Get Legal on Your Side to Secure New Software

When it comes to getting software approval, no amount of “pretty please with a cherry on top” emails are going to outweigh the importance of security for your legal department.

While all teams in a healthy organization should feel unified toward the same goal, it’s commonplace for HR and Legal to feel like they don’t share much common ground when it comes to the operational success of the business.

A large part of that has to do with a relative lack of collaboration between the two teams.

"Often these departments are not coordinated and act in siloes to implement different technologies for similar purposes," says Brent McDaniel , a Dallas-based partner at KPMG U.S. "This causes unnecessary spend and technological chaos for the company."

So how can you get L&C to align with your team’s goals for long-term success and an understanding of your needs? And how can you leverage that understanding to procure the leave software you need to help make your team successful and your employee population supported?

HR Can Help Legal Teams Uncover Compliance Blindspots

Most legal and HR teams already have an established relationship for a variety of potential employee relations headaches.

Outside of mundane employee training and work agreement contracts lie the more headline-grabbing claims of alleged mistreatment, discrimination, malfeasance, or sexual harassment.

Leave of absence management provides an opportunity for HR to be an ally to your legal team by shining a light on fundamental processes you may (or may not) have been operating with for years that expose your organization to serious risk.

Not only does your legal team need to know where compliance blindspots reside, but by doing so you can begin fostering a relationship built on understanding and trust that not only benefits you and your team on the day-to-day but can lay the foundation for your L&C team to champion for a more modern leave solution alongside you.

Automated Leave Management to Replace Your Existing Process

When it comes to leave of absence management, it may require a shift in thinking for your legal and compliance team to understand the existing risks.

By nature, leaves of absence are a very personal experience for employees, and if that weren’t enough to draw the attention of your L&C team, they each involve elements that require organizations to have their processes shored up and secure:

Sensitive employee information

If your existing process is manual and relies on email threads and shared folders, there’s a good chance your process is familiar but fallible when it comes to the security of private employee information.

Inconsistent leave administration

If your existing processes aren’t scalable, repeatable, and consistent for every employee you run the risk of mismanaged leaves and discrimination claims.

Adhering to leave laws

Relying on Google searches to determine if you’re administering leaves in accordance with the latest (and ever-evolving) leave regulations is a recipe for a costly disaster.

Manager oversight

Even when you think you’re doing everything by the book, a manager can derail an otherwise compliant leave of absence by intentionally (or unintentionally) behaving in a discriminatory or retaliatory manner toward a direct report.

Familiarity should never be confused with functionality when it comes to leave of absence. Clearly demonstrate to your legal and compliance team the very real risks your existing process has and you’ll be able to communicate the need for a better solution in a language they’ll truly understand.?

Improving the Legal & HR Relationship For Better Leaves

As with any healthy relationship, securing an automated leave management software starts with a strong communication foundation.?

If you want legal on your side for better leaves, it’s important to establish lines of communication and opportunities for collaboration early in the process.?

“HR departments have a responsibility to remain compliant with employment regulations, says Brian Powers , founder & CEO, PactSafe. ‘Due to the potential legal risk, it is crucial for HR and legal departments to get on the same page and learn to collaborate.”?

Communication and collaboration won’t just happen on its own. It takes commitment and intentionality from day one.

The Harvard Division of Continuing Education offers these tips to improve your communication, all of which can be applied to improving your relationship with your legal team and secure new leave software:

1. Be clear and concise?
2. Prepare ahead of time
3. Be mindful of nonverbal communication
4. Watch your tone
5. Practice active listening
6. Build your emotional intelligence
7. Develop a communication strategy
8. Create a positive organizational culture

It’s okay if you read this list and think to yourself you have a lot of work cut out for you. You aren’t alone.

Communication and collaboration can take time to nurture, but will pay off in the long run when you’re no longer trying to convince legal and compliance that you need better leave software, but rather your legal and compliance team advocates for it on your behalf.

Presenting the Best Leave Software to Legal and Compliance

It’s easy to gloss over a list in a blog, so let’s take the list above and see how it pertains to automated leave management software conversations you want to have with your legal team.

Using Tilt as a prime example of a modern, automated leave management solution, we can see how each item on the list will help you on your path to getting your legal team on your side for LOA relief.

1. Be clear and concise: Communicate to your L&C team that your existing process isn’t tenable, effective, and puts your organization at compliance risk. Let them know you’ve vetted solutions and have a recommendation.?
2. Prepare ahead of time: Your legal and compliance team has specific business outcomes they’re trying to achieve. Come prepared to outline the ways in which Tilt removes compliance blind spots, keeps sensitive data safe and secure in a centralized location, and can scale effectively as your company grows or leave requests rise. Also let them know in-house leave law experts keep the organization adhering to the latest regulations.
3. Be mindful of nonverbal communication: Tilt might be an obvious choice for you, but if you aren’t exuding confidence nonverbally, your pitch might not land the same.?
4. Watch your tone: Your legal and compliance team isn’t in the HR trenches every day like you are. Be aware that your day-to-day frustrations aren’t necessarily theirs, so have an agreeable tone when presenting Tilt as a leave management solution and they’re more likely to feel that this is as much a solution for them as it is for you.
5. Practice active listening: This one is a simple concept that can be difficult to execute and takes practice. A simple way to think of it is like this, if you’re expecting your legal and compliance team to actively listen to your proposal you should be extending the same courtesy back if they have questions or are seeking clarity. Actively listening on both sides allows for true communication and collaboration to mature.?
6. Build your emotional intelligence: Effective communication is grounded in emotional intelligence. In other words, to communicate well with others, you first need to evaluate and comprehend your own emotions. If you come to the conversation emotionally grounded you increase the likelihood that Tilt will be managing your leaves in the future and not the chaos that Google sheets.
7. Develop a communication strategy: Communication isn’t a one-shot deal. Develop a plan to communicate regularly with your L&C team to discuss how the two departments can align on operational outcomes. An email out of the blue requesting new software is likely to not go very far.?
8. Create a positive organizational culture: Who would you rather collaborate with, someone who is negative, passive aggressive and entitled? Or someone who is understanding, kind, and in it for the team? Be a positive collaborator with your legal and compliance team because it’s not hard to understand that people are more willing to advocate for people who they not only trust, but are positive to work with.

Why Legal and Compliance Teams Push for Tilt

Legal and compliance teams prefer Tilt for their leave management because the automated platform and 1-1 human employee support addresses critical compliance and security concerns most organizations experience with their existing leave processes.?

By centralizing sensitive employee information, ensuring consistent leave administration, and adhering to evolving leave laws, Tilt minimizes compliance blind spots and potential legal pitfalls. Tilt’s solution aligns with legal teams' goals, promoting a more secure and efficient leave management process and keeping the organization out of legal hot water.?

Your team deserves a better leave solution and your employees deserve empathetic support in their time of need. Strong communication and collaboration between HR and legal departments, bolstered by Tilt, lead to improved operational outcomes and a more positive organizational culture.

About Tilt

Tilt is leading the charge in all things leave of absence management through easy-to-use tech and human touch. Since 2017, our proprietary platform and Empathy Warriors have been helping customers make leave not suck by eliminating administrative burdens, keeping companies compliant, and providing a truly positive and supportive leave of absence experience for their people.?