Administration of disability and leaves of absence has always been a messy business for employers, but the landscape is becoming increasingly complicated with new statutory requirements and employers implementing and expanding their own paid leave programs in response to an increasingly diverse and competitive labor market. This article explores the new tools employers have at their disposal and explains three key areas of development that should give employers hope. Although leave administration may never be a pleasant experience, employers that are willing to invest time and money in the right solutions will find that the payoff can be significant.

An effective disability management program begins well before a disability claim is ever filed and can help with absence prediction and prevention. This article highlights, through the use of supporting claims studies, how integrated medical, behavioral and pharmacy claims data can be used to (1) identify individuals at high risk for filing a disability claim in the next 12 months, (2) provide employees with personalized health improvement resources as part of early interventions, (3) increase employee engagement in managing their own health and (4) decrease disability incidences and durations.

In this era of rapidly proliferating state and local paid leave laws, employers must take a coordinated approach to leave design and administration, focusing on the whole picture, not on the silos of disability, leave and paid time off (PTO). This article lists goals employers should keep in mind when taking a coordinated approach, including compliance; meeting employee and organizational needs; minimizing program overlaps; and ease of use for, and communication to, managers and employees. The authors then review steps employers should take toward an integrated approach to design and administration that creates compliant leaves and demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being.

The impact of mental health issues on the workforce is well-known. Mental health in the workplace remains on the forefront of public discourse. Some of the many concerns that employers have are: How can an employee return to work and stay at work effectively? Are there specific protocols to follow? What is the employee responsible for? What is the employer’s responsibility? What can ultimately be done to increase the likelihood that an employee who has gone on disability leave as a result of a mental health condition is able to return to work and, more importantly, remain at work successfully? This article will attempt to provide some answers to questions such as: When is the best time to contact employees on leave to find out when they will be ready to return to work? What can employers do to prevent an employee from going on disability leave repeatedly? How do employers differentiate poor work performance from mental health issues? This article will also detail specific return-towork strategies that can be implemented in a workplace

Government needs to constantly innovate and experiment to determine how to best implement effective and efficient services. In 2015, Congress renewed a law that allows the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program to test new ideas as pilot projects before those ideas are scaled to the entire population. The authority can be used to identify better ways to administer services and to encourage workers with disabilities to return to the labor force. But the Social Security Administration (SSA) faces numerous challenges in using that authority to generate timely and relevant evidence to inform policy debates. This article offers suggestions to address the biggest barriers to the more routine and productive use of SSA disability demonstration authority. It is essential to figure out how to better innovate and experiment in the disability program before the looming necessary action by Congress over the next decade. Not doing so could result in policy changes that harm—rather than benefit—program beneficiaries.

Preapproved plan documents—generally, plan documents with fixed provisions and an adoption agreement from which an employer may select plan features—can be a cost-effective document solution for retirement plan sponsors. However, it is crucial that the features selected reflect the intended plan design and that the plan sponsor fully understands any limitations imposed by the prototype document that could affect plan features or operation, because the plan sponsor is ultimately responsible for ensuring that its retirement plan complies with the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.