Informed and engaged employees are essential for our business to operate effectively. We communicate our business strategy and new developments to our people and engage with them to gain feedback on how we are doing as an employer. This also helps to create a sense of global community across the Group.
Internal communications
Employee engagement is an important part of Vodafone’s business strategy. We have a Board level representative responsible for promoting effective dialogue with our people. We use our own products and services to communicate with employees, including SMS, video clips and mobile intranet sites. This improves knowledge of our products and services, and helps reinforce our total communications strategy.
A key focus in 2007/08 has been informing and engaging our employees on our total communications strategy. This included:
- A series of 10 podcasts to help senior managers understand the concepts behind total communications
- Twelve webinars (seminars on the web) open to all employees, covering topics such as mobile advertising, convergence, social networking and mobile internet
- An internal wiki where employees can read news and updates and engage in dialogue.
Other internal communication channels at Group level include:
- Group intranet
- Online videos, including monthly video-casts from the Chief Executive
- Wikis and webinars
- Vital, an online news hub updated daily
- VGS News, a monthly email news bulletin
- Internal TV channel
- Induction packs for new employees.
Local operating companies also run their own internal communications programmes.
Corporate responsibility messages are included in our internal communications to employees, see Internal Communications and Awareness.
Employee engagement
We engage with our people informally every day, through team meetings and discussions with immediate managers. All employees have access to our intranet site, with around 30% of our employees using it every day. We are increasingly using the intranet for online discussions and engagement. We have more than 450 internal blogs and wikis, which receive around 3,500 visits per month. We share information with colleagues through over 8,000 online team rooms, used by over 45,000 people.
Monthly messages from the Chief Executive Officer, Arun Sarin, using a wiki platform, 'Arun’s channel', and video-cast help our people understand how we are progressing against our company goals and provide an opportunity to give feedback directly to the CEO. Since its launch in February 2008, Arun's channel has received more than 35,000 individual hits and 100 responses from employees. We plan to make the channel available via mobile internet.
We hold regular 'Talkabout' sessions at our local operating companies where the CEO and members of the executive team meet with employees in person. This enables them to discuss our business strategy with employees and listen to their feedback about the business and the issues that matter most to them. Around 5,000 employees attended these sessions in 2007/08.
We also engage with employees more formally through the Vodafone People Survey and their annual performance dialogues with line managers. We conduct a full Group-wide People Survey every year, to obtain feedback from our people on key issues and measure employee engagement. It also helps us identify opportunities to improve working environments and practices, and to support employees so they can do their best work. See Communication and involvement: performance 2007/08 for details on the results of the latest survey.
We consult employees on changes to the business and other issues that affect them through the Vodafone European Employee Consultative Council. Some local operating companies also consult recognised trade unions. See employee consultation.