83 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2026
Strategic report
Governance
Financials
Other information
Culture and the Board continued
Embedding culture through workforce engagement The Board places strong emphasis on understanding the workforce experience to ensure a culture that supports engagement, accountability and long‑term performance.
Employees report strong motivation and engagement, driven by supportive managers, collaborative teams, and flexible working. Wellbeing initiatives are making a real, positive difference. Ruth McGill Group Chief HR Officer
Workforce Engagement Leads, Delphine Ernotte Cunci and Christine Ramon, attended the European Employee Consultative Committee and the Vodacom Employee Engagement Forum to gather employees views. Key topics included M&A activities, talent management, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, hybrid working, services, AI readiness, organisational experience. conversations and the transparency of talent decisions, recognising their importance in supporting a fair and accountable culture. Discussions on the skills and behaviours needed to deliver transformation also informed the Board’s expectations of how leadership culture should continue to evolve. analytics could improve understanding of emerging themes from employee feedback, enabling earlier identification of cultural risks and opportunities. As part of this, the new Manager Effectiveness Index enabled the Board to build a more systematic understanding of employees’ experiences of their managers and to drive more focused development and action. Taken together, these workforce insights supported the Board’s ongoing oversight of cultural alignment with the Group’s mission, values and strategy, and informed its discussions with Management on sustaining a culture that supports long- term performance and transformation. ‘Viva Engage’, our internal digital platform, where Executive Committee and internal communications teams regularly post on the platform to provide updates to our people on topics such as financial results, business strategy, portfolio progress, and company achievements.
Workforce engagement remains an important part of the Board’s assessment of how culture is embedded across the organisation. Throughout the year, the Board considered insights from employee surveys, talent updates and direct engagement activities to understand how colleagues experience the Group’s mission, values and strategic ambition in practice. The Board’s Regular updates on leadership development, performance management and succession planning provided the Board with visibility of how cultural expectations are reinforced through people processes. The Board used these insights to challenge Management on ensuring consistency and clarity in performance expectations, the quality of leadership The Board received feedback from the Spirit Beat survey alongside qualitative insights from Employee Forum engagements, which offered a rounded view of employee sentiment across markets. Board members also gained perspectives through informal meeting with employees during site visits and engagement events, enabling candid insights into lived experience and cultural consistency. This input enabled the Board to identify where cultural strengths are supporting progress, and where additional focus is required to reinforce engagement and alignment during a period of change. The Board also considered how enhanced Employees received regular updates from the Group Chief Executive on how we are progressing our strategy through a wide variety of digital and face-to-face channels, including markets townhalls, employee conferences, and monthly leadership meetings. These are complemented by group-wide updates on Microsoft
Workforce engagement
81% of our employees say they are happy working at Vodafone. 81% of our employees would recommend Vodafone as a great place to work. 85% of our employees say their manager keeps the team focused on clear priorities. 85% of our employees report that their manager provides feedback that helps improve their performance.
Talent strategy
Employee listening
Employee communication
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