Vodafone announced that will offer 16 weeks of fully-paid parental leave to all Vodafone employees worldwide.

Any employee whose partner is having a baby, adopts a child or becomes a parent through surrogacy will have the flexibility to take up to 16 weeks paid-leave at any time during the first 18 months.

Vodafone employees will also be able to phase their return from parental leave by working the equivalent of a 30-hour week at full pay for a further six months.

Vodafone’s parental leave will be available to all non-birthing parents – regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or length of service – across Vodafone’s 24 markets and operations in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the US by the end of March 2021.

Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said: “Diversity and inclusion are core to our beliefs and purpose at Vodafone.”

Vodafone in March 2015pioneered a maternity policy, offering women across Vodafone’s markets and operations a minimum of 16 weeks fully-paid maternity leave and a 30-hour week at full pay for the first six months after their return to work.

Vodafone launched the ReConnect programme in 2017 to attract talented women who have left the workplace for several years – often to raise a family – who want to return to work but are struggling to make the professional connections needed or refresh the skills required.