Overhauling employee leave management: Why Coinbase chose Sparrow

Coinbase launched the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the United States. Today, Coinbase is the go-to platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency.

The company’s mission is to increase economic freedom in the world—and they’re fulfilling it by offering individuals, businesses, and institutions a secure, central place for their financial lives. Coinbase also provides infrastructure for onchain activity and advocates for responsible crypto rules and regulations around the globe.

Since its founding in 2012, the company has expanded to more than 100 countries, amassed $516 billion assets on its platform, and built a global team of over 5,000 innovative employees. When they needed help restructuring employee leave management, Coinbase came to Sparrow.

The challenge: Managing employee leave without a unified system

Before Sparrow, Coinbase didn’t have a unified system to manage employee leaves. “Our operations team handled Canadian leaves internally, but it was a very manual process,” said Jeff Bergin, Global Benefits Manager at Coinbase.

To manage employee leaves in the US, Coinbase relied on their disability vendor, but Bergin said the experience was challenging for both the benefits team and the employees taking leave.

“Our employee feedback from that vendor wasn’t great,” he explained. Employees weren’t getting enough information about their leave benefits and options, nor were they getting guidance on how to apply for state benefits. Coinbase employees had to reach out to the vendor repeatedly for answers and help, Bergin said, “so they were always caught in a state of limbo.”

It wasn’t just the employee leave experience that suffered, though. Coinbase’s benefits team often had to correct their vendor’s work or spend extra time corresponding upfront to ensure leaves were processed without issues.

“Leaves can be very complex at Coinbase, and sometimes the vendor didn’t understand the nuances,” Bergin explained. “But instead of checking with us, they either gave employees too much time off or not enough, and sometimes ended up denying them something they may have been eligible for.”

When Coinbase’s benefits team realized they needed a more thorough, consistent leave management system, they decided to explore dedicated leave management vendors.

“We’re a very disruptive, tech-forward company, so we were looking for an innovative company that would have a similar mindset,” said Bergin.

When Coinbase’s team met with Sparrow, Bergin said it felt like a perfect fit. “We liked the team, we liked the technology. And we really appreciated the fact that Sparrow covered Canadian leaves of absence, which was a huge enhancement for us,” he explained.

With Sparrow’s end-to-end support, Coinbase would be able to streamline leave admin for their benefits team while ensuring that their employee leave experience matched the generous leave policies they’d carefully constructed.

“Creating a global leave policy is complex because of all the countries’ different requirements,” Bergin explained. “But we’re proud that we’ve been able to roll out consistent, comprehensive leave policies for all our employees, no matter where they’re located.”

“The questions we receive from employees have decreased tremendously.”

The solution: Outsource leave management to Sparrow

Teaming up with Sparrow gave Coinbase the opportunity to overhaul their existing leave management systems. Now, instead of double-checking their disability vendor’s work or manually tracking Canadian leave cases, Coinbase entrusts Sparrow with every task.

Sparrow handles leave paperwork, leave tracking, compliance, payroll calculations, and employee correspondence. When an employee requests a leave of absence, all the benefits team has to do is input the employee’s information into Sparrow’s dashboard—and Sparrow takes care of the rest.

Sparrow Leave Specialists start by scheduling a one-on-one intake call with the employee preparing for leave; during the chat, they explain which benefits the employee is entitled to, how the state filing process works, and what they need from employees to file paperwork on their behalf.

“Creating a global leave policy is complex because of all the countries’ different requirements. But we’re proud that we’ve been able to roll out consistent, comprehensive leave policies for all our employees, no matter where they’re located.”

Then Sparrow completes and submits state benefits paperwork for those employees, as well as Coinbase’s benefits team. Sparrow Leave Specialists even liaise with health insurance companies and state agency representatives to move employees’ benefits applications along.

The result: Coinbase’s employees get to take full advantage of state benefits, while the company recoups the maximum amount of money. In 2025, Sparrow helped Coinbase recoup $1.8 million in wage replacement costs.

At every step of the process, Sparrow sends Bergin and his team key updates.

“The Sparrow dashboard is very easy to use,” he said. “If one of our HRBPs reaches out to me, I’m able to go into the dashboard and see everything about the employee’s leave: what type of leave it is, when they’re scheduled to be out, when they’re expected to return.”

“Sparrow’s payroll help saves our team hours of work every pay period.” 

Another excellent feature, he added, is the API from Sparrow to Workday, so Coinbase managers and HRBPs can see their employees’ leave details without having to log into an external site.

Bergin said the benefits team especially loves Sparrow’s automatic payroll calculations and custom payroll reports. “Sparrow’s payroll help saves our team hours of work every pay period,” he added.

Sparrow’s hands-on interpersonal support and leave expertise saves Coinbase untold time as well. “If we have new employees come in, for example, Sparrow gets them up to speed fast and trains them on our leave programs,” Bergin explained. “The questions we receive from employees have decreased tremendously.”

“We really appreciate that Sparrow covers Canadian leaves of absence. It's a huge enhancement for us.”

Flexibility Coinbase can count on

Outsourcing leave management to Sparrow has saved Coinbase’s benefits team countless administrative hours, and provided peace of mind that employees are taken care of.

But Bergin’s favorite part about Sparrow is working with such an adaptable, accommodating team.

“I have never heard the Sparrow team say no, or that something can’t be done,” he said. “Through the years, we’ve changed some time off programs and added waiting periods, and never once has the Sparrow team said, ‘That will take us a while.’ It’s always, ‘Just tell us when you want this to go live and we’ll have it done.’”

Sparrow’s flexibility and proactivity as a vendor is a testament to the people behind the scenes, Bergin added. “The team we’ve worked with has been wonderful, and the everyday relationship we’ve cultivated has been great. That definitely separates Sparrow from vendors we’ve worked with in the past.”

Sparrow simplifies leave for everyone, from HR admins and payroll professionals to the employees taking leave. Learn more about our end-to-end leave management solutions or book a demo today.