Vodafone, a major mobile operator, has announced that it will be cutting 11,000 jobs from its global workforce within the next three years.
The company has acknowledged that it needs to restructure in order to remain competitive against its rivals and to provide a better customer experience.
The job cuts follow the announcement of a €1bn cost savings plan in November and is the first major move by Vodafone’s new group CEO, Margherita Della Valle.
These cuts also follow the company’s two-decade slump in share prices.
Della Valle, who was appointed last month, has stated that changes need to be made in order for Vodafone to consistently deliver. She has prioritized customers, simplicity, and growth, and aims to simplify the organization, cutting out complexity to regain competitiveness. Resources will be reallocated to ensure the quality of service customers expect is maintained.
Vodafone, which has approximately 18 million UK mobile customers and over 1 million broadband customers, is in the final stages of a merger with Three to create the UK’s largest mobile company and compete with its rivals.
In November, Vodafone cut its annual profit forecast and announced a €1bn-plus cost-cutting plan, including job cuts, in response to increasing energy bills and inflation. A month later, Nick Read, who had been Vodafone’s CEO for four years and had been with the company for two decades, was ousted after a 40 percent slump in market value during his tenure.
Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, comments on what companies can do to support redundant employees:
“With the news that Vodafone will be cutting 11,000 jobs globally over three years, they join a number of big businesses announcing cuts to their workforce. This means many more individuals entering the job market, possibly for the first time in years and poses the question, what could be done to support the transition for those staff who lose their job to life after Vodafone?
“Being faced with leaving employment, especially when it is through no fault of your own, as with redundancy, is a daunting prospect. It can lead to various worries and problems, and it is important that employees going through this stressful and challenging time are treated with fairness and respect. Outplacement support is one of the ways Vodafone could support their exiting employees.
“This will ensure these employees leave the business on the best possible terms. It can also alleviate ‘survivors’ guilt’ amongst remaining employees, improve their own engagement and wellbeing that may otherwise have been damaged by the redundancy process, and help to maintain trust in the employment relationship. Finally, it can help to reduce the negative effects to reputation large-scale redundancies can bring.
“Vodafone could offer individualised support, conducted on a one-to-one basis, especially for specialist or very senior roles. Outplacement support can also include career coaching, goal setting and change of career information, as well as training on CV writing skills, interview techniques and job-searches, including the most relevant job sites/boards to use, and how to access jobs that are not widely advertised.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
