How Cooperative Response Center brought employee leave management in-house and simplified FMLA & PFML compliance with Stiira
Meet Cooperative Response Center (CRC), a leading contact and alarm monitoring center delivering vital services to over 500 electric utility members and more than 12 million consumers nationwide. Behind the scenes, CRC’s Human Resources department supports a workforce of almost 400 employees, administering a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of employees and their families.
As an organization committed to positively impacting the lives of others through outstanding service, CRC understands the true value of supporting its employees. One of their key initiatives for 2024 was to bring employee leave management back in-house. While they recognized that transitioning away from outsourcing would place more responsibility on their HR team, their goal was to find a leave management software that would streamline administrative workflows and enhance stakeholder visibility every step of the way. In short, they needed a tool that would help them make the most of their internal resources.
Seeking a leave management system to simplify FMLA and PFML compliance
When CRC decided to discontinue outsourcing leave management and take full ownership of the process, the team asked themselves: “How do we take on more internal responsibility while making our entire leave management process smoother at the same time?”
They were also mindful of compliance hurdles that are growing increasingly complex. With a significant portion of their workforce located in Minnesota, CRC needs to navigate the rollout of the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program. With deadlines for notifying employees of paid leave benefits coming in December 2025, and state-provided leave options available starting January 2026, it was crucial for CRC to adopt a solution that would help them manage these new compliance layers alongside the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
As they sought a way to simplify leave management for their HR team, they placed equal importance on improving employee support throughout the process. With all stakeholders in mind, CRC needed a software solution that offered:
- Seamless integration with Paycom to ensure synchronized data across their HR technology stack
- Robust self-service options for employees to submit leave requests and intermittent FMLA hours
- Streamlined workflows with greater visibility, keeping employees and supervisors proactively informed throughout the leave process
An extensive search led CRC to Stiira — the perfect fit for their needs.
Pairing user-friendly leave management software with a Paycom integration
After testing Stiira’s platform during a trial period, CRC chose to move forward with the solution because of its user-friendly experience for both administrators and employees, its role-specific configuration options that enhance supervisor support and visibility, and its built-in action lists with reminders and notifications that make compliance easy to manage.
Natalie Gifford, CRC’s Human Resource Development Manager, shared her feedback on her team’s experience implementing Stiira’s leave management software:
“We’ve been through a lot of implementations with payroll systems, benefit vendors, and so forth. This was by far the easiest, most smooth experience adopting a new solution.”
CRC’s implementation also included a Paycom integration to automatically synchronize employee records across HR systems, cutting down on manual administrative work and ensuring real-time access controls for employees. Annika Dahl, CRC’s Senior HRD Generalist, added:
“Our life has been so much easier since going live with the Paycom integration. Automating employee demographics has streamlined the process for new leave requests and reduced the time spent verifying key details when managing a leave case.”
Leveraging impactful features to simplify FMLA administration and intermittent leave tracking
Since implementing Stiira, CRC has streamlined its leave management process. Even after transitioning from an outsourcing vendor, their HR team reports significant efficiencies gained for both administrators and employees. They’ve also seen increased support from supervisors. Annika shared:
“It’s simplified the employee experience and our ability to guide employees through the request process. We’ve even received great feedback from our supervisors, who love having visibility and reporting on their team’s leave cases.”
At Stiira, we love hearing from customers about how our platform helps transform leave management. Based on our conversations with CRC’s leave administrators, these are some of the key features driving their success:
- Role-based configuration that gives supervisors better visibility and oversight
- Employee self-service for submitting leave requests, viewing cases, and logging intermittent hours
- Built-in action lists and reminders to keep the leave process on track at every step
- Dynamic filtering and sorting for clear admin to-do’s and deadlines
- Custom work schedules to ensure accurate and compliant hour tracking
Empowering HR to build a top tier leave management program
Cooperative Response Center’s story is a testament to what’s possible when the right technology empowers a dedicated HR team. By bringing leave management back in-house with Stiira, CRC has not only streamlined workflows and ensured compliance with evolving regulations — they’ve also delivered a smoother, more transparent experience for employees and supervisors alike.
We’re proud to support CRC as they continue to put their people first and set the standard for outstanding service, both within their organization and in the communities they serve.
Are you curious to learn more about what companies are experiencing with Stiira? Visit SHRM and G2 to view customer reviews.