Locate Administrative Inefficiencies
The Locate stage helps employers pinpoint where FMLA administration delays, missed handoffs, inconsistent tracking, and coordination issues are happening inside the leave process.
What the Locate Stage Means
Once hidden leave administration risks are identified, the next step is to determine exactly where those problems are occurring. Many employers know their FMLA process feels difficult, inconsistent, or reactive, but they may not know which step is causing the breakdown.
The Locate stage of the FLARE™ Method focuses on tracing administrative inefficiencies back to their source. This may include missed handoffs between HR and managers, delayed medical certification follow-up, unclear vendor responsibilities, inconsistent leave tracking, or poor coordination between leave status, payroll, and benefits.
Common Inefficiencies We Locate
- Missed handoffs between HR, managers, payroll, and vendors
- Delayed certification requests or follow-up
- Inconsistent intermittent leave tracking
- Unclear ownership of leave administration steps
- Benefits and payroll updates happening too late
- Employee communication gaps during leave
Why This Matters
- Employers can focus improvements where they actually matter
- HR teams reduce unnecessary back-and-forth
- Managers receive clearer guidance
- Employees experience fewer confusing communication gaps
- Payroll and benefits teams avoid preventable errors
How Locate Improves FMLA Administration
During this stage, Fralick’s Benefit Consulting reviews the flow of information across the leave process. The goal is to identify where administrative delays, missed updates, or unclear responsibilities are creating risk, confusion, or extra work for the employer.
This step helps employers move beyond general frustration and into specific process visibility. Instead of saying, “our leave process is hard to manage,” the employer can see whether the issue is intake, documentation, certification tracking, manager escalation, vendor coordination, payroll updates, benefits continuation, or return-to-work communication.
Examples of Administrative Inefficiencies
A leave process may break down when an employee submits medical documentation but the next follow-up step is unclear. Another employer may experience problems because managers do not know when intermittent absences should be escalated. In other cases, benefits or payroll teams may not receive timely leave status updates, creating billing, deduction, or eligibility issues.
The Locate stage helps identify these breakdown points so the employer can stop guessing and start improving the specific part of the process that is creating the problem.
Next Step: Analyze Compliance Exposure
After administrative inefficiencies are located, the next step is to analyze how those issues may affect compliance, documentation, costs, and employee experience.
Continue to Analyze →