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Contacting employees on leave: What are the rules and best practices?
Ask the ExpertContacting employees on leave: What are the rules and best practices?
Leah Enright asked 2 years ago
The organization is currently in the compensation planning cycle. A few employees on LOAs are eligible for an annually bonus or salary adjustment. What are the rules and best practices for contacting these employees to disclose their compensation adjustments? 
1 Answers
Glenn Demby answered 2 years ago
That's a good question. The first thing you need to do is look at your leave policies. Hopefully, they clearly state the employee's duty to remain in contact while on leave. The problem is that these provisions, where they exist, are typically restricted to the return date and information necessary to effect a return to work and may not cover payroll and compensation arrangements. Have you tried reaching out to them? If so, how did they respond? If not, I think you should, especially to the extent that the communications is clearly in their own interests to the extent it affects the size and payment of bonues, salary adjustments and such. Of course, if you're planning to deny bonuses or cut salaries, those communications aren't likely to be received with welcome arms.  https://hrinsider.ca/how-to-handle-awol-employees/ Here's an article on maintaining contact with employees on leave that may help, even though it's not exactly tailored to your own situation. Glenn