How communicators can talk about employee leave

In the employee life cycle, team members sometimes need to take a temporary step away from their job. Whether it’s for parental leave, medical leave or another reason, the sensitive nature of employee leave is an opportunity for employee communicators to help steer teams in the right direction. Regardless of an organization’s leave policies, comms pros can be the bridge that helps connect employees and their teams with resources and information.

Untying the complexities and nuances of leave policies

In many instances, employees aren’t sure what their companies’ leave policies say until they’re in immediate need of some time away from work. Kristina Markos, graduate chair in communication at Lasell University, said that in far too many cases, leave policies and details are underexplained and under communicated due to fear over deadlines and who will cover for an absent employee.

“When someone goes out on leave, you often have to push work downward or upward to ensure it still gets done,” Markos said. “That’s a major issue that holds people back from open dialogue.”

Markos provided a few tips to help communicators break the ice and clear up a company’s leave policies so they’re available when they’re needed.

• Create an infographic to explain the process. There are a lot of different reasons an employee might need to take leave from work, and explaining the differences can be tough for some employees. Markos suggested simplifying things by leaning into visual communication. “A microsite or a choose-your-own-adventure infographic can help people understand more clearly. You can clarify what people can go on leave, what they get, and what they need to know in a single visual.”
• Empower your managers. Managers are the closest touchpoint an employee has to the rest of the company. Comms pros should work with managers to provide them with the proper talking points about leave, in addition to helping them construct a way to talk about reentering the workplace afterwards. “Managers know their teams the best,” Markos said. “Managers and comms pros can work together to craft employee messaging that prepares for all scenarios, not just the smoothest and expected one.”
• Lean on your HR colleagues. Communicators can’t effectively communicate about leave in isolation. They need to work in sync with their colleagues in HR to help translate policies that are full of legalese into empathetic and relatable language. “Working with HR to draft a manual or handbook that explains how the language of leave applies to real-life situations can help clear up uncertainty ahead of time away from work,” Markos said.

Humanity and consistency help solidify culture

When an employee needs to take leave from work, it’s often due to a stressful life event. In these times, communicators can help reaffirm the humanity of the organization through its messaging to employees.

Cat Colella-Graham, internal communications coach and adjunct professor at St. Francis College, told Ragan that personal leave has an apt name because it is so deeply personal. When the situation is right, communicators should work with employees going on or coming back from leave to share their stories and make the situation more relatable.

“Employee storytelling helps make these situations more tangible, as opposed to just HR lingo on a document,” Colella-Graham said. “Sharing people’s stories when it’s appropriate on internal platforms can draw a necessary connection between policy and people.”

Colella-Graham also recommended that communicators consider their leave comms strategy similarly to a benefits comms campaign. Internal comms should reaffirm the policies and norms around leave regularly so that employees aren’t ever taken by surprise when they need to take time away from work.

“If you’ve got an intranet, that’s a great place to create a post about your policies at least once a year,” she said.

She also said comms pros should weave in a bit of storytelling to these leave policies. For instance, if an employee took some time away to spend with their growing family, comms pros could use that event as a hook in collaboration with the employee (with permission, of course.)

“Sharing these external moments internally helps employees feel like they’re part of the bigger picture,” Colella-Graham said. “If you’re consistent in these comms, you’ll contribute to a more informed culture.”

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.