The Leave Experience Is Broken and It’s Costing You Talent with Brandon Salisbury, VP of Marketing at Tilt

This series was recorded live at HR Tech 2025 inside the HR Executive studios on the expo floor in partnership with the WRKdefined Podcast Network. Make sure you’re subscribed to the full series and visit HRExecutive.com for the news, analysis, and insights shaping the future of work. Most companies talk a big game about employee experience, but the moment someone takes leave, everything breaks. Leave is where compliance gets messy, expectations get fuzzy, and culture shows its real face. Employees remember how you show up when life hits. Ignore that moment and you lose trust. Handle it well and you keep people for the long haul. The conversation digs into why leave is overlooked, why compliance matters, and how technology and AI are reshaping the entire experience. What We Cover Why leave experience sits at the center of employee experience How compliance sets the floor for every leave interaction What generational differences reveal about leave behavior How AI and HR tech streamline leave management Why relationships during leave shape long-term culture What rebranding leave does for employer branding and retention Key Takeaways Leave experience is one of the biggest gaps in HR Compliance needs to be automatic, not aspirational AI will clean up delay, confusion, and manual follow-up Employees expect different things based on generation Managers need visibility into who’s out and why Leave is a retention lever and a culture signal Rebranding leave shifts how the business values time away Timestamps 00:00 The Overlooked Leave Experience02:33 The Importance of Compliance in Leave Management05:41 Generational Perspectives on Leave08:42 The Role of AI in Leave Management11:32 Connecting with Brokers and Tech Vendors14:41 The Future of Leave Management17:41 Rebranding Leave for Employee Experience Guests: Brandon Salisbury, VP of Marketing TiltLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brandon-p-salisburyWebsite: https://hellotilt.com/ Host: William Tincup, Co-founder, WRKdefinedLinkedIn: https:// linkedin.com/in/tincup