Does Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

Have you heard that old saying, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’? It definitely makes my heart go pitter-patter. I absolutely love supporting leaders and solving the nuisances in the absence and disability management space.

Conversely, ask any people leader, and I’m sure that you will get a mixed bag of emotions because this is a challenging area to navigate.

Unexpected disruptions to the daily operations, a misunderstanding that absence is solely related to medical issues, changing regulations, outdated strategies, policies, procedures, and systems all contribute to making this area a challenge to manage.

Some may think of this area as a pure compliance function, we have to do it, whether we like it or not. As a result, the function may sit in the organization’s Employee Relations or Compliance Areas. Some may think that the function is closely tied to medical, short- and long-term disability and place the function within the Benefits area of the organization.

However, some organizations have no idea where the function should sit, and it may be dropped in an area with the most available bandwidth, such as HR Operations or maybe even Compensation or Learning and Development. That’s a head-scratcher, right?