Creating a Rapid Response to Minimize Disruption: How Employers Balance Agility and Compliance

By Steve McGonagle, AVP, Leave Management, Voya Financial; Susan Woods, Counsel, FullscopeRMS

Prior to COVID-19, most of us had never imagined that emergency regulations and new mandates would be enacted with little advance notice or time to prepare. Nor did we foresee our businesses transitioning to a remote workforce in a matter of days. But as we’ve learned in the last 20 months or so, employers need to be agile and flexible. They must be able to quickly implement new leaves, policies, and benefits to continue operations and remain compliant as we face omicron variants, ongoing COVID-19 spikes, and whatever new developments lie ahead.

While business continuity plans generally cover cyberattacks and natural disasters (such as fires, floods, and weather-related events), global pandemics rarely make the list. COVID-19 highlighted multiple flaws in business continuity and disaster recovery plans for some employers, as well as gaps in more targeted pandemic plans. It specifically raised the question of how employers could limit the effects on employees, considering that the interruption caused by a pandemic may be greater than other types of business disruptions.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, we saw meaningful impacts to employers across the country, including how to adapt leave management practices while remaining compliant with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and myriad new COVID-19-related leave and accommodation laws. Agile employers were able to make changes quickly and comply with the many new laws. For example, employers covered by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) needed to update their payroll systems and human resources (HR) processes on very short notice to provide new paid sick leave and expanded FMLA for certain COVID-19-related purposes. Employers mired in antiquated, inflexible systems struggled to keep up with the rapidly changing HR landscape.

As we continue to navigate this pandemic, these four steps will help organizations implement an appropriate rapid response that will minimize disruption and reduce compliance concerns.

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