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Phil Fumey
Solution Design and Business Innovation Manager at Vodafone

3 minute read

26/05/2017

Phil Fumey on how Vodafone became a Digital Workplace

 

Phil Fumey, Solution Design and Business Innovation Manager at Vodafone, runs through what makes Vodafone truly digital.

At this year’s UC Expo, I gave a talk on some of the ways we were able to turn Vodafone into a truly digital business.

We had some pretty incredible data points to manage, in 2016 alone, across the entire global workforce.

  • 237,000 Active Active Directory accounts
  • 100k + Managed Devices globally
  • 3.8 billion emails archived
  • 58 million instant messages sent on Skype for Business
  • 39 million minutes of video and audio sent/received

With these strong foundations, we also knew we had an opportunity to fundamentally boost employee productivity, experience and engagement by introducing new capabilities and ways of working. We wanted to empower our workforce to drive a differentiated customer experience. It would also offer us an unprecedented agility in the context of onboarding new acquisitions globally.

One of the key aspects of our plan to go digital is our deep, people-focused commitment to improve the employee experience. That means looking at introducing elements of delight and community to the working day, opportunities for better productivity and how we can support our employees and partners throughout their time with the company.

We have to also consider the impending demographic shift. It’s predicted that, by 2025 millennials will account for 76% of the global workforce. Currently 49% of Vodafone employees are already millennials. These digital natives are an essential part of our workforce with their own unique expectations and ways of working. Social media and consumerization has influenced the way information is shared and communicated – something we consider, as we offer a full suite of collaboration tools, including Yammer, Skype and Office 365.

One of the key aspects of our plan to go digital is our deep people-focused commitment to improve the employee experience.
Phil Fumey

It’s not just about millennials though – we want to be inclusive and build bridges across our diverse workforce. For instance, we want to share the impact our digital natives are making, by pairing them with our senior leaders as part of the Digital Ninja programme, fostering a growing exchange and empathy in both communities. New skills and digital experiences help to inspire and empower leaders, as they lead and drive our digital transformation. Ultimately, enabling everyone to become more digitally-minded empowers our entire business, making us more flexible, productive and ready to adapt.

Essential lessons

  • When it comes to digital, doing nothing is not an option.
    It’s important that we adapt and change along with our customers.
  • If you’re a young business, plan your technology so you have the right foundation from the outset.
    If you’re a mature business that’s growing, then clean up your legacy systems before going forward. It’ll become a strategic advantage that empowers employees, culture and productivity
  • Don’t look at technology as being solely IT.
    The right partnerships with HR, Security and Property functions in your business can help take full advantage of the changes that are being instituted.

Make it simple and fun. Employees will learn new skills and new ways of working a lot more easily if there’s less pressure on them. But it’s a journey. User Experience is something that we are increasingly focusing on – much as we do with our customers, we are looking to delight with our internal systems too.
 
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