Vodacom Integrated Report 2016

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Driving people transformation
Developing skills
This year, we invested around R103 million (2015: R130 million)
in training and developing our employees in addition to our
programmes to enhance technical, managerial and commercial
skills. We are focusing on developing the capabilities of people
working in customer-facing roles to ensure they deliver exceptional
customer service. Our sustainability report briefly reviews our
various internal skills development programmes.
In addition to developing skills internally, we seek to attract skills
from outside our traditional business areas to ensure we have the
right talent for our new business ventures. Graduates form an
integral pipeline to meet future core needs. We have a dedicated
‘Discover Graduate’ programme aimed at identifying and nurturing
the best young talent coming out of universities. In 2015, we
hired 75 high calibre graduates in South Africa. Vodacom DRC
officially launched the programme in September 2015 with
15 graduates, followed by Vodacom Mozambique and Vodacom
Lesotho with 17 and eight graduates respectively. Vodacom
Tanzania launched the programme in April 2016, with eight
graduates. Our ability to attract talent is assisted by our recent
accolades, such as the Sunday Times Top Telecoms Brand, the
Top Employer in the telecommunications industry, and the
Mail & Guardian’s Top Companies Reputation Index.
Growing talent
Our International Assignee programme remains an important
mechanism for growing talent within the organisation.
Employees are seconded to other Vodafone operations and we
bring Vodafone employees to our operations. Our Performance
Dialogue programme forms the basis for nurturing high-potential
employees and identifying candidates for succession, which
involves monitoring performance against yearly goals, and setting
training and development targets. We have simplified the process
to ensure efficient and more robust discussions with employees.
Enhancing diversity
Diversity within our organisation helps us serve our customers
better by enhancing our pool of experiences, perspectives and
ideas. As a company with roots in South Africa, we are committed
to delivering on the ideals of Black Economic Empowerment
and Employment Equity. We have placed a strong emphasis on
encouraging diversity by growing black and female representation
at senior management level.
Gender parity remains a particular challenge within the ICT sector
and within Vodacom. We have made some progress in reducing
this gap by launching various programmes to ensure that women
have the necessary support to take up leadership positions.
Our Female Leaders programme, undertaken in partnership with the
Gordon Institute of Business Science, remains a key initiative to help
bridge gender inequality at senior management level. This one-year
programme seeks to build a talent pipeline by supporting high-
potential black women both within and outside Vodacom. Other
initiatives include:
À À Vodacom Women in Red Awards, recognising women who are
an inspiration to others;
À À Women’s Network Forum Mentorship programme, mentoring
female employees in business through Wits Business School;
and
À À HeForShe, a United Nations initiative that encourages people
across the world to speak up and act against the inequalities
faced by women and girls.
Measuring performance
We make it a priority to listen to our employees to understand their
views. Our annual independently conducted People Survey allows
employees to express their views about the organisation and
our managers. It is used to check if we are creating the right
environment for our people to excel and grow, and to identify areas
for improvement. Our results are compared to other Vodafone
Group companies and with a high-performing peer group.
This year, the overall workforce participation rate (across all
operations) was 86%. Our Engagement Score remained strong
at 76 points out of 100; we are well on track to achieve our goal
of an overall Engagement Score of 80 by the end of the 2018
financial year. A review of the initiatives we are taking to
addressing the identified areas for improvement is provided in
our sustainability report.
For our sustainability report 2016 – Investing in our
people – go to vodacom
Our safety performance
À À We are saddened to report that this year, we had four
fatalities. The lessons learnt from these incidents have
informed a revised event management guideline, using
locally-based suppliers, limiting night driving and
implementing a revised fleet management solution.
À À The total number of health and safety incidents recorded
at Vodacom this year, decreased by 44%, from 193 to 108,
43 of which were employee-related and the remaining
65 contractor-related. South Africa accounted for 67%
(2015: 50%) of all incidents, with 20% from the DRC
(2015: 37%).
À À Our lost time injury frequency rate was 0.11 below the
target of 0.25.
For our sustainability report 2016 – Employee
safety, health and wellbeing – go to
vodacom
Our performance Our business Governance review Administration Overview
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People