Overview

Family and medical leave is a valuable benefit that allows time off for employees who need to support their own or a family member's serious health condition or for employees to take time off after the birth or adoption of a child. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that guarantees job-protected unpaid leave to certain eligible workers to care for themselves or an immediate family member during illness, birth, and/or adoption. Employees must meet the following criteria to be eligible for FMLA:

• Work for a public sector agency, public or private school, or private employer
• Work for employer for at least 12 months 
• Complete 1,250 total hours of service for employer during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave
• Work in a facility with a minimum of 50 employees within a 75-mile radius

Employees who meet this requirement may use up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave within a one-year period. Note that the leave can be used intermittently and is not required to be used consecutively.

For this assignment, assume you are an HR professional at a small facility that houses 250 employees onsite. The company is a small start-up organization in Texas. The chief financial officer (CFO) is working with her team to forecast and budget for the next fiscal year. To forecast the appropriate budget allocations, she has asked you to review the company’s FMLA data to identify trends and risks.

Directions

For this assignment, you will first determine whether the employer qualifies for FMLA. You will then analyze the FMLA data provided in Supporting Materials for trends and risks.

Use the following questions to guide your analysis of trends in the FMLA Report:

• What is the data trying to tell you (e.g., consistencies, increases, or decreases in FMLA data outcomes)?
• Is this information coming from one or more data sources?
• When was the data collected?
• What dates are included in your data collection?
• What type of information is your stakeholder requesting, and do you have the right data to respond to the request?
• Are there any ethical considerations (e.g., is the data protected by federal or state laws)?

Use the following questions to guide your analysis of risks in the FMLA data:

• Do all employees who qualify for FMLA have equal access to this benefit?
• Are there any risks for discriminatory practices or legal action?
• Are FMLA hours being tracked and updated consistently?
• Are forms being collected and updated in the tracking documentation?
• Are the appropriate certifications being collected?

Specifically, create a memo for the CFO that addresses the following rubric criteria:

1. FMLA Requirements: Determine whether the company is obligated to provide FMLA support to employees. Support your decision with references to FMLA and company specific information.
2. Data Analysis Trends: Describe the trends you identified in the FMLA data.
3. Risk Assessment:
   1. Risks: Describe the risks you identified in the FMLA data.
   2. Decreasing the Risk: Create a plan for decreasing the risk to the company.

What to Submit

Submit your memo as a 1- to 2-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Before you begin, review the memo tutorial in the Supporting Materials section.

Supporting Materials

The following resources support your work on this assignment:

Resource: FMLA Report
Use the data contained in this Excel sheet to assist you in your investigation.

Tutorial: How to Create a Memo (With Template and Examples)
Use this tutorial to help you create a professional memo for stakeholder communication