News

According to a report released last week, the company spent

only £536 per employee on training in 2008-09, compared to £704 per

employee the year before. The company shifted many of its training

resources to an online format. Despite earning profits of GBP11.8

billion in 2008, which was a 16% increase on 2007, Vodafone is

drastically cutting spending on training and development. Given that the

company itself admits that "employee engagement,

employee advocacy and learning and development are ... critical

components in retaining the strength of the organisation and enabling us

to build for the future", this may undermine Vodafone's performance

moving forward.



UK union, Connect, has impressed upon Vodafone the need to better

understand, improve and reward the skills of its employees. The union

says that although some of Vodafone's plans to reduce costs may be

considered and proportionate, significantly reducing training budgets

per employee remains deeply concerning to Connect and its members in

Vodafone.