Supporting women workforce development and allowing female employees to achieve work-life balance, Standard Chartered will now be offering its women employees 20-weeks of paid maternity leave. New mommies and soon-to-be-mom can make most of this advantage provided, which will be effective from April 1, 2017, connectedtoindia.com reports.

This move is a part of the Bank’s larger initiative to rollout enhanced employee benefits to retain, empower and encourage female talent to grow despite life challenges. The benefit is also made available to mothers who adopt and extended to all members of the bank, regardless of their tenure of service with the organisation.

Supporting the family-friendly culture at Standard Chartered, all Singaporean women employees will get 20-weeks of paid maternity leave, while male workforce will continue to get only two calendar weeks of paid paternity leave.

See: Parental Leave Policy: Best Practice Guide for HR Professionals in Asia

With 45 percent of the bank’s management team in Singapore comprising of women in key leadership roles, Charlotte Thng, Head of Human Resources, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore said, “We recognise the dual roles many of them have to play, and want them to succeed both at work and at home. We believe that fostering and building on a culture to help our people balance their personal and professional commitments will deliver strong benefits for both the bank and employees.”

The Bank also added that all employees irrespective of their experience (senior, junior and executive levels) will benefit from the ramped-up flexible working hour policy, which includes the option to work from home on selected days – depending on the nature of their job role and manager’s approval.

Such flexibility in employee benefits being offered by the Bank will boost employee morale and facilitate talent retention to develop a strong Singaporean core. The current entitlement for maternity and adoption leave is 16 weeks and four weeks, respectively, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s website.

Also read: Long Maternity and Childcare Leave For Women Only Promote Employer Bias

Feature image credit: businesstimes.com.sg