Global Excess Leave Risk Management Analysis
A global healthcare organization partnered with Optia Group to address mounting excess leave liabilities across more than 30 countries.
Challenge
The business faced a growing and poorly understood excess leave liability across its global workforce. Leave policies varied significantly by country, data was housed across disparate HR and time-tracking systems, and local practices often diverged from documented policy. Leadership lacked a consolidated view of exposure, making it difficult to assess financial risk, prioritize actions, or implement changes without unintended consequences for employees or operations.
Approach
Optia developed a framework that combined data harmonization, policy intelligence, scenario modeling, and iterative stakeholder engagement to quantify excess leave liability, standardize workforce policies, and enable data-driven decision-making at scale. The framework focused on:
- Data harmonization: Consolidating global leave data into a single source of truth
- Policy intelligence: Identifying gaps and risks by comparing documented policies to actual practice
- Scenario modeling: Modeling policy changes to forecast financial and workforce impacts
- Iterative engagement: Partnering with HR, Finance, and Legal to validate insights
- Scalable design: Building reusable tools and governance to support ongoing policy evolution
Outcome
The engagement enabled leadership to move from fragmented insights to confident, data-backed decisions. By clearly quantifying excess leave exposure and modeling targeted policy interventions, the organization reduced balance-sheet risk while preserving employee trust and operational continuity.
