The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires all covered employers to provide a 12-week vacation to employees within 12 months. This may relate to the birth, adoption, or placement of a foster child. A person can also apply for FMLA leave to care for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition ( Pesonen, 2015) . An employee may also be able to succeed for FMLA leave if he or she suffers from a serious health condition. The same case applies to those circumstances that arise of active military duty or deployment of a family member ( Walters, 2017 ) . The care related to a spouse, child, parent, or a member with sustained illness or injury while offering duty for the Armed Forces may have a leave for up to 26 weeks.
Description of the Organization
The FMLA will apply to St. Anthony Medical Center based Minneapolis, Minnesota as my selected healthcare organization. I have been interested in working at this given its way offering services as a virtual health organization . The medical center has taken advantage of the growing need among Americans to have their health problems being solved by a doctor at any location via communications technology. St. Anthony Medical Center is a growing health organization that serves residents of Minneapolis. With the mission of assisting people to flourish and create healthy communities, the management at St. Anthony Medical Center is likely to encounter challenges in establishing motivated teams is the FMLA is abused . The vision is anchored on the need to enhance healthcare access to the remotest places where patients struggle to access quality services on time. Therefore, the leaders should look for ways of ensuring the service delivery is not hampered when leave requests are made in respect to the Act by addressing retention issues and adopting employee-centered approaches. Through virtual health services, the specialists at the facility can monitor patients’ procedures in a remote location even in handling chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
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Teamwork
FMLA has both negative and positive impacts on teamwork. It is required that the duties and tasks of the employees who have gone on FMLA leave should be allocated to other employees until they return to work when the leave elapses. Workers learn the art of helping each other when one is in need. They have to take up the roles and job descriptions for those going on leave ( Walters, 2017 ) . Therefore, each employee is ready to assist others because they would also get the same treatment if they need. FMLA provides employees with job protection even in those situations where they are sick, or they have to take care of their loved ones ( Pesonen, 2015) . However, despite the positive impacts of the act on teamwork, there are negative impacts as well. Employees tend to have reduced morale if they have to take up roles meant for others. Increase in roles that one has to undertake means that they will have reduced job satisfaction ( Misfeldt, Linder, Lait, Hepp, Armitage, Jackson, & Suter, 2014) . Many organizations experience reduced productivity when some tasks are not handled because of insufficient personnel. In such situations, the existing employees may feel as if they are not meeting their objectives or targets. The lack of motivation will further affect their teamwork and concentration at the job ( Kornfeld, 2018) . The negative impact on teamwork is more pronounced in those employees who do not enjoy their leave time. Therefore, they may be biased towards coworkers who frequently take or apply for the FMLA leave and will not be effective in participating in teamwork tasks.
Retention
The impact of FMLA also extends to the retention of employees. St. Anthony Medical Center should adopt strategies that will ensure that the most competent and talented ones remain committed for the longest time possible. Some employers believe that the misuse of the leave policy may force other co-workers to cover the shifts for those on vacation. If this recurs and becomes a habit, some employees may decide to seek job opportunities elsewhere where they will not be overworked or abused. Employers also argue that addressing the abuse of the leave policy will improve the morale and retention ( Gironda & Geisler, 2017) . However, legitimate FMLA leave may improve morale among employees as well. From their perspective, FMLA promotes workforce continuity as well as stability because the employees have jobs to return to after the vacation. Having a good work-life balance increases retention because of the flexibility of the job ( Misfeldt et al., 2014) . Therefore, knowing that one will also be accorded time to recover and take care of their loved ones boosts retention and commitment.
Employee-Centered Approaches
St. Anthony Medical Center should adopt some employee-centered approaches as one of the first steps of complying with FMLA requirements. These are strategies focus on improving the well-being of the employees ( Byker, 2016) . The approaches include addressing the scheduling issues in the process. It means the workers would be required to give the employer notice before the time to ensure the employer's operations are not disrupted ( Gironda & Geisler, 2017) . The other approach is to consider a transfer when there is a need. For example, if an employee has recurring leave requests, the employer may transfer him or her to an alternative job that has equivalent pay and benefits. The approach will ensure that the company’s productivity is always at the required level ( Misfeldt et al., 2014) . Overall, employers find it hard to tracking and determine if a health condition requires FMLA coverage.
Effect of the Actions and Consequences on Employees
Having a planned leave allows the employer to make arrangements of either getting temporary employment to fill the gap, assign the roles to others, or to leave some task unattended. Therefore, St. Anthony Medical Center will remain productive and will continue providing its customers with high-quality healthcare ( Lee, Read, & Markham, 2018) . The company's vision is to become the leading healthcare provider in the region through innovation and quality of services. Consequently, proper planning before the leave helps to improve job satisfaction and subsequently the challenge of high turnover rates among talented workers ( Lee, Read, & Markham, 2018) . Transferring employees to alternative jobs enhance teamwork in some of the important tenets at St. Anthony Medical Center . Teamwork promotes job satisfaction resulting in increased retention capacity. Therefore, having committed teams in some departments help in boosting satisfaction at a group level and hence more productivity.
Recommendations
For St. Anthony Medical Center to enjoy the full benefits of the Act, it should ensure that employees seeking FMLA leave submit complete medical certifications. The step will allow the employer to ascertain if all the information is required and if it is essential to grant leave. Subsequently, the employer will consider a second opinion where there are reasons to question the information from the workers on why they should be accorded the FMLA leave ( Walters, 2017 ) . The employer has the right to decide on whether they should get the leave or not. Getting information on the leave helps in reducing abuse where those who do not deserve the leave get it at the expense of those who are in need. The second strategy relates to enforcing the company’s call-in policies and procedures for the benefit of all employees ( Lee, Read, & Markham, 2018) . For instance, they should be required to submit requests for any leave that is foreseeable in writing. A uniform method should be used in reporting and done to one individual as a way of promoting a harmonious mediation of the applications ( Gironda & Geisler, 2017) . The employees may also be required to report all the leave needs within a definite timeframe.
Conclusion
Abuse of the FMLA is one of the challenges that employers have to deal with as they strive to comply with the Act. St. Anthony Medical Center should require employees to report pre-planned leave applications way before they occur to allow the employer time to make arrangements. For instance, they can either get temporary hires to fill the gaps, assign tasks to workers, or to leave some tasks unattended to due to lack of personnel. The management may also transfer employees to other jobs that have the same benefits and pay if they have recurring leaves. This will allow departments to have sufficient workers committed to ensuring that they meet the objectives of the department. Overall, successful departmental operations will enhance job satisfaction among the employees with the help of FMLA.
References
Byker, T. S. (2016). Paid parental leave laws in the United States: Does short-duration leave affect women's labor-force attachment? American Economic Review , 106 (5), 242-46.
Gironda, S. D., & Geisler, K. W. (2017). Employment practices liability insurance: A guide to policy provisions and challenging issues for insureds and plaintiffs. ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law , 33 (1), 55-68.
Kornfeld, S. K. (2018). A Need Not Being Met: Providing Paid Family and Medical Leave for All Americans. Family Court Review , 56 (1), 165-179.
Lee, K. S., Read, D. W., & Markham, C. (2018). The case for extending coverage of the Family and Medical Leave Act to include a period of time following the death of a family member for whom leave was taken. Southern Law Journal , 28 (1), 27-45.
Misfeldt, R., Linder, J., Lait, J., Hepp, S., Armitage, G., Jackson, K., & Suter E. (2014). Incentives for improving human resource outcomes in health care: overview of reviews. Journal of Health Services Research Policy, 19 (1):52-61.
Pesonen, A. (2015). Encouraging work-family balance to correct gender imbalance: A comparison of the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Iceland Act on Maternity/Paternity and Parental Leave. Hous. J. Int'l L. , 37 , 157.
Walters, C. V. (2017). Managing Leave Issues: An FMLA Primer for HR Professionals. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/fmla-primer-for-hr-professionals.aspx
