INSIGHTS KATHY CATTON
All eyes on us What are the top HR challenges facing large, complex organisations in New Zealand? Kathy Catton spoke with the Heads of HR from Chorus, SkyCity and Vodafone to understand what’s top of mind for big companies seeking to make a difference.
Vodafone
Top three challenges facing HR: 1. empowering a flexible workforce, including talent acquisition and retention 2. using big data to inform decisions 3. supporting a sense of belonging in our people. Emma Kelly, Head of the HR Centre of Expertise for Vodafone, recognises that, in a post-COVID world, being flexible will be part and parcel of the landscape. But walking the talk and empowering a flexible workforce is where the most significant advantage can come. Although Vodafone has been operating on a ‘free-range working’ approach for many years, it’s really important that this approach has been led and 22
HUMAN RESOURCES
SPRING 2021
reinforced from the top. “Recently, our CEO Jason Paris prioritised his daughter’s kapa haka performance over any work commitments and shared this decision with everyone,” says Emma. “This was a way to give our people permission to make time for family and reinforcing the flexible working we already had in place.” Finding top talent and retaining it is also a priority for Vodafone. The response from the digital services business to the talent shortage has been to build talent internally through secondments, internships and partnerships with Ngāi Tahu and TupuToa. Getting data in and using it wisely continues to be an evolving journey for Vodafone, particularly in a digital services business where a plethora of data sources exist. “We have just implemented ‘Joyous’ in our business,” says Emma. “This is an engagement tool that seeks to
access day-to-day feedback from staff. We ask questions like, ‘Do you feel like you have clear objectives?’ or ‘Do you have clarity on your priorities?’.” The responses are fed back to managers, and, over time, Vodafone is building a dashboard of where the issues and patterns are. Data can be interrogated by function, by tenure of employment and across a range of question sets, including engagement and belonging. “We also run an anonymous survey once a year. This OHI McKinsey employee survey also informs many of our initiatives.”
Vodafone teams value a 'free-range working' approach.
