremy Parr who are close to these products and how it intersects with leave and disability. In their parting words, they give some advice on how to think about this approach and things that an organization may want to consider as well as an individual when choosing their benefits.

Jeremy Parr: 20:35

Yeah, I mean, my biggest recommendation, and this is something that I learned early on in my career is when you're planning for benefits is to think about those scenarios, right? To understand, like, what would happen if I was out of work for six weeks unexpectedly? What expenses could I see? Right? You know, how would I make ends meet? How would that impact my family? And if you do the extra step of planning for those unexpected scenarios, you'll naturally be more prepared when they do come up. A lot of times we tell ourselves, this will never happen to me. I happen to my neighbor, it happened to my friend, right? It'll never happen to me. But if if you do just a little bit of extra planning around these as how do I prepare for an unexpected scenario, you'll naturally seek out to understand what protections can I put into place in addition to just my emergency savings account to help protect me and my family.

Ryan Goethals: 21:34

Yeah, that's well said, Jeremy. And I wouldn't. I don't think you need to add too much. It's, you know, to Jeremy's point, it's put yourself in a bit of a vulnerable position. And we're going to do something that's not natural or probably comfortable. And we just have to have an honest conversation with ourselves with our significant other family just say, like Jeremy mentioned, what if, and the good, the good, good part would be if we never had to worry about that. But I would also tell you that if we do have to go through one of those scenarios, typically, we're a lot more well prepared, if we want to have that conversation before. And I think the good news, if you're specifically speaking about the supplemental health benefits is, even if nothing happens, that you need to use from a benefit standpoint. Throughout the year, there are wellness benefits. And so just the typical procedures and doctor's visits and appointments that you're having throughout the year, most of those do qualify for a wellness benefit. And so let's hope there's never anything significant you need to use the benefits for but the good news is, but just by taking care of yourself and following through with many of the wellness initiatives that we all go through annually, you will actually will receive a benefit. And that would that may make it worthwhile. So really well said just take a minute just to think, understand your exposure, understand what you have and what you would do if you were unable to work. And then I think we can all make a decision that's right for us.

Karen Batson: 22:56

In our first audio clip, in today's episode, we talk about what employees are seeking what we've learned from various studies. And it it's fitting that we end on an episode where yes, we are focusing on sabbatical leave. But the conversation very much led us to providing the right thing for your employee based on what you've learned from your employees. We're joined by Ryan Green from Meta, Grace Hunt and Katie Devney from Lincoln. And we talk a little bit about Meta's program in this episode, but we also just talk about it universally, in their parting words, they talk about what you should consider, but really kind of that creative, innovative

Ryan Green: 23:36

One thing we haven't really talked about, that while approach. it sounds great just to offer sabbatical paid or unpaid, or whatever you want to give, you have to think about the financials, think about the tax implications. Think about how this fits on your books, think about the type of industry you have, can we afford to offer something like this, I mean, if you're more of a industry that has a lot more non-exempt employees, hourly employees, it may be hard to put something like this in place, you may need to think of a similar solution get creative. Again, like you mentioned SVEF, where the employers forum where we talk to peers in our industry, look at peers in your industry, what they're offering and what works best. What we found is someone's already trial and errored this and they can kind of like give you feedback, you can see benchmarking that the majority are offering something, can we offer something a little bit more really industry leading? Or is there a reason why our industry offers what we offer, you may not be able to do a sabbatical route. But other ways to do it could be like incentivizing more PTO based on years of service, it could be you know, you accrue and maybe it's an annual thing, maybe it's like you could sell some and in industries where like because what we see is leadership are the ones that tend to defer, right, the people in the higher up levels can't afford to take a whole month off. And so get creative. Maybe you need to offer them a solution that is not necessarily a month off. And maybe they take like every two weeks, they stagger and they take like Friday's off for a period of time. So there's a bunch of creative ways you can do this. There's not a one size fits all but I think the overall thing we're trying to get at you look at your industry. Consider what works best for you, and also what your employees are saying and what is going to incentivize them to feel refreshed, motivated and retain?

Grace Hunt: 25:06

Yeah. And I think you know, what I'm taking away from this is in essence, you know, there's absolutely value in providing some sort of whether it's paid time off, like we talked about as a shutdown form, if it's a 30 days sabbatical after five years, or if it's I think having the idea of having kind of no responsibilities as it relates to work for a period of time without having it nagging at you and you're trying to take time off, is of so much value to employees and so much value to our mental well being working in the workforce. So like Ryan said, if you have to get creative and figure out different ways to offer that, I think that there's absolutely value in every employer exploring that further to ensure that the employees feel valued and supported.

Ryan Green: 25:45

For sure.

Katie Devney: 25:45

I just think it's keeping things fresh. Like I like that you guys are reviewing that annually, and you're always trying to stay. And that's, you know, partially industry and partially not like staying ahead of the curve. And you know, we have our open enrollment coming up. And we always have different new stuff that they're offering to us. And I think that's an important component. You can't get lazy, you can't be stagnant. If you want to, you know, continue to attract and retain the talent that you are looking for. And obviously, you guys are leaders in that. So.

Karen Batson: 26:12

Thank you all for listening today. Today's episode was definitely a little bit different. But as we always ask that same question at the end of every conversation, we thought it'd be great to give that advice, tips and best practices that we heard from so many great conversations. Listening back to this though, I do want to point out, it was evident in every conversation regardless of what topic we were discussing, how important it is to use the resources in front of you, and understand your organization and your individual employees. It is not going to be a one size fits all. So hopefully from this episode, you get ideas where you go and listen to other episodes to hear more about things that our guests have suggested. As always, you can follow us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and I promise we will be back for season four. So if you have ideas or things you want us to cover, please reach out to your Lincoln benefits professional.

Disclosures: 27:09

The information contained in this podcast is for general use and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney or your human resource professional. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and its affiliates. Affiliates are separately responsible for their own financial and contractual obligations.