Executive Summary

Paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs have the potential to be transformative for American families. But, as with so many programs, passing PFML legislation is only the first step. It takes committed and compassionate implementation to actually get benefits to those who need them—and in the case of a short-term and still often relatively novel program like PFML, good implementation can be a real challenge.

To further explore the unique implementation challenges of PFML, and highlight ways to improve delivery, New America staffed a multi-disciplinary team to conduct a four-week discovery sprint around New Jersey’s pioneering PFML program in late 2019. Discovery sprints are time-bound periods of intensive problem investigation, prioritizing the experience of the beneficiaries programs aim to serve. This sprint focused primarily on leave for birthing parents, and included interviews with program staff, potential and past beneficiaries, employers, community advocates, and staff at other state agencies; user testing sessions; and analysis of program data.

This report outlines key learnings from the discovery sprint with wider applicability to PFML programs outside of New Jersey. While the paper discusses details of New Jersey’s program, it is not a deep dive into this program per se; any such details are meant to be emblematic of broader trends. The recommendations are actionable primarily for state-level administrators of PFML programs, although some may have implications for legislators as well, and many of the principles could be relevant for a national program.

Among the key findings are:

• Use Plain Language and User-Test Public-Facing Materials, Especially Applications
  • Programs should use plain language and avoid jargon on all forms and in all program materials, tying the information to life events that people can readily understand, rather than a confusing alphabet soup of program acronyms. Programs must iteratively test the language with actual beneficiaries and make improvements.
  • Using plain language is especially important for program applications. Not only do confusing applications turn off potential beneficiaries, but they lead to incomplete or incorrect submissions, which in turn lead to higher rejection rates, creating more work for examiners to chase down information, and yielding delays in approving claims and getting timely benefits to applicants.
• Recognize Job Protection as Critical for Workers
  • For workers, learning whether their job is protected—whether an employer must hold their position or its equivalent while they are on leave—is confusing and difficult. While New Jersey’s PFML programs largely do not guarantee job protection themselves,¹ many workers do have job protection under federal and state unpaid leave statutes, enforced by other agencies. But potential beneficiaries struggle to understand whether and how these protections apply to them, or how to invoke them if their employers give them trouble—and this lack of understanding can be a serious barrier to taking leave at all.
  • Programs should design and disseminate communication materials to clarify leave-taking worker rights in all state materials, and make it simple and seamless for potential beneficiaries to contact the relevant enforcement agencies if needed.
• Treat Employers as a Critical Part of Outreach
  • Most beneficiaries we spoke to expressed that they expected to receive complete and reliable information about PFML from their employers. But many also described an experience with their employers’ human resources department as either negligent, or providing inaccurate information.
  • Employers who support PFML are often the best ambassadors. Programs should think of the business community as a critical part of the research and application process and create employer toolkits, webinars, and training programs; and do usability testing with employers to improve these materials.
• Help Effect Cultural Change Around Leave and Caregiving
  • Workers we spoke to often felt guilty about taking leave from work. Programs should see it as part of their mandate to help affect the cultural change needed to diminish this guilt, especially for workers with caregiving responsibilities. They should use language and provide information that encourages self and family care.
  • This process of cultural change also involves direct work with employers, to help achieve cultural and workplace shifts to normalize leave taking.
• Use Data To Drive Effective Implementation
  • Administrators during the sprint did not have sufficient real-time data on key aspects of their program. This played out most clearly in two specific arenas: (1) relative to the universe of potential beneficiaries, leadership were not sure who was and was not applying, so outreach could not be effectively targeted to working families most in need; and (2) leadership did not have clear visibility into which applicants were being rejected, how long it took to process an application, and what was causing delays.
  • Using existing program data combined with publicly-available Census data, the sprint team was able to identify high-level trends in program usage, as well as begin to prototype a simple dashboard that could display these figures over time. Programs should use real-time data in this manner to keep track of their outreach progress, and identify any issues.
  • Using existing program data, the team was also able to conduct a high-level analysis of trends in application processing times, and significant causes of delays. Likewise, the team began to prototype a simple dashboard that would allow leadership to better understand where delays were occurring, so problems could be quickly identified and addressed. Programs should, again, use real-time data this way to keep track of their application processing, and identify any issues. Certain statistics from this dashboard could also be shared with the public in the interest of transparency for potential beneficiaries.
• Prioritize Quick and Easy Application Processes, and Foster a Culture that Prioritizes Access and Service
  • As a short-term benefit, often used during major live upheavals or crises, PFML programs must operate especially efficiently if they are to serve beneficiaries during their time of need. As such, administrators must make every effort to ensure applying is easy and frictionless, and that applications can be processed within a few weeks.
  • In service of this goal, administrators should require as little direct documentation as possible from beneficiaries and employers, relying on their own data systems wherever possible.
  • Administrators should also foster a culture that prioritizes benefit access rather than fraud prevention, and incentivizes staff to err on the side of granting quick access to benefits rather than bogging down applications in minutiae.

The report is structured as follows. First, the preface describes the landscape of PFML policies, and the details and context of New Jersey’s program in particular. The research process section briefly describes the discovery sprint method, and the research steps the 2019 sprint team undertook. The key learnings form the heart of the paper, are organized into four chapters: communicating about PFML, outreach, applications and processing, and IT.