INTRO
A caregiving support platform that makes a big impact on leave
Employee leave of absence (LOA) requests have risen for the third consecutive year in 2025, according to SHRM, and this top company is no different.
The company manages a vast global workforce, many of whom navigate personal and family situations requiring a LOA. Most reported leaves are for parental leave (61%), but a significant and growing portion—39%—is attributed to family leave for illness and personal medical leave, the most complex and costly categories. To mitigate these costs and ensure employees successfully return to work, the organization sought a way to actively support its workforce through this critical transition.
That’s why they reached out to Cleo.
By integrating Cleo’s caregiving support platform directly into the leave process, the company was able to deliver personalized guidance for all of the nuanced issues arising from these complex leaves—resulting in dramatically shorter leave durations and measurably higher retention rates for employees who used the service.
Longer leave durations. Higher complexity. Retention risks.
Like many large global employers, the company faced several major challenges concerning its leave programs:
- Complex and costly leaves: While parental leave is common, nearly 40% of leaves were attributed to family leave for illness and personal medical needs, which typically includes caring for an adult loved one or providing eldercare support. Interestingly, their U.S. employees exhibited a higher frequency of non-parental family leave usage compared to their global counterparts.
- Underlying mental health risk: Many employees taking leave were dealing with significant stress and mental health concerns. Of those who took leave, 34% on parental leave and 40% on family leave screened positive for mental health issues (PHQ-4). This indicated a need for targeted, preventative mental health support during their LOA.
- Ensuring retention post-leave: The organization needed a proven way to ensure employees returned to work smoothly and remained with the company after taking a leave—and address caregiving burden head-on in order to prevent future LOAs.
The organization needed a solution that could actively engage employees on leave, address their holistic family care needs (including mental health), and drive measurable improvements in both time away from work and post-leave retention. A tall order.
Personalized support to guide employees through—and back from—leave
The top transportation company partnered with Cleo to integrate targeted support for employees on LOA, focusing on active engagement with family support and managing health risk factors during their time away.
Here’s how Cleo delivered value:
- Integrated support during LOA: Of the employees on leave, 32% were enrolled with Cleo during their leave period, and 65% of those actively engaged with Cleo’s services, including in-app content and one-on-one sessions.
- Targeting high-risk employees: Cleo’s use of the Family Health IndexTM (FHI) helped identify and support employees with unique high-risk factors, such as those who scored high on caregiving burden (e.g., 26% of employees scored at risk for caregiving burden).
- Focus on mental wellbeing: By proactively addressing the high rates of mental health screeners (PHQ-4) among employees on leave, Cleo provided essential guidance to help employees manage their stress and return to work in better condition. Cleo Health and Wellbeing Coaches partner with members to navigate these challenges, offering personalized support, reducing the burden of care coordination, and, when needed, identifying local mental health providers tailored to the member’s specific needs.
Cleo helped deliver 5 weeks shorter leave, plus higher retention
By supporting employees at the most critical time of their leave, Cleo delivered tangible ROI and a clear link between its proactive caregiving support and business outcomes:
- Significantly reduced leave duration: Employees enrolled in Cleo averaged 5 weeks shorter leave durations for both parental and family leave compared to non-Cleo users. For example, Cleo members who completed the FHI took 17 weeks for parental leave compared to 22 weeks for non-Cleo members.
- Increased retention: Cleo participation resulted in a measurable increase in employee retention—94% of Cleo-enrolled employees were still working for this company three months after returning from leave.
- Strong engagement: Active engagement was high, with two-thirds of enrolled employees continuing to use Cleo’s services while on leave, demonstrating the value and accessibility of the personalized guidance especially during their time away from work and as they prepared to return.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Caregiving support is retention and absence management
Caring for a loved one—whether following a sudden fall or a new diagnosis—is a universal experience that often makes a leave of absence unavoidable. While these transitions are deeply personal, they can also be costly for organizations, impacting retention, productivity, and replacement expenses. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Cleo’s partnership with this top transportation company proves that compassionate support is also a smart business strategy that helps support a reduction in leaves and extensions of leave, helping employees return to work as planned, and reducing attrition. It’s a strategy that delivers a clear bottom line: for an individual with a $90k annual salary, returning just five weeks earlier generates $1,730.77 in weekly savings, resulting in a total of $8,653.85 in direct salary savings per employee.
Cleo’s human-centered approach enables top companies to control costs and improve outcomes by ensuring employees have the support they need to balance family duties with self-care. The result is a workforce that returns to work successfully and remains with the company longer.
Want to turn your leave of absence policy into a retention engine?
Cleo is your partner in family health, caregiving, and measurable impact.
Contact Cleo Today