Vodafone 2015 Annual Report Download - page 62

Board diversity
Maintaining the
right balance
We recognise that diversity is the key foundation for introducing different
perspectives into Board debate and for better anticipating the risks and
opportunities in building a long term, sustainable business.
Board diversity
We launched the Board diversity policy in 2011
with the intention of ensuring that diversity,
in its broadest sense, remains a central feature
of the Board and that it extends beyond the
boardroom and permeates all levels of the
organisation. Since the launch, the Board
has made positive steps in broadening the
diversity not just of the Board, but of our
senior management.
25% female presence on the Board
We have made good progress refreshing
the Board over the last four years, which
has resulted in an increase in the proportion
of female Directors on the Board, to 25%
in March this year. Mathias Döpfner has since
joined the Board, reducing this percentage,
though this level will be exceeded when
Luc Vandevelde and Stephen Pusey step
down from the Board at the annual general
meeting in July. We remain committed
to at least maintaining this level of female
presence in the medium term, whilst ensuring
that diversity in its broadest sense remains
a central feature of the Board. That said,
the Nominations and Corporate Governance
Committee will continue to recommend
appointments to the Board based on merit and
uses the annual evaluation process to consider
objectively the Board’s composition and
effectiveness including an assessment of the
Board’s diversity including gender.
The Board remains committed to
strengthening the pipeline of senior female
executives within the business and endorses
the Group’s “Recruiting and Managing People”
policy, one of the objectives of which is to
“attract and develop a highly qualied and
diverse workforce and ensure that all selection
decisions are based on merit”.
Strengthening the pipeline
of executive talent
Strengthening the pipeline of executive talent
in the Company has remained a key focus
during the year. We are continuing to learn
and build on existing programmes while
introducing new initiatives to build, broaden
and develop the signicant talent which
exists across the business. Details of key
initiatives include:
a an executive succession planning update
is provided to the Nominations and
Governance Committee annually, mapping
successional candidates and opportunities;
a disclosing our gender diversity targets
and progress against these as part of the
European Roundtable Table of Industrialists’
voluntary targets initiative and using our
membership to identify senior female
employees suitable to serve on non-
executive boards of other companies;
a providing senior Vodafone women with the
opportunity to learn about life as a non-
executive director through our sponsorship
of the Professional Boards Forum; and
a senior management mentoring and
coaching schemes.
Best practice executive search
The Board continues to support the principles
of the Executive Search Firms Voluntary Code
of Conduct on gender diversity, demonstrated
by remaining committed to engaging only
executive search rms which are signatories
to this code. We continued to work with Korn
Ferry during the year. Korn Ferry also provide
some of the middle and senior recruitment
solutions across some of our footprint.
Other initiatives taking place within
the Company which promote gender
and other forms of diversity
During the year, the business has continued
to embrace all forms of diversity with the
introduction or continuation of a number
of initiatives.
a Launching a new global maternity policy
that sets the standard on benets for
our female employees in 30 countries.
More on this initiative on page 61
a Launching a Mobile Gender Equality
steering committee chaired by Serpil
Timuray, an Executive Committee member,
to accelerate the focus on gender balance
and the work we do with our female
customers, the work we do in communities
and with our colleagues
a Using a gender toolkit to enable a consistent
approach to improving gender diversity
across all markets
a Running inclusive leadership workshops
for our most senior leaders to highlight
the business benets of diversity and
encourage them to act as role models
to promote diversity and inclusion
across Vodafone
a With employees working in many countries
worldwide, it is our goal to operate as one
company while keeping our local roots.
24 nationalities are represented in our top
management team and 44% of our senior
leaders have completed an international
assignment. In the 2015 nancial year,
we focused on improving our employees’
cultural awareness. We launched the
Vodafone Cultural Navigator, an online tool
to help employees understand different
cultural preferences so they can work
successfully with colleagues and customers
around the world
Vodafone Group Plc
Annual Report 2015
60