Hilton was recently recognized, for the second year in a row, as the 2019 Best Workplace for Parents™ in the U.S. by Great Place to Work®.
Reflecting on Hilton’s #1 ranking, which comes on the heels of rankings as the #1 Best Workplace for Women in the U.S. and the #2 Best Workplace in the World, we spoke with new parents and Hilton Team Members Jackie and Luis Santana, who recently took advantage of Hilton’s parental leave when they welcomed their son Giovanny.
“As new parents, it was very important to us to spend as much time as possible with our newborn son,” the couple shared. “This time allowed us the opportunity to build a close connection with our son, spending quality time with him and acclimating to our new life with a newborn.”
Jackie joined Hilton in 2001 as a Reservation Sales Specialist and has progressed through a variety of roles to her current position as a Business Development Manager. Luis is a Development Coach for a team of Hilton Reservation & Customer Care (HRCC) Guest Engagement Specialists and has been with Hilton since 2006. The couple both work remotely as part of the HRCC team, which provides many opportunities for flexible work.
Jackie also shared how her business travel experience as a new mom has been eased by Hilton’s industry-first partnership with Milk Stork introduced earlier this year, which enables Team Members to easily ship or carry breast milk home to their babies at no cost while on business travel in the United States.
“As a nursing mother, I have taken advantage of the Milk Stork benefit for several business trips and it has been fabulous,” Jackie said. “The ability to breastfeed my infant is so rewarding, so the opportunity to continue to provide nourishment for my son while I am away on business travel is incredible.”
Hilton’s family-friendly support spans the parenthood journey, including a flexible working environment, financial wellness tools, and best-in-class parental leave, which was recently extended by two weeks, providing birth mothers with 12 weeks of paid time off, and fathers and adoptive parents with four weeks of paid time off.
Additional family-friendly benefits include extended bereavement leave, generous paid time off and exclusive travel discounts that empower Team Members to spend more time together creating memorable experiences. Hilton also supports Team Members’ path to parenthood through an adoption assistance program that offers reimbursement for expenses incurred while adopting, up to $10,000 per child.
Asked what advice they would share with other working parents, Jackie and Luis encouraged them to “take full advantage of all the parental benefits and cherish the time with your family. Time flies by so fast!”