Improving clarity for People teams & employees on leave: What’s new in Cocoon April 2022

For both employees and People teams, planning and managing a leave can be confusing and often opaque. At Cocoon, we’re focused on increasing clarity every step of the way—whether you want to understand how pay works or who on your team has an upcoming leave. Read on for what’s new in Cocoon for employers and the team members they support.

What’s new for employers: Your single source of truth for leave administration

With Cocoon, managing leaves across spreadsheets, email chains, and phone calls is a thing of the past. New updates to the admin dashboard give People teams an even clearer view into employee leaves at their company—all in one place. Rest easy knowing information is consistent across your team and all employees.

1. New filter to quickly identify employees in different leave phases

Sorting through long lists of employee leaves gets unruly fast. Admins can now use an easy, one-click filter for a faster view into employee leaves. When your company has more than 10 leaves in Cocoon, admins can dynamically filter leaves by active, returning soon, completed, and all leaves. Stop scrolling and get the details that matter most instantly.

2. Improved visibility into leave design for admins

One of our most-loved employee features is now available for admins. View any employee’s pay timeline by simply clicking their name on the leaves page. Whether an employee takes leave all at once or intermittently, pay timelines break down the details of when an employee is on leave and how much they’re getting paid, from what sources. 

If employees have questions about pay, you can be sure your team is seeing the same pay details in Cocoon in real time. Hover over the pay bar to see how employee pay breaks down from different incoming sources.

What’s new for employees: Improving inclusion and education

Employees take leave surrounding some of the most challenging and important times in their lives—whether they’re welcoming a child, caring for a loved one, or addressing their own health. That’s why it’s so important for employees to feel seen and supported throughout the entire leave process. This quarter we’ve introduced new education and reminders to increase clarity for employees.

1. Better support for gender identity

For progressive employers, making sure every employee feels like they belong and are valued—regardless of their gender identity—is a top priority. Gender nonconforming, transgender, and genderfluid individuals are regularly left out on standard government and medical forms. While we file claims with entities that still only allow employees to select “male” or “female,” we know that gender is nonbinary. That’s why we’ve added helper text to provide additional context to why we ask the question the way we do and to make sure all employees feel seen.

2. In-product leave pay education videos

Lack of pay transparency is one of the top reasons employees decide not to return from a leave. During an already-stressful time, understanding how much money to expect, when, and from where is absolutely essential for an employee to feel supported by their employer.

The pay timeline in Cocoon is one of the best ways for employees to see a breakdown of how pay works. Now, we’ve taken pay education a step further. When employees plan their leave, new in-product videos further explain how pay works when they’re on leave. Videos help answer important questions like, “Why is my paycheck lower than usual?” and “Why do I have several pay sources?” With even more pay clarity for employees, People teams can focus on supporting their teams, not just fielding questions. 

3. In-product support for self-reporting benefits

For employers that offer paid leave, calculating how much to pay employees versus how much state or disability benefits provide is an ongoing challenge. Some entities—like the California Employment Development Department (EDD)—send checks directly to employees, which means employers don’t always have visibility into exactly what employees are paid. In the past employers were left to estimate what they should pay employees on leave. When those estimations are off, employees can be left without pay or in a position to pay their employer back thousands of dollars of overpayment, ultimately eroding trust.

Cocoon facilitates a process for employees to self-report payment from state and private disability providers so employer payroll files are accurate and up to date. Before employees submit their leave, we educate them about how and why they’ll self-report the benefits they receive. Throughout their leave, employees are prompted in-product and via email to upload a photo of each claims payment to the Cocoon Documents page. With self-reporting integrated into the employee product experience, we can make sure employers know exactly how much to pay employees every step of the way.