Moving from FMLA, ADA & Workers’ Compensation Compliance to Real-World Leave Risk Management
In our previous program on understanding the overlap between FMLA, ADA, and Workers’ Compensation, we explored how these employment laws intersect and what HR departments and employers need to understand.
This session addresses the next—and often more challenging—question:
How can HR professionals manage employee leave when concerns about potential misuse arise without creating legal or compliance risk?
During our previous session, HR professionals and employers frequently asked:
- How long must an employer hold an employee’s position open?
- When does FMLA leave end, but ADA accommodation obligations continue?
- What should HR do when medical restrictions never change?
- What can employers do when they suspect employee leave abuse—and where are the legal boundaries?
This program builds on these important questions and focuses on the practical challenges of identifying, managing, addressing, and preventing employee leave abuse while maintaining FMLA, ADA, and Workers’ Compensation compliance.
If you did not attend the previous session, this training is designed to stand completely on its own and provides practical guidance on the operational, compliance, and risk-management side of employee leave administration.
Whether You’re Managing Suspected Leave Abuse or Working to Prevent Future Problems
Many HR departments and employers attend because:
- Intermittent FMLA leave patterns raise legitimate concerns.
- An employee’s position has remained open longer than expected.
- Managers suspect potential employee leave misuse.
- HR needs guidance before taking disciplinary action.
Other organizations attend because they understand that employee leave abuse concerns do not always begin as obvious misconduct. Problems can develop through inconsistent policy enforcement, poor documentation, unclear leave procedures, ineffective communication, or misalignment between HR, managers, and operations.
Even if your organization is not currently dealing with suspected FMLA abuse or employee leave misuse, this session can help strengthen your HR policies, leave management procedures, documentation practices, and compliance processes—helping reduce legal exposure when concerns arise.
Session Highlights: Practical Employee Leave Management for HR Professionals
This session provides a practical and legally informed framework for managing suspected employee leave abuse while reducing exposure to FMLA interference, retaliation, disability discrimination, and Workers’ Compensation claims.
You Will Learn How To:
- Understand what legally constitutes employee leave abuse—and what does not.
- Identify common FMLA and intermittent leave red flags without making unsupported assumptions.
- Manage intermittent FMLA leave effectively, consistently, and lawfully.
- Use medical certifications, FMLA recertifications, and call-in procedures strategically.
- Improve HR documentation to support legally defensible employment decisions.
- Understand how long an employer may need to hold an employee’s job open under FMLA and ADA requirements.
- Evaluate when extended medical leave may become an undue hardship.
- Conduct appropriate and legally defensible investigations into suspected leave misuse.
- Apply lawful discipline or termination when employment action is justified.
- Reduce organizational risk involving FMLA, ADA accommodations, employee leave abuse, and Workers’ Compensation claims.
HRcpe 
This Program has been approved for 1.5 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™, and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute®? (HRCI®).
