Lunch and Learn: Navigating the Overlap of Federal, State, and Local Leave Laws (27 Apr 2026)

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Navigating the Overlap of Federal, State, and Local Leave Laws in Washington Presented by Seth Turner, Founder and Senior Advisor of AbsenceSoft, and Max Cook, Area Vice President, Public Sector

Managing leave in Washington state and local government organizations means juggling FMLA, ADA, PWFA, and Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (WA PFML), all while ensuring compliance and driving positive employee experiences. Seth Turner, founder and senior advisor at AbsenceSoft, will break down the specific leave landscape facing Washington public employers, including how these laws interact, where eligibility overlaps create confusion, and which compliance gaps put government agencies at greatest risk. He will also share recent data on rising leave volumes and the growing administrative burden on HR teams, before walking through how purpose-built technology can help agencies stay compliant, reduce manual work, and deliver better experiences for employees.

Attendees will be able to:

Identify how FMLA, ADA, PWFA, and WA PFML interact and where eligibility requirements overlap for Washington public sector employees.
Recognize the most common compliance gaps facing state and local government HR teams and the risks they create.
Interpret recent leave and accommodations data to understand how rising caseloads are impacting HR capacity and employee experience.
Evaluate how purpose-built leave management technology can reduce administrative burden, improve compliance, and support employees through complex leave scenarios.

Washington PSHRA Webinar.pdf

About Your Presenters:

Seth Turner, Founder and Senior Advisor of AbsenceSoft

Seth Turner founded AbsenceSoft 12 years ago after many years in the leave management space at Mercer and Reed Group. He saw firsthand that HR teams were drowning in administrative tasks, leaving them with little time to truly support employees during life’s most challenging moments. He noticed that leave was often treated as an afterthought, even though it was critical for retaining valuable employees and ensuring they returned healthy, engaged, and ready to work. Seth and the founding team built AbsenceSoft to give HR the tools to manage leave and accommodations with confidence and care. The platform blends compliance across the FMLA, ADA, PWFA, and 200+ state leave laws into a deeply human approach. Today, he is a thought leader and frequent speaker at conferences, webinars, and in the press, sharing practical strategies for program design, process improvement, and the significant business impact that comes from managing leave and accommodations the right way. After more than a decade, AbsenceSoft continues to grow across industries, supporting more than 350 employers and seven million lives. You can learn more about Seth at absencesoft.com/seth-turner

Max Cook, Area Vice President, Public Sector

For more than 15 years, Max has partnered with public sector organizations to

modernize operations and deliver measurable impact. Recently, he has focused

specifically on implementing strategic leave and accommodations solutions, navigating complex regulatory environments to improve the efficiency and delivery of essential government services. Max is passionate about applying innovative approaches that not only solve organizational challenges, but ultimately improve outcomes for both public agencies and the communities they serve.

After registration is confirmed, a Zoom link to join the webinar will be provided.

Thank you,
PSHRA WA State Chapter Board

Lunch and Learn: Helping HR Teams Lead Through AI Change (14 May 2026)

Thu, 14 May 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Rehearsing the Future: Helping HR Teams Lead Through AI Change Presented by Josh Penzell, Founder & CEO, Imagination Applied

HR professionals are being asked to lead AI adoption — but most organizations are still running one-and-done trainings that don't stick, focused entirely on prompts and tools rather than the mindset shifts that actually drive lasting change. The result? Compliance without confidence.

This session offers a fundamentally different approach. Drawing on his background as a professional theater director and 15+ years of organizational transformation experience, Josh Penzell introduces a rehearsal-based model for AI readiness. You'll explore a new way of thinking about AI — one that moves your team beyond tool-tinkering and into genuine, confident collaboration — and learn why the future of AI adoption isn't about perfecting prompts. It's about learning to have better conversations.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Explain why prompt-centric AI training fails — and articulate why chasing the perfect prompt is the wrong goal for building lasting organizational capability.
Apply a new mental model for AI collaboration to common HR scenarios, including onboarding, performance management, and change communication.
Use creative, rehearsal-inspired techniques to help their team build confidence and curiosity with AI — not just compliance.
Leave with concrete next steps for shifting their organization's AI approach from one-time training events to an ongoing, adaptive practice.

Josh Penzell is the Founder & CEO of Imagination Applied, an AI transformation consulting firm. A professionally trained theater director with an MFA from CUNY-Brooklyn College and an MBA from the University of Illinois, Josh brings a uniquely human lens to AI transformation — one built on 15+ years of experience at companies like Amazon Alexa, Zillow, and Skillsoft. He helps organizations move beyond prompt-chasing and into the kind of creative, conversation-driven AI practice that actually sticks. Josh speaks regularly at ATD, DevLearn, Training Conference, and SHRM events, and is the author of the forthcoming book Artistic Intelligence: A Manifesto.

https://joshpenzell.com/

After registration is confirmed, a Zoom link to join the webinar will be provided.

Thank you,
PSHRA WA State Chapter Board

PSHRA® Washington State Chapter upcoming events

Lunch and Learn: Navigating the Overlap of Federal, State, and Local Leave Laws (27 Apr 2026)

Lunch and Learn: Helping HR Teams Lead Through AI Change (14 May 2026)