18 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Our people strategy (continued)
Embedding inclusion Multiple employee networks operate across Vodafone including Women, VodAbility, LGBT+ Friends, Parents & Carers and Multicultural Inclusion. We actively support them, and this year we provided 29 network chairs and sponsors with specific leadership development training focused on how to effectively create and assess a network’s strategy, as well as how to be a visible and effective sponsor. Global Withstander training continues to be delivered in 11 languages to upskill employees on how to become active allies by challenging negative and inappropriate behaviours when they witness them. Over 74% of employees and 91% of managers completed the training in FY24. We continued to engage with colleagues and raise awareness of why inclusion matters. During the year, we held global sessions on diversity and inclusion topics and these received over 10,000 1 viewers across all markets. Gender diversity Goal: We aim to have 40% women in management roles by 2030. We have reached 35%, which is on track towards our ambition. We continue to drive progress through programmes, policies and leadership incentives. 2024 2023 Women on the Board 42% 54% Women on the Executive Committee 33% 33% Women in senior leadership positions 1 37% 34% Women in management and senior leadership roles 2 35% 33% Women as a percentage of external hires 44% 40% Women as a percentage of graduates 53% 44% 3 Women as a percentage of employees 4 39% 39% Notes: 1. Percentage of senior women in our top 135 positions includes the Executive Committee and Senior Leadership Team (FY23: 158). 2. Percentage of women in our 6,350 management and leadership roles (FY23: 6,328). 3. Includes Vodafone Italy and Vodafone Spain. 4. Percentage of women based on 85,225 total employees (FY23: 93,095). The total number of employees represents the position on 31 March for the applicable year and excludes employees that left the Company after this date. The numbers do not represent pro-rated headcount. Further information on how employees are defined and calculated can be found in the ESG Addendum Methodology document: investors.vodafone.com/esgmethodology. We work to ensure there is gender diversity when resourcing for senior leadership roles, and our leadership team is accountable for maintaining diversity and inclusion in their teams. Women in management targets are also embedded in our long-term incentive plans. Across youth programmes, 49% of hires were women. We have also now connected with over 15,000 girls via the digital skills programme ‘Code Like a Girl’ since 2017. We support managers on inclusive hiring practices through training and by embedding inclusion in our talent acquisition systems. This includes the introduction of blind CVs, which exclude personal details such as the candidate’s gender and age. Domestic violence Our global domestic violence policy sets out comprehensive workplace resources, support, security, paid safe leave and other measures for employees at risk of experiencing, and recovering from, domestic violence and abuse. We expanded our support by creating an allyship programme for domestic abuse survivors. This expands training beyond HR and line managers to all employees, including our frontline workforce, on how to recognise the signs of abuse, respond, and refer survivors to support. Menopause Our external research identified that 62% of women with symptoms of menopause found that it impacted their work. We are committed to supporting women experiencing menopause, including providing a global toolkit, which is freely available to download externally, and menopause e-learning on common symptoms’ impact to work.
Maternity and parental leave Our global maternity and parental leave policies are available across markets, providing 16 weeks of fully paid leave with a phased return to work over six months, where parents work the equivalent of four days and are paid for five days. This policy is open to all employees regardless of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, length of service, and whether they or their partner is having a baby, or they are welcoming a child through surrogacy or adoption. This year, over 2,300 women have taken our maternity leave and over 2,500 men have taken parental leave, with 72% of the latter taking four or more weeks of leave. Of those who identify as LGBT+, 5% have taken parental leave. In addition, 70% of employees remained with Vodafone 12 months after their return from parental leave. LGBT+ We accelerated our focus on supporting our LGBT+ community with 2,700 allies and active support from senior executive sponsors. For the first time we included the question ‘Are you out at work?’ as part of our Spirit Beat survey to better understand experiences of our LGBT+ employees in the workplace 2 . 44% 3 of our LGBT+ community are out at work. To further support them, we launched a guide for managers and colleagues to support employees coming out in the workplace and have also updated our LGBT+ travel toolkit advising on safe travel. In addition, we launched the pronoun functionality in Microsoft Teams and Outlook on the web; this gives employees the option to easily add their preferred pronouns to their profile. The Vodafone Foundation continues to promote the Zoteria app in the UK, which helps the LGBT+ community and the wider public to come together and tackle the issue of LGBT+ hate crime. Accessibility in the workplace During the year, we upskilled our people through continued promotion of and education about the accessibility features available within Microsoft 365. We also have accessibility guidelines, which are reinforced through workshops and training for developers. Assessments continue to be conducted to improve the accessibility of our own products. We have seven sessions available and hosted a podcast to promote accessibility in the digital workplace. Vodafone took part in research to understand the experience of neurodiverse people in technology, along with Colt, Samsung, and Nokia, as part of the #ChangeTheFace alliance. The aim was to provide insights for employers to support neurodiverse people in the workplace. Race, ethnicity and cultural heritage (‘REACH’) We continue to promote greater workplace inclusion through allyship and anti-racism. REACH executive sponsors continued to be appointed across our markets, and REACH fluency training continued to be adapted to local contexts and rolled out in our European markets. This year, we extended the McKinsey Black, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino Leadership Programmes to all our markets with over 500 signing up to the sessions so far. In 2020, we set ethnic diversity targets at leadership level, presented below. Ethnic category 31 March 2024 Long-term ambition Population Global Ethnically diverse background 20% 2030: 25% Global Senior Leadership Team (123 positions) UK 16%
2025: 20% 2025: 4% 2030: 75%
UK-based senior leadership and management (1340 positions)
Black, Asian, other diverse ethnicities
UK Black
2%
71%
South African-based senior leadership and management (412 positions)
South Africa Ethnically diverse background
Notes: 1. Includes Vodafone Spain and Vodafone Italy. 2. Markets not asking LGBT+ questions include: DRC, Tanzania, Turkey, and Egypt; the latter also does not ask ethnicity questions. 3. Includes Vodafone Italy.
Powered by FlippingBook