Vodafone has completed what staff and ex-staff call ‘the annual cull’ that coincides with the end of the business year. Those affected vary from regional managers to UK directors, with many being staff with over ten years experience at ‘big red’ as the company is internally known.
One of those affected is Dee Kaul, Vodafone’s director of terminals who’s been instrumental in developments such as the operator’s Brightstar accessories deal, fixed broadband business and Huawei’s first break in high-street retail back in 2011. Commenting on Linkedin, he stated, ‘Almost 12 years in this wonderful company the time has come to say goodbye. An amazing revolutionary journey of great experiences, challenges, wins and failures. Vodafone has a unique culture that allows us to internationalise, implement new ideas, express opinion, respect operational excellence, develop strong leaders and form relationships. I’ve had the honour to meet many special people. Vodafone’s people are its biggest asset and because of this this I leave with a heavy heart.’
Steve Price, a Regional Sales Manager who’d worked for Vodafone for 18 years commented, ‘It's been an amazing time and wouldn't change it for the world. Been proud to work for a fantastic brand made by it's amazing people many who have become great friends who have helped create long lasting memories.’
Headcount reduction
One Vodafone staff member still at the company said ‘won’t be many people left with all these redundancies…’ Other staff members told Mobile that a round of redundancies has come to be expected at the end of the financial year, both implying the senior headcount reduction is a driven by financial reporting.
A Vodafone spokesperson stated ‘We continually review our costs to ensure we have an efficient, sustainable and agile organisation. Although we created hundreds of new roles within our UK-based customer services team last year, with another 2,100 new customer service jobs to come over the next two, we have made some minor simplifications to our retail structure over the last couple of months. A handful of managerial roles have been affected and we are working with those impacted to support them through this period.’
The rest of the industry was quick to offer condolences and support to those affected, with Daisy Wholesale MD Terry O’Brien stating, ‘Whilst today I have seen many many messages of good old friends and colleagues leaving the employment of major mobile networks - I can't help but think what amazing things all these talented people could achieve if they came together in the face of change and take the opportunity the change could bring. I can't also help but think that in my role in Daisy Wholesale I could help. Maybe it's time to use all your quality years of telecoms experience to set up a Telecoms business of your own and do it your way. I'd love to help - drop me a message if you fancy a chat. Maybe we could even facilitate people coming together to do something special together. ‘
