One simple way Aura preserves its excellent company culture

Aura is a digital security company that provides all-in-one protection from identity theft, scams, and online threats. Powered by AI, Aura works across every device—and addresses the whole family’s needs.

The company’s mission is to help individuals and families not only stay safe, but thrive by providing online safety and balance tools that are simple and intuitive to use. Think: financial fraud protection, identity theft protection, scam call protection, parental controls, digital wellbeing, privacy assistants, password managers, and automatic antivirus scans.

Aura works fast, too. A consumer study from 2022 showed that Aura detected the most credit inquiries compared to the competition, and delivered credit alerts in minutes, up to 250 times faster than competitors.

The company’s headquarter is based in Boston, MA, but their 350+ passionate employees are spread around the entire country. When Aura needed help with employee leave administration, they turned to Sparrow.

Building a reputation as a top place to work

Aura devotes the same level of care and attentiveness to their employees as they do to their customers. Since its start in 2014, Aura has earned a reputation as a top-tier workplace.

The company made Forbes’ 2025 list of America’s Best Startup Employers, Glassdoor’s 2024 list of Best Places to Work, and the Boston Globe’s 2023 list of Top Places to Work in Massachusetts. Aura has also won nearly two dozen Comparably awards for different aspects of their company culture, including employee compensation, leadership, diversity, career growth, work-life balance, and perks and benefits.

“This is the first time I’ve been at a company where every single person I talk to has a high enthusiasm level and love for what they’re doing and the team they’re on,” said Sara Gelzinis, Manager of People Operations at Aura.

“The other vendors didn’t check all our boxes, so when we heard about Sparrow, it seemed like a natural fit to partner with them.”

Part of what employees love about Aura is the thoughtful benefits package. In addition to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, Aura employees can take advantage of a generous paid time off policy, a 401(k) with employer match, tuition reimbursement, eight hours of paid volunteer time per quarter, learning and development opportunities, in-house mental and physical wellness resources, employee assistance programs, and free access to an Aura family account.

“We spend a lot of time on benefits—not just building a standard benefits package that caters to everyone, but also creating benefits that accommodate individual employee needs,” said Gelzinis.

One of Aura’s most unique benefits is Pawrental leave, which gives employees paid time off to care for a new pet or grieve for one they’ve lost. “We also give employees a one-year membership to a teladoc health service that includes 24/7 virtual veterinary visits,” she added.

“We care about the pets of our employees because they consider them family,” Gelzinis explained. “And it’s important to us to support every type of family.”

Along with Pawrental leave, Aura offers 12 weeks of caregiver leave to employees who need to support a loved one, 16 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents, and 12 weeks of paid leave for non-birthing parents. And the key to managing these various leaves is Sparrow.

The challenge: Managing leave internally for employees in almost every state

Before partnering with Sparrow, Aura’s people operations team managed employee leave themselves. “Our system was very manual, and we had to track everything ourselves,” said Angela Barker, Senior Director of Total Rewards and Operations at Aura.

“Leave management involves numerous components and varies widely by state due to complex compliance rules and regulations,” she explained. “With employees in 40+ states, keeping up with changing requirements can be overwhelming for a single person.”

Reviewing state leave laws, completing paperwork correctly, and guiding employees through filing for benefits was hectic, Barker said. The sheer administrative load meant that Barker and her team weren’t always able to reply immediately to employee concerns or questions.

"With employees in so many states, keeping up with leave rules and tracking who qualifies for what can be challenging. Having Sparrow to navigate complex labor laws and align with our own leave policies and processes has been invaluable.”

“There were times we were navigating a state’s requirements for the first time, determining what an employee qualified for,” she said, “and sometimes it took time to get up to speed.”

When Barker realized they needed a more efficient way to manage leave—one that also improved their employee experience—they decided to explore vendors.

“The other vendors we looked at either didn’t check all our boxes or didn’t fit within our budget,” she said. “So when we heard about Sparrow through our network, it seemed like a natural fit to partner with them.”

“Sparrow has improved our efficiency, and helped to automate a lot of our processes. We were able to reduce our overall operational costs as well through having Sparrow.”

The solution: Outsource leave to Sparrow from start to finish

Sparrow handles employee leave management from end to end for Aura, taking care of compliance, paperwork, payroll, and employee correspondence. Barker said the biggest burden Sparrow has relieved them from is compliance.

“With employees in so many states, keeping up with various leave rules and tracking who qualifies for what can be challenging, especially when managing multiple cases at once,” she explained. “Having Sparrow to navigate complex labor laws and align with our own leave policies and processes has been invaluable.”

Sparrow Leave Specialists have a deep well of knowledge about the nuances of state leave laws, and they stay up to date on developments, so Barker and her team don’t have to research individual leave cases. “It’s really nice to have Sparrow say, ‘This is what the employee is eligible for. This is what they need to do. And we’ll make it happen,’” added Barker.

Sparrow completing paperwork on Aura’s behalf and nixing the need for compliance research has saved Aura’s people team significant time and hassle. “Sparrow has really improved our efficiency, and helped to automate a lot of our processes,” Barker explained. “We were able to reduce our overall operational costs as well through having Sparrow.”

Another area where Aura has saved time is payroll. Sparrow sets up automatic payroll calculations for Aura employees on leave and creates personalized payroll plans that everyone can view on the Sparrow dashboard.

“The payroll plan tells us exactly what we’re supposed to pay and gives us a full picture of what employees are getting from us, the state, private disability, and the like. Having it all laid out is super helpful."

“The payroll plan tells us exactly what we’re supposed to be paying and gives us a full picture of what employees are getting from us, the state, private disability, and the like,” Gelzinis explained. “Having it all laid out is super helpful to understand and be able to explain to our employees taking leave,” she added.

“Sparrow really enhances Aura’s employee experience—not only for our internal people team but for our people going on leave,” Barker said.

When an Aura employee needs to take leave, they’re paired up with a dedicated Sparrow Leave Specialist, who schedules a one-on-one introductory call with them to explain their benefits, break down the filing process step by step, and answer questions.

After that, Sparrow submits paperwork on behalf of Aura employees, and Sparrow Leave Specialists liaise with state agency representatives and insurance providers to follow up on forms and statuses.

Any time we can have an actual person talking to our employees, as opposed to a voice assistant or an online tool, that’s a good thing,” Barker said. “Outsourcing a vendor and still having that personal touch of someone who cares, follows up, and answers questions quickly is really crucial to our strategy.”

Gelzinis elaborated. “Leaves aren’t always straightforward, so having Sparrow there to talk with employees and work with them to figure out what makes the most sense has been a massive help for us,” she explained.

“It’s definitely my favorite part about working with Sparrow—knowing that they’re able to help with these heavy undertakings.”

“Leaves aren’t straightforward, so having Sparrow there to talk with employees and work with them to figure out what makes the most sense has been a massive help for us. It's definitely my favorite part about working with Sparrow—knowing that they’re able to help with these heavy undertakings.”

The result: More time to maintain Aura’s high standards for employee care

Sparrow’s leave expertise and efficiency has been invaluable to Aura. Freeing up the people team’s time has had a positive ripple effect on the entire employee population.

“Taking those transactional items out of our responsibilities gives us a lot more time to be strategic and focus on other areas that can improve employee life and employee experience here,” said Barker.

Central to her work is Aura’s benefits program. “We’re always looking to enhance our benefit offerings and commit to the mental health of our employee base,” she explained.

“Throughout the year, many factors come into play to ensure our offerings are properly set for our employees. With Sparrow, we can now focus on implementing more initiatives while knowing our leave management experience is well taken care of.”

Sign up for a win-win: Eliminate leave admin while giving employees a better leave experience. Explore Sparrow’s offerings or book a demo today.