Overview

pIn 2013, AbsenceSoft was founded by a crack team of HR pros with over 45 years of combined experience developing and delivering absence and disability management programs and Software as a Solution (SaaS) for leading employers throughout the United States. We are headquartered at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, CO. Over 175 organizations currently rely on AbsenceSoft, and subsequently we cover more than 2 million lives. We are a rapidly growing team of 50+ passionate people committed to radically impacting how employers manage employee absence and American Disability Act (ADA) accommodations./p

Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Human Capital Management

The Problem

pAbsenceSoft identified an unmet need for employers to self administer Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), ADA accommodations, Short-Term and Long-Term disability and Workers comp in-house. Employers wanting to self administer were stuck using manual solutions like spreadsheets, post-it notes and Outlook reminders to manage an incredibly complex and heavily legislated process exposing them to compliance risks, hefty penalties for non-compliance and low employee satisfaction due to inefficient processes and poor communication. We also realized that there was NO solution that allowed employers to do things their way with flexibility around configuration of things like communications to employees./managers/HR/stakeholders and workflow process to fit their organization. /p

The Solution

pAbsenceSoft built a technology solution that automates compliance with the 500+ federal, state, and municipal leave laws, including the complexity of tracking the interplay and acronym soup of California Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL), California State Disability Insurance (SDI), California Paid Family Leave (PFL), California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and FMLA or managing Massachusetts Small Necessities Act or New York Paid Family Leave. In addition to compliance support, AbsenceSoft’s solution automates process management, employee and manager/HR communications. Our application provides strategic analytics and robust configuration capabilities to allow our clients to “do it their way”. /p

The results

pAbsenceSoft’s solution saves employers time, money and compliance risk by automating tracking of eligibility and entitlement, automating workflow and providing reporting and analytics to enable strategic decision making.  /p

Metrics

pWe are still building case studies and ROI models, but our clients report that using AbsenceSoft saves them between 60 and 90 minutes per leave or accommodation case, producing significant productivity improvements and cost savings. Many of our clients also have measurable improvements in returning employees to work earlier than predicted using our Job Assessment tools, resulting in additional ROI. Clients have also measured increases in employee satisfaction both from using Employee Self Service and from streamlining the process to make it less burdensome on them during stressful times like serious health conditions for themselves or family members. Finally clients have been able to more efficiently manage cases using our Risk Profiling tool that allows them to optimize workflows and processes and involve the correct resources at the proper time in the process to improve results and lower cost. /p

The Technology

pEntirely homegrown/homebrewed/p pCloud: AWS /p pTechnology stacks: Microsoft's ASP.NET, C#, MVC, Jquery /p pDatabase: MongoDB and PostgreSQL/p

Disruptive Factor

pWhen AbsenceSoft was founded there were no effective tools for employers to manage employee leaves of absence and accommodations. This market observation continues somewhat today. AbsenceSoft has delivered a dynamic application that simplifies compliance, improves productivity and provide detailed analytics for strategic decision making. Our clients and prospects described our industry disrupting solution as, “badass,” “intuitive” and “OMG I can’t believe it can do all that! It will solve all our compliance nightmares!”.  We have also changed the conversation about leave/accommodation management from one about which outsourced solution to use to one about the right approach for employers that want to maintain the touch and interaction with employees by allowing to do that efficiently and effective focus on the employees that need the most attention./p

Shining Moment

pWe are proud that our solution makes our clients lives’ easier and enables them to help their employees lead healthier and more productive lives without the uncertainty and stress of how and when to file the appropriate forms to governing bodies. We are also proud of surviving the startup phase, having built a tremendous team of folks that have created a solution employers needed and love to use. /p