Unit 1 D1
Unit 21 – D1 Evaluation of training and
development
Introduction
In this assignment, I am going to evaluating the contribution that training and development make to
fulfilling the aims and objectives Vodafone. I will also be evaluating how training and development
contributes to the fulfilment of Vodafone’s aims and objectives.
Aims and objectives
There are four main objectives that Vodafone have highlighted in their 2020 annual report. These aims
and objectives all work towards and support their vision which is ‘to be a technological communications
leader, enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society’. The four main key strategic priorities that
were states by Vodafone include:
Deepening customer engagement
Accelerating digital transformation
Improving asset utilization
Optimizing the portfolio
Strategic priority 1 – Deepening customer engagement
The first strategic priority which is one of the aims and objectives that Vodafone have stated in their
2020 annual report is to deepen customer engagement. This consists of improving loyalty and driving
revenue growth in terms of customers. In the annual report, Vodafone state that they ‘aim to deepen
the relationship we have with our customers by selling additional products and services, particularly
fixed and converged products in Europe and mobile data and financial services in Africa. This will drive
revenue growth and improve customer loyalty. 1‘. This means that they are focusing on trying to further
engage their consumers and focusing on those who are vulnerable, mostly in Europe and Asia where
Vodafone's focus is; they want to sell these additional products to individuals because they may not be
available with other telecommunication providers in the market. This allows Vodafone to maintain their
position in the market and an advantage over their competitors which would be evident in their growth
and success. They want to improve customer loyalty with their consumers in these areas (Vodafone’s
market) which would support them in driving revenue growth in these customer segments which makes
it beneficial to the business to sell more products to customers while also improving their relationship
with them.
Vodafone have successfully made significant progress towards this strategic priority of deepening
customer engagement. Stated in their 2020 annual report, their customer loyalty has greatly improved
consistently and consecutively for 6 quarters. This could be the result of the ongoing employee training
and development which has helped increase employee product knowledge as well as the skills needed
to improve customer service. Because employees have more product knowledge, this has helped to
increase their morale and confidence which would make the experience of purchasing products/services
at Vodafone more enjoyable for both the customer and for the front-line employees. Furthermore, their
progress towards deepening customer service has been shown through their annual mobile contract
1
https://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/vodcom/files/vdf_files_2020/pdfs/vodafone-annual-report-2020.pdf
, Unit 1 D1
churn (the percentage of employees that leave) which 1% of which has fallen, meaning that there have
been less customers leaving the business. This is a big number because Vodafone has over 625 million
customers globally and 17.2 million subscribers in the UK; the less customers that leave the business,
the higher customer retention would be. Because of their success in positive customer relations,
customers have continued to purchase Vodafone products and services which has led to an increase in
revenue from sales (£460 million profit) in 2021 which compares favorably with the £391 million loss in
the previous year.
Training has contributed towards the progress of this strategic priority and Vodafone achieving this aim.
Training employees would greatly increase the work rate and the quality of work from employees which
would, in turn, increase the revenue generated because employees are getting work done faster and
better. There has been an increase in sales which casued a 3% growth in revenue from 2019 to 2020
which could be the result of vodafone training their employees as effective product and sales training
would benefit the business in many ways, aiding them in reaching their aims and objectives.
Improvements in customer service would decrease customer annual chrun rate, leading to more loyal
customers and increasing sales. If this training was not done or had not been effective, it would redelct
on the performance of the business and the work rate of employees. Vodafone may not have been able
to increase their sales if their employees were not trained as much as they were. This training and
development would allow employees to have a better understanding of customer service which would
help maintain customer loyalty and improve the brand image because customers would have more of a
reason to purchase products/services at Vodafone rather than at their competitors such as EE or O2.
Although there are benefits to Vodafone training their employees, it is very costly to the business due to
the innovative markets that Vodafone operate in. Because technology and products are constantly
changing, it requires regular training to keep employees up to date which will create operating costs to
Vodafone. Without this training, employees would not be able to sell their products effectively as they
would have little knowledge on them which is something that they need if they want to increase sales
and customer retention.
Strategic priority 2 – Accelerating Digital transformation
The second strategic objective for Vodafone is to accelerate the digital transformation. This means to
strengthen their differentiation and lead the industry in terms of capturing the benefits of digitalism. To
do this, they plan to transform their operating model to be digitally ‘first’. In an investor event in 2019,
Vodafone discussed their ambitions where they spoke about three primary areas of focus. These were:
digital customer management, digital technology management and digital operations. To achieve this
strategic priority, they would have to focus on these areas which would allow them to operate digitally
effectively.
In 2019 they started their multi-year programme where they aimed to generate a minimum of €1.2bn in
net savings from operating expenses in Europe and Group common functions. Vodafone had
successfully saved €0.8bn in the current financial year and are making progress towards the €0.4bn they
were aiming for. The first way that Vodafone have been able to achieve this is using technology during
communication with customers. Vodafone have made it clear that they are looking to move away from
having a Vodafone employee on the other end of the phone and rather an automated system as it has a
massive impact on the long-term costs of the business. As of the financial year of 2019, Vodafone had
been able to introduce this system to 11 out of their 13 European markets. The second change that they
Unit 21 – D1 Evaluation of training and
development
Introduction
In this assignment, I am going to evaluating the contribution that training and development make to
fulfilling the aims and objectives Vodafone. I will also be evaluating how training and development
contributes to the fulfilment of Vodafone’s aims and objectives.
Aims and objectives
There are four main objectives that Vodafone have highlighted in their 2020 annual report. These aims
and objectives all work towards and support their vision which is ‘to be a technological communications
leader, enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society’. The four main key strategic priorities that
were states by Vodafone include:
Deepening customer engagement
Accelerating digital transformation
Improving asset utilization
Optimizing the portfolio
Strategic priority 1 – Deepening customer engagement
The first strategic priority which is one of the aims and objectives that Vodafone have stated in their
2020 annual report is to deepen customer engagement. This consists of improving loyalty and driving
revenue growth in terms of customers. In the annual report, Vodafone state that they ‘aim to deepen
the relationship we have with our customers by selling additional products and services, particularly
fixed and converged products in Europe and mobile data and financial services in Africa. This will drive
revenue growth and improve customer loyalty. 1‘. This means that they are focusing on trying to further
engage their consumers and focusing on those who are vulnerable, mostly in Europe and Asia where
Vodafone's focus is; they want to sell these additional products to individuals because they may not be
available with other telecommunication providers in the market. This allows Vodafone to maintain their
position in the market and an advantage over their competitors which would be evident in their growth
and success. They want to improve customer loyalty with their consumers in these areas (Vodafone’s
market) which would support them in driving revenue growth in these customer segments which makes
it beneficial to the business to sell more products to customers while also improving their relationship
with them.
Vodafone have successfully made significant progress towards this strategic priority of deepening
customer engagement. Stated in their 2020 annual report, their customer loyalty has greatly improved
consistently and consecutively for 6 quarters. This could be the result of the ongoing employee training
and development which has helped increase employee product knowledge as well as the skills needed
to improve customer service. Because employees have more product knowledge, this has helped to
increase their morale and confidence which would make the experience of purchasing products/services
at Vodafone more enjoyable for both the customer and for the front-line employees. Furthermore, their
progress towards deepening customer service has been shown through their annual mobile contract
1
https://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/vodcom/files/vdf_files_2020/pdfs/vodafone-annual-report-2020.pdf
, Unit 1 D1
churn (the percentage of employees that leave) which 1% of which has fallen, meaning that there have
been less customers leaving the business. This is a big number because Vodafone has over 625 million
customers globally and 17.2 million subscribers in the UK; the less customers that leave the business,
the higher customer retention would be. Because of their success in positive customer relations,
customers have continued to purchase Vodafone products and services which has led to an increase in
revenue from sales (£460 million profit) in 2021 which compares favorably with the £391 million loss in
the previous year.
Training has contributed towards the progress of this strategic priority and Vodafone achieving this aim.
Training employees would greatly increase the work rate and the quality of work from employees which
would, in turn, increase the revenue generated because employees are getting work done faster and
better. There has been an increase in sales which casued a 3% growth in revenue from 2019 to 2020
which could be the result of vodafone training their employees as effective product and sales training
would benefit the business in many ways, aiding them in reaching their aims and objectives.
Improvements in customer service would decrease customer annual chrun rate, leading to more loyal
customers and increasing sales. If this training was not done or had not been effective, it would redelct
on the performance of the business and the work rate of employees. Vodafone may not have been able
to increase their sales if their employees were not trained as much as they were. This training and
development would allow employees to have a better understanding of customer service which would
help maintain customer loyalty and improve the brand image because customers would have more of a
reason to purchase products/services at Vodafone rather than at their competitors such as EE or O2.
Although there are benefits to Vodafone training their employees, it is very costly to the business due to
the innovative markets that Vodafone operate in. Because technology and products are constantly
changing, it requires regular training to keep employees up to date which will create operating costs to
Vodafone. Without this training, employees would not be able to sell their products effectively as they
would have little knowledge on them which is something that they need if they want to increase sales
and customer retention.
Strategic priority 2 – Accelerating Digital transformation
The second strategic objective for Vodafone is to accelerate the digital transformation. This means to
strengthen their differentiation and lead the industry in terms of capturing the benefits of digitalism. To
do this, they plan to transform their operating model to be digitally ‘first’. In an investor event in 2019,
Vodafone discussed their ambitions where they spoke about three primary areas of focus. These were:
digital customer management, digital technology management and digital operations. To achieve this
strategic priority, they would have to focus on these areas which would allow them to operate digitally
effectively.
In 2019 they started their multi-year programme where they aimed to generate a minimum of €1.2bn in
net savings from operating expenses in Europe and Group common functions. Vodafone had
successfully saved €0.8bn in the current financial year and are making progress towards the €0.4bn they
were aiming for. The first way that Vodafone have been able to achieve this is using technology during
communication with customers. Vodafone have made it clear that they are looking to move away from
having a Vodafone employee on the other end of the phone and rather an automated system as it has a
massive impact on the long-term costs of the business. As of the financial year of 2019, Vodafone had
been able to introduce this system to 11 out of their 13 European markets. The second change that they
