Remuneration Policy 100 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
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Remuneration Policy – notes to reader No changes have been made to our policy since its approval at the 2023 Annual General Meeting which was held on 25 July 2023. Our approved Policy Report is available on our website at vodafone.com, and has been reproduced below in the shaded boxes exactly as it was set out in the 2023 Annual Report. As such some of the policy wording, including references to the 2023 Annual General Meeting and page number references, is now out of date. Remuneration Policy In this forward-looking section we describe our Remuneration Policy for the Board. This includes our considerations when determining policy, a description of the elements of the reward package, including an indication of the potential future value of this package for the Executive Directors, and the policy applied to the Chair and Non-Executive Directors. We will be seeking shareholder approval for our Remuneration Policy at the 2023 Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’) and we intend to implement it at that point. A summary and explanation of the proposed changes to the current Remuneration Policy is provided on page 85. The proposed Remuneration Policy submitted for shareholders’ approval at the 2023 AGM does not differ substantively from the Remuneration Policy approved by shareholders in 2020 except for changes made to align the terms of the Remuneration Policy with the drafting of the rules of the new Global Incentive Plan 2023, which is also being submitted for shareholders’ approval at the 2023 AGM. Subject to approval, we will review our Remuneration Policy each year to ensure that it continues to support our Company strategy and, if it is necessary to make a change to our Remuneration Policy within the next three years, we will seek prior shareholder approval for the change. Considerations when determining our Remuneration Policy To avoid conflicts of interest, the Remuneration Committee is entirely comprised of Non-Executive Directors (who are not eligible to participate in the Company’s annual bonus or long-term incentive arrangements) and the Remuneration Committee ensures that individuals are not present when the Remuneration Committee discusses their own remuneration. A critical consideration for the Remuneration Committee when determining our Remuneration Policy is to ensure that it supports our Company purpose, strategy, and business objectives. A variety of stakeholder views are taken into account when determining executive pay, including those of our shareholders, colleagues, and external bodies. Further details of how we engage with, and consider the views of, each of these stakeholders are set out on page 100. In advance of submitting our Remuneration Policy for shareholder approval we ran a thorough consultation exercise with our major shareholders. We invited our top 25 shareholders (constituting a combined holding of c.50% of our issued share capital at the time of engagement) and a number of key governance stakeholders to comment on remuneration at Vodafone and to provide feedback on the proposed changes to the current Remuneration Policy which was approved at the 2020 AGM. A number of meetings between shareholders and the Remuneration Committee Chair took place during this consultation period. Listening to and consulting with our employees is very important and the Remuneration Committee is supportive of the activities undertaken to engage the employee voice. Our engagement with employees can take different forms in different markets but includes a variety of channels and approaches including our annual people survey which attracts very high levels of participation and engagement, regular business leader Q&A sessions, and a number of internal digital communication platforms. Our Workforce Engagement Lead also undertakes an annual attendance at our European employee forum, and a similar body which covers our African markets, with any questions or concerns raised by the employee representatives presented directly to the Board for consideration and discussion. Any actions taken by the Board are then fed back to these forums to ensure a two-way dialogue. Whilst we do not formally consult directly with employees on the Remuneration Policy nor is any fixed remuneration comparison measurement used when determining the Remuneration Policy for Executive Directors, the Remuneration Committee is briefed on pay and employment conditions of employees in the Vodafone Group, with particular reference to the market in which the executive is based. The Company operates Sharesave, a UK all-employee share plan, as well as other discretionary share-based incentive arrangements, which means that the wider workforce have the opportunity to become shareholders in the Company and be able to vote on the Remuneration Policy in the same way as other shareholders. Further information on our approach to remuneration for other employees is given on page 90. Performance measures and targets Our Company strategy and business objectives are the primary consideration when we are selecting performance measures for our incentive plans. The targets within our incentive plans that are related to internal financial measures (such as revenue, profit and cash flow) are typically determined based on our budgets. Targets for strategic and external measures (such as customer-focused metrics, ESG measures, and total shareholder return (‘TSR’)) are set based on Company objectives and in light of the competitive marketplace. The threshold and maximum levels of performance are set to reflect minimum acceptable levels at threshold and very stretching levels at maximum. As in previous Remuneration Reports, we will disclose the details of our performance metrics for our short- and long-term incentive plans. However, our annual bonus targets are commercially sensitive and therefore we will only disclose our targets in the Remuneration Report following the completion of the financial year. We will normally disclose the targets for each long-term award in the Remuneration Report for the financial year preceding the start of the performance period. At the end of each performance period we review performance against the targets, using judgement to account for items such as (but not limited to) mergers, acquisitions, disposals, foreign exchange rate movements, changes in accounting treatment, material one-off tax settlements etc. The application of judgement is important to ensure that the final assessments of performance are fair and appropriate.
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