Vodafone 2011 Annual Report Download - page 35

Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2011 33
Business review
The main emphasis of our global diversity strategy has been
on gender diversity and to increase the number of women in
management positions which has risen to 16.5%. Efforts to
increase the percentage further will continue during the
2012 nancial year. Our second priority has been to increase
talent from our emerging markets in Group roles and senior
leadership positions.
During the year we ran a series of two-and-a-half day diversity
and inclusion workshops for over 450 people from human
resources teams globally to support their senior leaders who
had previously all attended inclusive leadership workshops in
their local market.
Health, safety and wellbeing
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone affected by our
business activities has continued to be a high priority. The
implementation of the Vodafone fatality prevention plan saw
a signicant reduction, of 33%, in fatalities in India, Ghana and
Turkey, where there were 14 fatalities in those countries this
year compared with 21 in the previous year. Sadly, across the
Group 21 fatalities have occurred this year including four
fatalities that occurred within the Vodacom Group operations,
which are included in the Group gure for the rst time this
year. The Vodafone fatality prevention plan has now been
rolled out across Vodacom’s subsidiaries which has seen a
reduction in fatal incidents to one in the last six months of the
nancial year. Out of the Group total 17 were third-party
contractors and four were Vodafone employees. Further
details can be found in the Group’s 2011 sustainability report.
As part of a more robust governance programme, we
introduced external health and safety benchmark reviews.
These reviews evaluated health and safety management
systems in several countries, including New Zealand, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Romania, Vodacom South Africa and Egypt.
Culture, communications and engagement
In October 2010 we carried out our sixth annual global people
survey. The survey measures employees’ level of engagement,
a combination of pride, loyalty and motivation and 90% of
those surveyed responded. We achieved an overall employee
engagement score of 75 which means we have maintained a
high score in employee engagement for the third year running.
Regular, consistent and open communication is fundamental
to high levels of employee engagement. Our people have
access to information about our business through a global
intranet, with local translations and content where appropriate.
The Chief Executive communicates directly with all employees
through regular team meetings, email and video updates and
this is reinforced by local chief executive communications in
all our markets. Relevant performance and change issues are
also discussed with our employees through team meetings,
round table discussions or through elected representative
bodies in some of the European countries.
Our culture is based on The Vodafone Way. All of our senior
leadership team (approximately 230 people) have now been
through the Leading in The Vodafone Way workshop which
provides a picture of how The Vodafone Way works day-to-day.
Local markets will roll out a similar programme for all their
managers. We have also created a community of ‘change
leads’, senior leaders who meet regularly to identify what more
can be done to further embed The Vodafone Way.
Talent and resourcing
During the year our employees continued to perform at a high
level and we strengthened our leadership team. This was
achieved partly by introducing talent identication tools and
partly by investing in staff with high potential and helping
them with their career planning and development. Quarterly
talent reviews are held to discuss performance, succession
Key performance indicators
2011 2010 2009
Number of employees (1) 83,862 84,990 79,097
Nationalities in top senior
management roles 29 26 23
Women in top senior
management roles (%) 16.5 14.5 13.1
Employee turnover rates (%)(2) 15 13 13
Notes:
(1) Represents the average number of employees in our controlled and jointly
controlled markets during the year.
(2) Based on our controlled markets and our joint venture in Italy.
Diversity and
inclusion
Our inclusive culture
respects, values,
celebrates and makes
the most of the diversity
of our people.
29
Nationalities
in top senior
management roles
83,900
Average employees
plans and key individuals, and at our monthly Executive
Committee meetings we discuss the senior leadership roles.
A global graduate and recruitment programme was introduced
with a target to hire 250-300 top graduates across the Group
during the year. By 31 March 2011 we had recruited 306. In
addition, we partnered with nine leading MBA schools in Europe,
the US, Africa and India to recruit 15-20 MBA graduates for key
management roles.
Learning and capability development
We are committed to helping people reach their full potential
through ongoing training and development. People identify
and agree their development objectives with their managers
every year as part of the performance dialogue process. Local,
functional and global learning programmes are provided to
meet people’s development needs, delivered through a blend
of classroom training, e-learning, coaching, mentoring and on-
the-job experience.
During the year we invested around £55 million in training
programmes. In our most recent people survey, 72% of our
employees rated the opportunity to develop the skills that
they need to do their job well as good or very good.
Inspire, our global leadership development programme for
high-potential managers, is in its fourth year. So far, 124 people
have completed the programme.
Performance, reward and recognition
We reward employees based on their performance, potential
and contribution to the success of the business and we aim
to provide competitive and fair rates of pay and benets in
every country where we operate. We also offer competitive
retirement and other benet provisions which vary depending
on conditions and practices in local markets.
Global short-term incentive plans are offered to a large
percentage of employees and global long-term incentive
plans are offered to our senior managers. Both plans are paid
according to individual and company performance.