Hitachi Consulting India extends paid maternity leave to 6 mth

In line with firms like Accenture, Deutsche Bank and Tata Group, Hitachi Consulting Software Services India (HCSSI) will now offer six months of paid maternity leave to its employees.

Besides the leave extension from 3 months previously, the company will also include the new born baby into its medical insurance policy right from birth, HCSSI said in a statement.

The company has also put together a host of post maternity policies including flexible work hours with exclusive shift allowances and work-from-home options to support women employees, it added.

HCSSI has about 1,700 employees in India, of which about 500 are women.

While the legal requirement on maternity leave is three months, firms like Hindustan Unilever, Accenture, Microsoft and Flipkart have proactively enhanced it to benefit their women employees.

The step is also aimed at retaining women at the workplace as many women employees find it difficult to return to work after three months and usually go on unpaid leave or quit working.

"As an organisation, we treasure our diverse workforce. We recognised the need to further improve our existing policies, which would enable women establish a better work- life balance during life events such as maternity," HCSSI Executive Vice President Feroze Mohammed said.

This is yet another step in the commitment towards building a culture that offers women employees the opportunities to continue to build their career and address their personal priorities as well, he added.

HCSSI Vice President Vikas Kaul said approximately 35%of the company's last year hires were women.

"To support women employees, one of the key policies needing focused attention was the maternity leave policy. The extended maternity leave, flexible work hours, work from home options and our in house new mother support facilities are ways of showing we care and value our women employees," he said.

The company hired about 400 people last year, of which 130 were female employees.