Good news for employees of the global telecommunications Vodafone Group, as the company on Friday announced a global policy on maternity benefits.

As per the new policy, the company will offer at least 16 weeks of paid maternity leaves to all new mothers. And as per terms of the policy the company will allow new mothers to work slightly for reduced hours on full pay for the first six months.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in a statement that several talented women had to leave their jobs because they face difficulty to make a choice between caring for a newborn baby and their careers.

He further said that over 1,000 women working for Vodafone in countries, which offer less or no statutory maternity care, will benefit from the company’s new policy.

It has been found that maternity leaves vary significantly from across the world. For instance, US provide 12 weeks of unpaid leaves, whereas UK offers 39 partially paid weeks of maternity leaves.

According to the OECD, the United States is the only developed country with no guaranteed paid leaves for new moms.

Although several big companies provide better benefits than the law actually permits, only a few are as generous as Vodafone.

The telecommunication giant operates in nearly 30 countries across the world, and roughly one-third of its 90,000 employees are women.

The company said apart from generous side of the policy, it will also help save money. A report by KPMG, commissioned by Vodafone, found that global businesses could save up to $19 billion per year if they adopted Vodafone’s policy.

KPMG said that companies spend nearly 47 billion every year in recruiting and training new employees to replace women who leave their jobs after giving birth.

The report showed that offering the 16 weeks of maternity leave would cost only $28 billion a year to the company.