To properly evaluate the Vodafone organization, our study included reviews of management and employee structure, expansion, corporate and employee communications, Annual Report, and employee feedback. The financial and technological aspects of the company are strong, revenue over the last financial year increased and the strategic goals in technological specifically expanding the 4G coverage are successful components of the company. The review identified the areas for improvement as follows: employee communications, employee turnover rates, percentage of women in upper management. The following recommendations are based upon data gleaned from the confidential feedback surveys submitted from employees across the spectrum of Vodafone divisions and departments.
The issue of employee communication encompasses several areas, first the size of the business increases the complexity for communications from the employee to various departments, divisions, and managers. This is exacerbated by the increase of recent international acquisitions. Our recommendation is to identify communication problems from a down/up perspective. Identify the concerns from the front-line employees in existing departments, as well as concerns from employees of newly-acquired companies. What if any similarities exist? Are there communication concerns or similarities that resonate across the international structure? Include open-ended questions as to how the employees feel that communications can be improved. All this can be answered simply with a short employee survey and the information analyzed to streamline and improve the communication process.
The issue of employee turnover rate increased once again due in part to the number of acquisitions. Our recommendation is to more clearly identify the reason an employee is leaving the newly acquired company in comparison with current employees. For example, during the exit meeting, include open ended questions that focus on their feelings about the acquisition, identifying their own goals and objectives in their career path. Assimilate the information to identify any similar explanations and may prevent future employees from leaving. Also, utilize this information to verify that the cost of training a new employee did not outweigh the benefit of employee retention.
Women in upper management lend to the diversity of the structure of the company. Vodafone’s recent annual report shows that this goal was not met and in an effort to address this a new maternity policy was issued. Our recommendation is two-fold, first more clearly identify the goals, objectives and aspirations of the current women in senior management in order to retain them. Re-evaluate the existing annual review process to identify any areas that the employee feels they are treated differently due to their gender. Subsequently an anonymous feedback document regarding gender issues may provide a more honest response. Employ information available from Women-in-Business style organizations and memberships by identifying ambitious, enterprising and talented women who are particularly interested in a management career in this industry.
As stated the financial and technological components of Vodafone are strong, the key areas for improvement are to address the areas of employee communications, employee turnover rates, percentage of women in upper management. By following the stated recommendations of clearly identifying employees concerns regarding communications,
focusing on the reasons employees are leaving the company, and by discerning the reasons of reduction of women in senior management while identifying and pursuing talented business women, will culminate in increasing the information to resolve issues in question.
Vodafone has the opportunity to increase the success of the company internationally by implementing the recommendations based upon the information from your employees.
- http://www.vodafone.com/content/annualreport/annualreport15/index.html
- http://www.vodafone.co.uk/our-responsibilities/index.htm
- http://www.thejobcrowd.com/employer/vodafone/reviews
