This review is about employment at Vodafone UK based on my own experiences within the IT department and I hope you find this useful.
~~ My Vodafone Background ~~ I joined Vodafone in 1998 and started work in the IT Department based in Newbury in Berkshire. I have changed roles several times, internally, but have remained within IT until next month when I will be leaving the company completely.
~~ Why Work For Vodafone ~~ The allure of Vodafone is primarily because they are perceived to be the market leader in telecommunications and tend to pay generous salaries. There are also a number of perks including free line rental for 2 personal handsets, subsidised calls and texts, discount for friends and family, free broadband connection at home if your job requires you to work unsociable hours at any time.
On top of that there is a company pension scheme, life insurance and intermittent share options.
Work-related benefits include access to training courses to improve your career prospects, a laptop and company mobile phone. You also get to work with the latest technology.
You get 28 days paid holiday plus bank holidays.
Longer term advantages are that due to the sheer size of Vodafone, there are numerous career opportunities and it is quite easy to branch into career paths which you may not have previously considered.
Vodafone's offices vary in size and comfort - my office is fairly modern with open office space and coffee areas scattered around. Others are not so well decorated but have similar facilities. There is a staff canteen which costs more than Sainsbury's so I tend to avoid it !
There are no desk-based telephones - everybody is issued with a staff mobile and that is how everybody communicates.
~~ Getting Into Vodafone ~~ For any prospective employee, getting an interview is the biggest hurdle and unfortunately, Vodafone is no exception.
If you send in a speculative letter then don't be surprised if you are totally ignored. Even applying through Vodafone's external website is no guarantee of a reply let alone an interview.
The 2 best ways of getting a job at Vodafone are by either applying through one of the employment agencies that Vodafone uses or by a personal referral (insider infrmation !).
I applied through an agency as a temp and was lucky enough to be offered a permanent position after 6 months.
~~ Your First Day ~~ My first day was a real eye-opener I can tell you. Beneath the smooth exterior lies a centre of chaos and confusion. For example, most of Vodafone's buildings can only be accessed using a secure id card and you may expect Vodafone to supply this to you on your first day - but no. It took over a week for mine to arrive during which time I had to rely on the good-natured receptionist or colleagues to let me in.
You will be assigned to a "buddy" who will mentor you and teach you your role but again this is flawed. Often, the person teaching you is either too busy to spend much time at your side or is the person that you are replacing and so you end up having to learn as you go. I know of at least 2 people who were fired within their first 12 months and it was mainly due to them receiving poor training from their colleagues.
There is no formal training period in many departments although this varies depending on which team you are working for. Some are better than others but all are mostly unregulated internally and have devised their own training regimes.
~~ Management ~~ If you are not a "self-starter" then your career at Vodafone will be short-lived - guaranteed. The back-stabbing brigade will drive you out if you underperform or happen to annoy the wrong person.
If, however, you are a strong person with a lot of energy and drive then you can make a good career at Vodafone, so decide which category you fit into before applying for a job here.
Note that whilst Vodafone pay genrously they do expect a lot in return. There is a culture of long hours and you are expected to work overtime in the evenings and weekends id the job demands it. If you don't do this then you will find yourself "out of favour" in some departments.
The management at Vodafone deserve a lot of criticism I'm afraid. There are company policies made by Human Resources which line managers interpret as they see fit. If you work for a decent line manager then you will be okay but there are a lot of bad managers scattered around the company, all of whom seem to be unaccountable (if they screw up they are just moved elsewhere whereas you or I would be fired).
Examples of mis-management include things like :- - some employees being allowed to work flexible hours whereas others in the same department are not. - warnings that project deadlines are unattainable are ignored. - more established members of staff arriving late consistently are not disciplined but if a new starter does the same they are reprimanded. - failure by some managers to hold regular staff reviews therefore affecting their career as promotion and payrises depend on the review scores
~~ PDR - personal development review ~~ As an employee you receive an interim PDR in November and a final PDR in April each year. This documents your performance and achievements compared against what the company expects of you. You are then graded and this is used to determine your payrise and whether you ought to be "managed out" of the company.
~~ The City ~~ Vodafone is listed on the Stock Exchange and is extremely susceptible to the volatile nature of share trading due to the volume of shares that it has. The current senior management structure have devised their busines strategy around pleasing the shareholders which is great for them but not so good for Vodafone's employees.
Annual budgets are repeatedly cut and one of the ways this is achieved is by not replacing people who resign. This in turn places a large burden on the employees who are left and have to take on the extra workload. Payrises have fallen to below the rate of inflation in recent years. They are meant to be dependent on your PDR (annual review) results but last year for example, payrises were awarded before the PDR grades had been issued with line managers having no say in the matter !
This pandering to the City has made Vodafone a less comfortable place to work of late.
~~ Training ~~ Training is available through web-based courses, internal training and external training courses. In our department we are allowed 1 external training course per year (no cost limit) and as many internal training courses as necessary. The web-based training is poor to be honest and not worth doing in most cases. Internal training can be useful but tends to be non-technical.
That said, I have benefitted very well from the training on offer and so this is one of Vodafone's strengths.
~~ My Thoughts On Working At Vodafone ~~ There is a strong team spirit at Vodafone and most people work alongside others quite well with a few exceptions. If you are a likeable person then other teams tend to help you out quite readily. The team I work for are a good bunch and work really hard to deliver results and somebody is always there to help out if you are struggling with a problem of any sort.
However, there are other teams of people who are not so helpful - on average, I would say that in any given team of 6 people, only 4 are actually capable of doing the job they are employed to do. This is partly historical and due to the way in which the company has expanded over the past 7 years - people have been placed in roles which they are not suited to rather than making them redundant.
My line managers have mostly been very good (apart from 1 who I really disliked). I have had compassionate leave on a few occasions and this has been given freely by my manager - but beware as other managers are not so flexible as mine have been.
The staff phone scheme is okay although if you are a heavy user then you may be better off on one of Vodafone's public tariffs - I am not kidding ! Because although you get free line rental and subsidised calls you DO pay for every call whereas on a "bundled" tariff you have a number of minutes included in your line rental. At the top end of the scale these bundled minutes are very generous and work out much cheaper than the staff scheme.
Vodafone have outsourced their payroll department and it is almost impossible to contact anybody if you have a pay query. The telephone line is never answered and your emails are not replied to, although in my experience, your email will be actioned but they just won't tell you that they have done so !
An interesting point of note is that the company relies heavily on email - many people email others who sit across the other side of the office rather than walk across and talk to them !
~~ Why I Am Leaving Vodafone ~~ One of my biggest bug-bears with the company has been their internal recruitment policy. It is fairly easy to move internally but - and this is a big but - in many cases you are awarded a tiny payrise or no payrise at all despite moving to a "better" position.
And so one of the reasons for my leaving is to go to a much better paid job with a company not far from where I work now and doing the same role.
Vodafone recently changed their promotion policy which means that you cannot be promoted whilst doing the same role. Previously, most roles were classed as either "intermediate" or "senior" - which meant that you could enter as an intermediate analyst and gain promotion to senior after a few years but carry on doing the same job (but with more responsibilities). Now, you can only gain promotion by moving to a diferent role which effectively means a different team and job. For most people that is impractical and not conducive to their career path.
So this is another reason for my departure.
Vodafone is also about to announce the outsourcing of it's entire IT department (as reported by the Sunday Times some 4 weeks ago). Based on what I have seen over the past 7 years, I just know that Vodafone will choose the wrong partner - guaranteed ! The uncertainty has already prompted a trickle of resignations.
~~ Summary ~~ Vodafone can offer a very rewarding career and is a really fun place to work most of the time so long as you find yourself in the right team. You must be hardworking and able to get on with people regardless of what your CV says (we all have that on there don't we ?) - if not then you will soon be found out. You simply have to form good working relationships to get on at Vodafone.
I imagine that as soon as the outsourcing rumours have been quashed/announced then Vodafone will return to it's old self again and if you can ignore the blatant mismanagement then you will enjoy working here.
I have to recommend Vodafone as a place to work as otherwise I wouldn't have stayed here so long would I ? And also, I know that other large corporations act no differently to Vodafone. It's just disappointing when I look back 7 years to how Vodafone used to operate as one large family - but now that all it's cousins and distant relatives have turned up on the doorstep, the house is a little bit crowded.
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