From diverse benefits to everyday employee support: Why iCIMS partners with Sparrow to manage leaves

iCIMS is an all-in-one enterprise recruitment software designed to simplify and accelerate every step of the hiring process. Industry leaders and global brands like The Cheesecake Factory, Uber, Enterprise Mobility, The Wendy’s Company, and Hard Rock Hotel all rely on iCIMS to connect with incredible talent faster and at scale.

iCIMS’s AI recruitment software automates and streamlines the hiring process, builds quality pipelines of best-fit and hire-ready talent, and attracts and converts candidates quicker, optimizing recruiting costs and enabling talent acquisition teams to worker smarter and hire in less time. The average iCIMS customer saves $1.5 million in recruiting costs, sees a 22% decrease in time to fill roles, and cuts back on IT time by 70%.

Founded in 2000, iCIMS has grown to over 1,000 employees around the world, with offices in New Jersey, Dublin, London, Paris, and India. When the company needed to level up their employee leave management system, they reached out to Sparrow.

Building a rewards program that feels personally and professionally rewarding

As longtime leaders in the talent acquisition technology industry, it’s no surprise that iCIMS has created an inclusive, supportive work environment for its own employees. Along with being a Certified Great Place to Work year-over-year, Newsweek has named iCIMS one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women and Diversity.

“With our global total reward strategy, our mission is to deliver equitable, competitive, and sustainable benefits to support our diverse workforce,” said Katie Hanson, VP of Total Rewards and Talent Operations at iCIMS.

“We focus on four key pillars that align across physical, wellness, lifestyle, and financial benefits,” she explained. Each pillar includes thoughtful offerings that go beyond traditional compensation and health coverage. Think: lifestyle spending accounts, employee discount programs, advice from a financial consultant, Headspace subscriptions, and company-wide recharge days.

The benefits themselves are just one element of the total rewards package, though. iCIMS also wants to create a positive employee experience around each benefit. Shaping the employee experience starts with examining the internal management processes behind each benefit, including employee leaves.

“As part of our rewards, we want to make sure we’re guiding our employees through leaves in a meaningful way,” said Hanson. “And that’s where we really appreciate the partnership with Sparrow.”

“Sparrow was the most comprehensive leave management offering. One of the key differentiators was Sparrow’s premium employee support—that white glove customer service for both HR professionals and employees.”

The challenge: Managing employee leaves in-house across different states

Before iCIMS partnered with Sparrow for full-service employee leave management, the company managed leaves in-house. “It was a bit of an administrative burden, which was one of the reasons why we decided to explore the partnership with Sparrow,” Hanson explained.

Keeping up with paperwork and compliance proved challenging, especially once iCIMS’ employee population began to grow beyond headquarters in New Jersey.

“Leave was a lot easier to manage when everything was done within the state, but once we started to expand into different geographical regions like California and Texas, the process became more complex,” Hanson added.

“Sparrow is the primary contact to engage with our employees before and during their leaves, which really helps build trust during an uncertain time.”

With a growing employee population, iCIMS didn’t have the capacity to manage leaves with the level of efficiency and employee care that they wanted.

Hanson said they needed a leave management provider who could fulfill three promises: 1) relieve the administrative burden of leave management, 2) improve the internal employee leave experience, and 3) create consistency across leaves in different states.

When the rewards team reviewed their options, Sparrow stood out right away. “We felt that Sparrow was the most comprehensive leave management offering,” Hanson explained. “One of the key differentiators was Sparrow’s premium employee support, that white glove customer service for both HR professionals and employees.”

“Sparrow Leave Specialists stay up to date with different state leave laws to ensure we’re in compliance—and that we’re recouping every dollar of state benefits available.”

The solution: Outsourcing leave management to Sparrow

Sparrow handles every aspect of leave management for iCIMS, from filing paperwork to coordinating with employees. “Sparrow has relieved our team significantly, saving us a lot of time,” said Hanson. “We can focus on other deliverables related to our roles because we’re confident that Sparrow is driving leave-related items.”

In addition to filling out and submitting state benefits paperwork for iCIMS’s admins and employees, Sparrow tracks all employee leaves on the Sparrow dashboard, automates payroll calculations, and generates custom payroll reports.

Sparrow Leave Specialists also stay up to date with different state leave laws to ensure iCIMS is in compliance—and that they’re recouping every dollar of state benefits available.

Hanson said she especially appreciates Sparrow’s clear, proactive communication, which includes bi-weekly check-ins and regular email updates about each employee’s leave case.

“We like that we still have visibility into each leave, and that we can provide clarity or an added layer of support if needed,” she explained, “but ultimately Sparrow acts as the frontline defense to field questions employees have throughout their leaves.”

Another area that Sparrow has improved is iCIMS’s employee leave experience. “Sparrow is the primary contact to engage with our employees before and during their leaves, which really helps build the trust during an uncertain time,” Hanson said.

Sparrow Leave Specialists kick off every new leave case with a one-on-one call with iCIMS employees. During the intake chat, Sparrow Leave Specialists explain the process of filing for state benefits, tell employees what to expect in terms of paperwork and payments, and answer questions.

“Leave can be extremely overwhelming with the amount of paperwork and outreach you have to do when you're also going through something personal. That’s where having that degree of support is really meaningful—Sparrow is the expert resource employees can turn to.”

“We want to make sure we’re providing employees with all of the necessary information for them to make meaningful and educated decisions about their leaves—and Sparrow helps us do that,” Hanson explained.

After the introductory call, Sparrow submits state benefits paperwork on behalf of iCIMS employees, and Sparrow Leave Specialists coordinate with state agency representatives and insurance providers so employees don’t have to spend hours hunting down information or waiting on hold.

“Leave can be extremely overwhelming with the amount of paperwork and outreach you have to do when you’re also going through something personal,” Hanson said. “That’s where having that degree of support is really meaningful—Sparrow is the expert resource employees can turn to to guide them through that experience.”

When Hanson recently took maternity leave at iCIMS, she found the Sparrow dashboard particularly helpful. “Being able to see where you are from a timeline perspective and how you can easily submit all of your information within the portal is amazing,” she explained.

Another perk for employees: not having to update multiple people about the details of their leaves. Sparrow Leave Specialists keep managers and admins in the loop so employees can focus on their time away.

“The open communication we have with Sparrow has been critical to our success as partners,” added Hanson. “The Sparrow team is always eager to make sure we’re in lockstep in terms of understanding where each of these employees are on their journeys."

“We still have visibility into each leave and can provide clarity or an added layer of support if needed, but ultimately Sparrow acts as the frontline defense to field questions employees have throughout their leaves.”

The future: Evolving to meet employees’ changing needs

Partnering with Sparrow has allowed iCIMS to give their employees a more consistent, meaningful leave experience—without adding to the total rewards team’s administrative load.

With the leave management time they save, iCIMS’s rewards team can focus more on strategizing for the future.

“We’re constantly evolving to ensure that our benefit offerings remain competitive to market, but that they also resonate with what our employees are seeking,” Hanson said.

Looking ahead, iCIMS plans to continue expanding and refining its benefits programs in step with employees’ expectations. By removing administrative friction, the team can make more informed decisions about where to invest next.

“Our people’s needs will keep changing, and with Sparrow, we’re in a stronger position to adapt quickly and deliver benefits that genuinely support them,” Hanson said.

Sparrow makes managing leave and taking leave easier. Learn how our sophisticated software and white glove customer service work in tandem, or demo our platform now.