If an employee is not eligible for medical leave under FMLA, state law, or company policy – meaning they don’t meet the eligibility or tenure requirements, or they’ve exhausted all time available to them — they have the ability to request company-authorized leave time as a reasonable accommodation from their HR team.
Please note that Cocoon can help administer leave time as an accommodation, but cannot assist with workplace accommodations.
Options
You have two options for how Cocoon can help. With both options, when employees exhaust all available federal, state, or company committed time, or they do not meet the eligibility requirements for this time, employees will be prompted to request a leave accommodation.
In Leave configuration under Settings:
If you want Cocoon to initiate and track the interactive ADA process for leave accommodations, set “Leave accommodation” On in your Settings.
If you don’t want Cocoon to initiate and track the interactive ADA process for leave accommodations, set “Leave accommodation” Off. Cocoon will direct employees to download an ADA Leave Request form and email it to you to handle the process outside Cocoon.
Note that Cocoon does not handle any employer top up pay during this time, and will not file any disability claims. Cocoon does not approve or deny the accommodation request, but rather helps you facilitate the interactive process for leave accommodations, including allowing you to request supporting documentation from employees.
If the employee is not eligible for medical leave
When planning a medical leave in Cocoon, if an employee does not qualify based on applicable leave laws and their company policy, we’ll flag for them that they need to request any leave time as an accommodation.
If the employee tries to extends a medical leave but has exhausted all their time
If an employee is FMLA eligible, they will be able to plan a 12 week leave. In the event they need to extend their leave beyond 12 weeks, Cocoon will prompt them to request a leave accommodation after the 12 weeks are exhausted.
Alternatively, if you offer six weeks of medical leave and the employee is not FMLA eligible, but they are eligible for your company policy, they can plan up to six weeks of leave. If they need to extend their leave beyond the six weeks, they are blocked from extending their leave in product and prompted to request a leave accommodation.
If “Leave accommodations” is On
If you have turned on “Leave accommodations”, when clicking Request accommodation, employees will be directed to a leave accommodation request form in Cocoon.
After the request is submitted, an email is sent to their Cocoon Workspace admins and Members to review the request in Cocoon. When viewing the leave they’ll see the request.
After clicking Review, you’ll see the information the employee provided and three actions they can take: approve, request additional information, and deny request.
You can go back and forth with the employee requesting additional information. When requests are made and responses are provided in Cocoon, they appear in the Leave log to document the interactive process.
Approve leave request
If the admin clicks Approve, the leave is approved in the system and the employee will be informed by email.
Request additional information
If you click Request additional information, you can include a link to a custom additional questionnaire that the employee will have access to.
After the information is requested, the employee will get an email prompting them to download the file.
The employee will also see this request and link in their Dashboard under Tasks.
When the employee uploads the form back to Cocoon, we’ll notify you by email and update the request status.
You can click “Review” to review the request again and download the form the employee provided.
Deny requests
If the admin decides to deny the request, they will be asked to confirm their decision. If they confirm it, then the employee will be notified by email of the denial.
Note: Cocoon does not currently display denied leaves in the dashboard. Declined leaves will be shown in the coming year.
How Cocoon handles these leaves
Time
Cocoon will reflect the employer-approved time within the employee’s leave plan
Pay
If there is any pay associated with the employer-approved time, you will be responsible for handling payroll.
Claims
Employees are responsible for self-filing for any applicable short-term or long-term disability claims
If “Leave accommodations” is Off
If “Leave accommodations” is off, when clicking Request accommodation employees will be directed to a screen that lets them download an ADA Leave Request form.
The form contains the initial information their HR team may need to make a determination on the leave request. Employees are requested to provide the completed form to their HR team outside of Cocoon.
How Cocoon handles these leaves
Time
Cocoon will reflect the employer-approved time within the employee’s leave plan
Pay
If there is any pay associated with the employer-approved time, the employer will be responsible for handling payroll.
Claims
Cocoon will assist in filing any applicable short-term disability claims
Employees are responsible for self-filing for any applicable long-term disability claims
Questions? Please reach out to the Cocoon Support team at: