Human Resources: MetLife Research Finds Disability and FMLA Absence Management Still Challenging for Many U.S. Companies

Employers have a strong appetite for absence management tools, but face numerous internal obstacles in implementing a successful program, according to research recently conducted among employers and consultants by MetLife. Although U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that companies lose approximately 2.8 million workdays each year due to employee injuries and illnesses, many employers still have inconsistent or non-existent systems to track disability and FMLA absences.

"Effective absence management can reduce costs and improve productivity, but many employers lack the resources to track absences," says Maria Morris, vice president of MetLife Disability, a leading group disability carrier. "Many companies are overwhelmed with the complexities involved in tracking absences related to workers'' compensation, disability and the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA), among others. Finding an internal or outsourced solution for tracking and managing absences is of increasing concern to many employers."

"The first and important step for a more effective absence management program is to have multiple benefits - such as workers'' comp, short term and long term disability, and FMLA - managed through a single service," according to Morris. "In fact, MetLife research shows that more companies are moving in this direction. The market for integrated short-term disability, long-term disability and workers'' compensation is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 14% for the next two years."

According to MetLife''s research, some of the more common barriers to implementing effective absence management programs include:

Finding concrete evidence of the cost of lost time

Convincing management of the value of absence tracking

Validating the return on investment for a new absence management approach

Implementing a single, consistent tracking system in large, de-centralized organizations

Shifting an organization''s culture to be more disciplined in tracking absences

Research also found that a growing number of companies are turning to outside absence management providers. Employers and brokers cited that successful absence management vendors should ideally have the following components:

Employee self-service capabilities

Flexibility to deal with multiple employee groups and varying benefits plans/process within an organization

Centralized communication to gather information from multiple work sites

Customization to meet the unique needs relative to each employer''s program

Ease of use for all parties that may need to interact with the system ...employees, managers and HR professionals

Employers also identified absence management reporting as an area needing improvement. They expressed interest in receiving more reports on costs, durations and reasons for absences, and, more importantly interpreting and using the data within these reports.

MetLife is the second largest group disability carrier in the industry with over $1.4 billion of premium and equivalents in force according to the 2001 U.S. Group Disability Sales and Inforce Survey by LIMRA International. MetLife has nearly 9,000 long-term disability customers and nearly 10,000 short-term disability customers, with over 4 million lives and over 200,000 claims managed in 2001.

MetLife offers a complete portfolio of disability-related products, including short-term and long-term disability insurance, disability claim administrative services for self-insured customers, LTD reserve buy-outs, Integrated Disability Management, and FMLA Administration. MetLife continues to build on its expertise in this market and remains at the forefront of providing innovative disability, return-to-work, and productivity solutions.

MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to individual and institutional customers. The MetLife companies serve approximately 10 million individual households in the U.S. and companies and institutions with 33 million employees and members. MetLife also has international insurance operations in 13 countries. For more information about MetLife, please visit the company''s Web site at www.metlife.com.