Guardian Life Simplifies Employee Leave with New Absence Management Program

Guardian Absence Solutions(SM) will provide employers with a digital-first, seamless service experience via a powerful technology platform

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Guardian

May 18, 2021, 10:03 ET

NEW YORK, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® (Guardian Life) announces a new absence management offering, Guardian Absence Solutions, for companies seeking to simplify their employee leave programs. The new solution provides a guided, comprehensive absence management experience that supports optimal return-to-work outcomes for employees, while addressing the growing complexity and compliance challenges employers face around managing employee leave.

According to Guardian's Absence Management Study, more than eight in ten employers (82%) report keeping up with changes to federal and state leave laws is a challenge, and 8 in 10 employers say COVID-19 raised senior leadership awareness of the importance of effective absence management.

With well-being and improving workforce absenteeism top of mind, employers have access to an all-in-one, integrated solution that leverages Guardian's 60-year experience in disability and employee leave to effectively manage short- and long-term disability, state and federal leaves as well as company paid and unpaid leaves. The solution will be powered by a digital ecosystem that will be fast and simple for the employer and employee.

"At the heart of Guardian Absence Solutions is our focus on employee well-being, while providing employers the expert support needed to get employees back to work in a safe and timely manner via a digital-first solution that will ease the administrative burden of managing multiple types of employee leave," said Chris Smith, Head of Group Benefits, Guardian Life. "Our research shows that companies who outsource their employee leave programs report better outcomes, such as an increase in return-to-work rates, improved regulatory compliance and reduced costs."

With the increasing complexity of managing multiple types of employee leave, more employers are seeking to centralize and streamline administration. Our findings confirmed that employers are outsourcing their short-term disability and Family Medical & Leave Act (FMLA) administration, at a much higher rate – more than double since 2012. This new program aims to simplify administration by including integrated intake, a unified claims portal, consolidated billing and continuous monitoring of leave regulations to help ensure federal and state compliance.

Guardian Life Partners with EIS to Accelerate its Digital Capabilities

To create a seamless and positive digital employee experience, Guardian Life has partnered with EIS, an insurance software company with an API, cloud-native product platform, to bring advanced capabilities to the market, while integrating EIS' software with Guardian Life's absence management platform. The new digital platform will modernize the leave experience with a customized interface that includes mobile and digital omnichannel communication capabilities. This latest effort further advances the company's evolution to create digital-first customer experiences.

Our study, which has been monitoring leave trends since 2012, shows the use of technology in leave administration has dramatically increased since 2016 with the pandemic further accelerating this trend. For example, 4 in 5 organizations prefer a single intake portal for employees to report all absence types. As for employees, they want to submit claims electronically, use text and chat during a claim and leverage self-service platforms to upload documents.

To learn more about Guardian Absence Solutions, click here. For those interested in learning how to enhance the employee leave experience, Guardian Life is hosting a webinar titled "Improving Employee Leave" on Wednesday, May 26 from 12- 1 pm ET — click to register here.

About Guardian®

Every day, Guardian provides Americans the security they deserve through our insurance and wealth management products and services. Since our founding in 1860, our long-term view has helped our customers prepare for whatever life brings whether starting a family, planning for the future or taking care of employees. Today, we're a Fortune 250 mutual company and a leading provider of life, disability, dental, and other benefits for individuals, at the workplace and through government sponsored programs. The Guardian community of over 9,000 employees and our network of over 2,500 financial representatives is committed to serving with expertise when, where and how our clients need us. Our commitments rest on a strong financial foundation, which at year-end 2020 included $9.5 billion in capital and $1.7 billion in operating income. For more information, please visit guardianlife.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

For media inquiries, contact:
Brenda Mendoza
Guardian Life
[email protected]

Unless otherwise noted, the source of all information is from the 2021 Guardian Absence Management Activity Index & Study.

©Copyright 2021 The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. GUARDIAN® is a registered trademark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America ® Guardian Absence SolutionsSM is a service mark of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

SOURCE Guardian