In these particular challenging times, women are more likely to give up on jobs and projects to fully engage in the other very important role of caretaker for the family. Providing them support, encouraging and helping them thrive in the workplace during this period was even more important.
Building an inclusive workplace starts with building self-awareness about own biases but also taking the conversation about what the differences consist of either they are based on ethnicity, religion, gender, race etc to all layers of an organization. Only by being aware of what “different” means can further take us to building bridges and create an authentic inclusive environment, where everybody feels comfortable and free to be oneself.
Anca, could you share with us some key milestones in the D&I journey of Vodafone Romania?
Inclusion for all is one of the three pillars of our purpose at the societal level and a strong commitment that the more vulnerable either, children, elder people or women are not left behind, but on the contrary, empowered to improve their lives through technology. Equally, diversity and inclusion are at the core of our business and our culture as a company strongly embraces them. One of our focus in Vodafone Romania is related to gender equality and empowering women.
In this regard, in 2017 we have launched Reconnect program, the biggest recruitment initiative aimed at helping talented women get back to work.
For women with seniority in their roles who might need a boost in their career, Vodafone launched in 2020 Lean in Circle, a mentoring program that encourages employees to pursue their ambitions and shifts the conversation from what we cannot do to what WOMEN CAN DO! This tailor-made peer-to-peer mentoring program empowers soft skills and enhances each person at her own pace, will and judgement. The goal is for women to grow together through collective wisdom. Women empowerment also means for us extending our internal support channel for domestic abuse victims to support the many victims that are outside of our company, with women being affected in a higher number. Thus, Vodafone Romania Foundation launched Bright Sky, a free digital app that supports victims of domestic violence, providing assistance and useful information to people in an abusive relationship or to those who want to help others. The application was initially developed by the Vodafone Group Foundation and later adapted for Romania in a partnership with the Romanian Police, Necuvinte Association and Code for Romania Association.
Another important milestone meant to give every parent the opportunity to have more time with children new to their family, is the launch in 2020 of the 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for the employees that become biologic or adoptive fathers. Vodafone employees are also able to phase their return from parental leave by working the equivalent of a 30-hour week at full pay for a further six months.
Last but not least we have taken the first steps into addressing disability and ethnicity by starting a recruiting program in several cities.
Since 2018 we are members of the Romanian Diversity Charter (Carta Diversitatii din Romania) and since 2021 we are founding members of the Romanian Diversity Chamber of Commerce.
What aspects of diversity management have the highest priority in your company?
At Vodafone Romania we are focusing on gender balance as a key part of our strategy that contributes to achieving a better business performance and consolidating our best employer position in the industry. One of our D&I goals is to support women's presence and representation at all organizational levels in order to fully capitalize on their potential and value their great contribution to our company’s activity. We have a strong commitment to diversity and women’s empowerment both at global and local level.
In Vodafone Romania, people manager roles are almost equally shared between women and men, while 42% of the senior manager positions being taken also by women. 4 out of 9 board members are women as well. On the group level, the goal is for women to hold 40% of management and leadership roles by 2030, a goal we have already achieved locally. Also, within Vodafone we are aiming of becoming best employer for women by 2025, and for that we are pushing initiatives, both at Group and local level, to support women at different stages of their professional or personal life and encourage them to build a successful career.
Domestic Violence and Abuse is another important topic we are pushing through our Diversity and Inclusion strategy meant for helping all our employees reach their full potential. The policy gives free assistance and counseling along with a 10 days fully payed extra leave called „safety leave“ to those confronting with a situation of violence and abuse within their family.
Another category of employees Vodafone has taken into consideration when building D&I programs were the adoptive parents and the biological fathers. Through a unique parental leave Vodafone encourages its employees into taking the new roles within the family by supporting fully 16 weeks payed time off and phased office returning.
Which D&I activities have been implemented in your organization so far?
Through our Reconnect program we have trained Vodafone recruiters to enroll in the recruiting process all relevant candidates regardless of the unemployment periods listed in their resume. Also, as part of our Diversity and Inclusion strategy we are encouraging our employees to complete their Diversity Profile so we can better know and understand our colleagues and their needs and be able to prioritize and address them through relevant programs.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by your sector in creating a diverse and inclusive workforce?
In telecom and technology industries, for many years there was this misconception that this is men’s world, when women proved they are at least as capable as men to do the work. Again, there should be diversity, different views and paths to take in order to build good products and services addressing a large pool of diverse people. At a larger extent, the prejudice, the stigmatization and labeling are challenges that can be only overcome through education. In any domain, the diversity should be treasured as a source for creativity and inspiration, innovation and growth. It’s terrible to defeat the barriers we set to ourselves sometimes, imagine what could do to us also having to break down barriers set to us by others.
What business benefits do you see as a result of increasing D&I?
We put a lot of effort, energy and resources into reaching the gender balance within Vodafone Romania and that led us to 63% of Vodafone Romania employees being women, almost half of people’s manager roles and 42% of the senior manager positions being taken by women and 4 out of 9 board members being women as well. As mentioned before, this diversity has the power to create a lively, vibrant workplace, where everybody is striving to reach its full potential and that can only strengthen our company, generate sustainable growth and give us an important competitive advantage.
Can you name three diversity challenges that companies have to pay attention to?
In these particular challenging times, women are more likely to give up on jobs and projects to fully engage in the other very important role of caretaker for the family. Providing them support, encouraging and helping them thrive in the workplace during this period was even more important.
Building an inclusive workplace starts with building self-awareness about own biases but also taking the conversation about what the differences consist of either they are based on ethnicity, religion, gender, race etc to all layers of an organization. Only by being aware of what “different” means can further take us to building bridges and create an authentic inclusive environment, where everybody feels comfortable and free to be oneself.
What do you do to convince your colleagues to see the value in diversity management, or even more to truly get them on board?
For the first time, we have an entire month dedicated to diversity we are celebrating through an open dialogue with our employees and stories shared by our colleagues of other nationalities or ethnicities about their cultural heritage.
Interview by Dana Oancea, Romanian Diversity Charter