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Susan 00:01
Let’s do what’s right. We want to comply with the law, but more importantly, let’s take care of that returning service member.

JoDee 00:08
Welcome to the JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, where we help HR and business leaders embrace joy in the workplace. I’m JoDee Curtis, owner of Purple Ink, an HR consulting and talent development firm, and with me is my dear friend and co-host, Susan White, owner of Susan Tinder White Consulting, also an HR consulting practice.

JoDee 00:35
Our topic today is about military leave. Susan, I don’t know if it’s happening more frequently or what, but this is a topic that was requested by many of our listeners over the past couple of months, and I actually personally have had two questions on this topic from clients just in the past few weeks. So…

Susan 01:03
Wow, interesting.

JoDee 01:05
…time for us to share more information on this. So let’s start by talking about the laws around military leave. Military leave from work in the United States is primarily governed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act, otherwise known as USERRA.

Susan 01:30
Thank goodness that there is an acronym, because that is a mouthful.

JoDee 01:34
Right. And this federal law provides protections for employees who leave their civilian jobs to serve in the military. So we’ll talk about some of the key aspects of this law. USERRA ensures that employees who leave for military service are entitled to return to their civilian jobs after their service ends with the same status, pay, and benefits they would have had if they had not been absent. So somewhat similar to FMLA where, you know, it’s much more common, but the, the concept is the same with, with some different tweaks to it. Generally, employees are entitled to re-employment after a cumulative total of up to five years of military service. However, there are exceptions for longer service if certain conditions are met. Employees must notify their employers of their military service obligations in advance, unless precluded by military necessity. Employers cannot discriminate against employees for their military service or membership in the military and employees on military leave are entitled to continue their health insurance coverage under the same terms as if they were still employed, with some conditions.

Susan 03:13
So let’s talk a little bit about FMLA. It also covers military leave in specific situations. The FMLA provides, as you know, up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family members of military service members who are called to active duty or are injured while on active duty. If a service member is injured during active duty, the family may be eligible for up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to care for them.

JoDee 03:43
Good point. So it’s not only where the — I mean, the FMLA kicks in for the family of the military person, not — we, we’re not just thinking about the person who’s in the military, as well.

Susan 03:59
I really appreciate that. I think that’s really wise for our military, for all that they do. I love that that benefit exists.

JoDee 04:07
There are some different state laws that go above and beyond this federal law that may offer more protection from USERRA or FMLA. So check your state laws too, because they can vary widely. So check out what state you’re in when you’re — if you’re impacted by this.

Susan 04:30
Yeah, I think that makes sense. JoDee, are there different rules for different size companies?

JoDee 04:35
No, there are not. USERRA applies to all employers, regardless of size. So there’s no limit at all. You might have an organization with one employee or 10,000 and — which is a bit unusual for…

Susan 04:53
It is.

JoDee 04:54
…laws, like, lot of times, there is a minimum number of employees.

Susan 05:00
Yeah, makes sense. So we talked a little bit about state laws. Well, state laws may impose size-specific requirements or protections. So many states have their own military leave laws, similar to some states having their own family medical leave, that are more restrictive or more compelling to the employer than, than federal ones. Small businesses, some state laws apply to all employees, regardless of size, similar to USERRA. For example, state laws may mandate unpaid leave for military service, even if the employer is not covered by FMLA. And then for large businesses in states with specific requirements for employers of a certain size, larger businesses may have additional responsibilities, such as extended leave benefits or continued health coverage. Employers really need to ensure compliance by understanding both federal and state laws that are applicable to their business size and where that employee is located. If you operate in multiple states, consulting with an employment attorney or HR expert absolutely is recommended. I know that I would.

JoDee 06:07
So let’s talk about some options of what a company might do while an employee is out for military leave, because these can be extended times, right? We have a client right now who has someone on military leave for 15 months, right? So we’re not talking 12 weeks, or, you know, it could be a while.

Susan 06:31
Up to five years, yeah.

JoDee 06:33
Yeah. So we have a few different options to consider. You could outsource or use external resources, you might consider contracting out specific projects or functions. For example, if it’s IT or HR or marketing, look at external vendors to utilize during their absence. We are doing this right now for a couple of our clients who have HR people on leave, specifically. You might also consider freelancers or other consultants, and consider hiring project based freelancers to handle specialized or time sensitive assignments as well. You could also hire temporary help, partner with a staffing firm, or bring in a temporary worker or contractor to handle the absent employee’s duties. Many different staffing agencies out there can provide skills temps for a wide range of specific roles. You could consider engaging an intern. Maybe the intern couldn’t exactly replace all of the employee’s work, but maybe some pieces of that work, or even some pieces from other employees who then might take on more of the responsibilities of the person on military leave, or, of course, redistribute the responsibilities to other employees in the organization. This, of course, makes logical sense. I just caution people to be careful with the conversation around this, in that I wouldn’t ever want employees to feel dumped on because someone was serving in the military, right? And it might sort of feel like that if you don’t approach that to think, like, well, they’re on military leave, so now I have to work more, or things like that, so… but you can cross train other team members to take on some of their responsibilities and prepare the team to adapt and be ready when a team member is out. Divide the workload among existing members or evaluate the employee’s tasks and focus on critical projects that need immediate attention.

Susan 09:08
And I know sometimes people are called up and you’re not going to have warning, but when you do have advanced notice that someone’s going out on a military leave, some things to think about. First of all, you know, some long-term planning. Let’s create a succession plan for roles that may be left vacant due to military leave, ensuring that backups are ready for future absences. Ensure that all processes, tasks, and responsibilities are well documented to facilitate those seamless transitions and recognize with these succession plans someone may be out. Those are not permanent assignments. I would look at it as this is going to be a developmental assignment. We’re going to put so-and-so in this role while that individual is out, and when that individual comes back, we’re going to rotate this person somewhere else. You really want to think about strategic succession planning. Second idea, you know, encourage team resilience, foster supportive team culture by highlighting the importance of what that absent military person is doing. I do think people will have to tighten their belt. They do have to take on more when somebody’s out, but we’re doing it, I think, for a really positive reason, and I think that most employees are going to respond that way. They’re going to want to do this, to be the, you know, home support for that individual who’s out representing our nation. It doesn’t hurt to offer rewards or incentives for team members who are tightening their belt or taking an extra responsibility on during that period. Certainly it can — You know, also… that person may be working more hours. Well, let’s make sure they don’t only get overtime, but we thank the family for what that individual is doing and being absent more from home. And then finally, communicate clearly. You really want to be transparent, keep the team informed where the individual is. You — People might want to write letters to the individual. They might want to stay engaged, certainly for holidays we know that person is away, perhaps the team wants to do something to, to, to keep that person engaged and know that they’re being cared for back at the home office. So be transparent and talk about that individual, if possible. Have those regular check-ins with the employee. You as the HR person or the business leader, you know, you too, stay in contact with the individual and know, you know, talk about when they plan to come back, what their transition plans are. What can we do back in the office to make that transition a really positive one for them?

JoDee 11:31
And what about when our employee who has been deployed is ready to transition back to work? What can we do to help that process? Well, a few things. Number one, we can prepare to welcome them back, communicating with the employee before their return, as you just mentioned, ensuring compliance with the re-employment rights and also communicating with their team or fellow employees as well. We want to create a welcoming environment through acknowledgement and social re-integration. So and some of these people returning might have been in some very difficult situations, right?

Susan 12:16
Right.

JoDee 12:16
Want to be cognizant of easing the transition for them, offering them a manageable workload. You know, no one wants to be off on any kind of leave and return to work with the last year’s worth of work still on their desk, right?

Susan 12:34
Absolutely.

JoDee 12:36
Yeah. So think about what new processes might have been implemented while they were gone that they’ll need additional support or training on, and certainly allow flexibility as much as you can to accommodate any personal or even medical needs stemming from the deployment as well. We want to foster that open communication. You mentioned check-ins before they come back, but maybe continuing those for a while too, offering support via an EAP program, and just maintaining patience as the employee adjusts back to civilian work life. You know, it’s easy for us to have stereotypes or make assumptions about what they might have experienced, and some of them might not be ready to share those, or maybe not even able to share what they’ve done or where they’ve been as well, so. And as always, leverage the strengths and provide long-term support, right? Recognize transferable skills that they may have learned or added to their skill set, involve them in meaningful projects, and provide growth opportunities for them, as well as ongoing engagement and inclusion that we want for all of our employees.

Susan 14:07
Yeah, I think those are great tips. So we’ve been talking about our employees that, that go into… on, onto a military leave. Well, we also have many employees who they have a family member who has been deployed or goes on a medical leave — I’m sorry, they go on a military leave.

JoDee 15:51
So important to think about them too. It’s easy — well, not easy per se, but we know we need to have statements about following USERRA for the employee themselves, but just don’t forget about the family. And by the way, we will include a sample military leave policy statement. All employers should have this statement in their employee manuals. We found the one we’ll share in our show notes on shrm.org and it will cover all of the key points that we discussed today. So I’m — Susan, I haven’t directly dealt with military leave before. We’ve had several clients who’ve had these issues that we’ve worked through them with. But do you have a lot of experience with employees on military leave?

Susan 16:50
You know, I’m certainly not an expert at it, but having worked in the workforce for decades, when there have been military involvement by the United States in… wherever in the world, we have had, at least the large corporation I worked for, we did have a, you know, a spike in people going on military leaves. We had to really re-educate our leadership teams during those, those military engagements about USERRA rights. We had to really help supervisors understand that, the support they needed to demonstrate. So yes, I would say I’ve had experience at it. I did get involved several times with people that were ready to return and making sure that we were checking to see what kind of compensation do we need to bring them back in, because they were eligible for all the raises that they missed, what level would they be if they had returned, if they had stayed with us versus being gone? So yeah, I was involved in several of those types of situations. And honestly, I feel like at least in the corporation I worked for, I had a lot of support there. No one ever balked or said, you know, we can’t do this, or we shouldn’t do this, or that’s too expensive. It was very much, very supportive. Let’s do what’s right. We want to comply with the law, but more importantly, let’s take care of that returning service member.

JoDee 18:08
Yeah, excellent.

Susan 18:10
JoDee, it’s time for our listener question. The following question came from a listener from one of our previous podcasts. “How do you train managers and leaders on how to have pay discussions with employees who perceive that they’re on the low end of the pay scale?”

JoDee 18:27
I suspect this happens frequently, and you know we have done other podcasts on compensation and on negotiating salaries as well, too. But you know me, my answer always is to be honest with them, right? And the more data you have to support those compensation decisions, right — Are you benchmarking? Are you having salary surveys completed and done for your positions where you can just clearly point to, you know, we’ve done our homework, here’s the range for that role, here’s the market for that role? Those questions or those conversations can be significantly easier when you have all that data to support that, right? And I think many employees probably perceive they’re on the low end of the scale if they haven’t actually seen that, right, because it’s so easy for us today to go out to salary.com or Glassdoor or other free sites and gather data that supports our case that we might be underpaid, but if the company is doing their homework on that, just a lot easier to have it. If you don’t have that information, though — and by the way, sometimes it could be helpful for an HR person who understands well those pay ranges and data sources and all that to be in on this conversation — but I think to note to the employee things like, you know, you’re in your first year in this role, or you know, you were recently promoted, which put you in a higher pay range, but you are still at the bottom of the pay scale and with more experience, maybe giving them options to for personal growth and development as well that would enable that person to move to or advance to a higher level, getting certifications or getting experience in other roles in the organization, or whatever that might be. So even… also, one other thing is having a company compensation philosophy, I think, can be very important for organizations too. And as an example of those, you know, I know some organizations who say we want to be at the leading edge of the market, you know, we want to be on the high end to recruit the best people, but other organizations who might say our pay is not at the leading edge of the market, but our benefits, we’ve invested more in our benefits that we’re offering to employees, or we’ve invested more in creating a more flexible culture. There’s no reason for every company to say we’re going to be at the top of the pay scale. You know, what, what’s your employee value proposition that you’re offering to employees, where they can find value in other things besides their compensation? Maybe that’s a bonus opportunity as well, too. So.

Susan 22:10
I think that is just really great advice. And I know we’ve mentioned this before, but I do think at least once a year, showing total compensation to your employee that here’s what we’re paying for your benefits, here’s the additional benefits we offer, want to remind you about those and what it costs us, and here’s what your pay is, and if you have bonus or stock or anything like that, put that in there. But I do think it’s important, if it’s the dollar amount someone is earning that is driving their satisfaction, it’s better to show them the whole picture. And then if you have an employee that truly feels like they’re underpaid, and it’s really bothering them, and you shared your philosophy, this may not be the right environment for them. You know, that, that could be that discussion, and that is not necessarily a lose-lose, that can be a win-win. Set them free to work somewhere where they feel like they can get the money that they want. Don’t feel like, you know, you have to hold them hostage. This may not be a fit. So I love the transparency. I love your, your points there.

JoDee 23:10
It’s time for in the news. In Gartner’s “Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2025,” they — just one of their top priorities centered around change management, and it just really hit me is thinking that one of the things they found that the volume of yearly enterprise level change has grown exponentially in response to culture shifts, remote and office work mandates, and new technology. I mean, I know workplaces are ever-changing, right? No matter what decade or what year we’re in, we certainly, I think, all can look back after the past four years and say change has been off the charts. I suspect this is no surprise to any of us that it has really been an exponential. But know that traditional change management practices typically don’t account for this constant, ongoing change that really hasn’t allowed employees to complete one change and start another, right?

Susan 24:24
Right.

JoDee 24:25
As leaders, we must understand that this growing volume will lead to fatigue, and we know that fatigued employees are less likely to be engaged, they’re less productive, and they’re less likely to feel a sense of psychological safety. So just based on one of those effects we know that makes them also less likely to stay with our organization. So change is inevitable, right? It’s going to continue to happen, but we can control how we deal with it, and we can control how we lead others with it. So just a reminder for today to be aware of this and the impacts that’s having on our people like never before.

Susan 25:17
You know, and JoDee, what that makes me think is, if you’re not doing any type of annual change management training, or have it at least available just in time, is something you really should be thinking about, because I think we have to help our employees build resiliency, and one of the best ways is to make sure our leaders are leading change in a really strong and powerful way.

JoDee 25:39
Yeah, I love it. Love it. Well. Thanks for listening today. Please tune in next time and make it a JoyPowered® day.

Susan 25:48
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