When his son Julius was born March 19, Joseph Beasley was able take advantage of a brand new benefit he’d already helped more than 230 employees use so far this year: parental leave pay.
In a nutshell, that means Texas Health employees – both moms and dads – are eligible for three weeks of paid time off in the first six months of becoming a parent. The child could be a newborn or a placed child under age 18.
Requirements include being benefits eligible, being employed by Texas Health for six months prior to the leave request, not taking parental leave for the prior 12 months, and being on an approved leave of absence.
“Texas Health did a beautiful thing with this,” says Joseph, a Return to Health analyst in Integrated Disability Management. “This is my fourth child, and the only one in which I was able to take more time than PTO. I wasn’t working here when my oldest son was born, and when my daughters were, PTO was the only option for taking time off.”
That all changed on Jan. 1. Now, any parent – biological, adoptive, or a parent as a result of surrogacy, foster care placement, receipt of guardianship – or a non-parent managing conservator can apply for the benefit. The time needs to be taken at least one week at a time, and can be split up or taken concurrently.
“It was a very good experience being there to support my wife, Ashanti,” says Joseph, who took three weeks at once.
Because Joseph still had PTO, he could have combined that time with his Paid Parental Leave. But, he says, he opted to save it and return to work to help his team.
“I was the first in my department to use it,” he says.
Applying for this latest Texas Health benefit starts with the basics: notifying your supervisor 30 days before the anticipated start of the leave.
Then, Joseph says, “Go online to MyTHR.org and go to ‘My Job Transitions.’ Go through the prompts, and when you get to the PTO screen, click the ‘Parental Leave’ button. It’s not difficult at all to apply.”
“I don’t know any other company that would have done this, in a pandemic granting employees paid time off,” Joseph says. “I’ll be forever grateful for this. Me being around the house those three weeks was new to me, but I loved it. I absolutely loved it.”
By Texas Health Communications • Posted June 15, 2021
