Project Report: Analyzing Equality and Diversity at Vodafone Group plc

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of a business project focused on equality and diversity within Vodafone Group plc. The project aims to improve recruitment, selection, and training processes to meet international standards. It includes a detailed project management plan addressing cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. The report incorporates a Gantt chart and work breakdown structure for project scheduling. Small-scale research, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods, is conducted to gather data and meet project objectives. The data is then analyzed using various tools and techniques, leading to specific recommendations for enhancing equality and diversity within the organization. The report also reflects on the value of the research and its impact on the author's learning and performance.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
P1 Project aims and objectives to improve the recruitment, selection and training of their
employees to meet International requirements...........................................................................4
P2 A project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality,
communication, risk, and resources............................................................................................5
P3 Gantt Chart and Work breakdown structured to provide time frame and stages for
completion of the project............................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P4 A small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for
meeting project aims and objectives...........................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P5 Analysis of data using tools and techniques........................................................................12
P6 Recommendations as a result of research and data analysis................................................21
P7 Reflection on the values of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own
learning and performance..........................................................................................................21
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX I.................................................................................................................................25
APPENDIX_II
Template for Performance Review to be attached with the report by the learner:........................27

TITLE
“Equality and diversity at workplace”. A study on Vodafone Group plc.
INTRODUCTION
Equality can be defined as giving equal development chance to the workers in an
organisation (Beck, 2018). In the recent time companies are trying to get more diverse people in
workplace so that they can get the new ideas and can promote diversity at workplace. If there is
any kind of discrimination, then entity may face difficulties. Improved diversity and equality
help the firm in getting more skilled people and raising productivity of business unit to great
extent. In addition, promoting equality develops confidence of people ad also enhances their
moral (Birkinshaw, 2016).
Present research is based on Vodafone Group which is the leading telecommunication
enterprise. It has branches across the world and serve large number of audience worldwide.
Study will give brief overview of equality and diversity. It will present project plan to reflect
cost, scope and time of entire project. Research methods will be evaluated in this research project
to show their suitability in this project
Research Objective
The objective of this research is to analyse diversity and equality in the company and its
objective so that company objectives can be effectively and efficaciously achieved. Different
culture of employees are more able to deliver their services in a better manner hence satisfying
and retaining customers in the company (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). They also learn
something new in diverse workplace, which satisfy them and increase their morale.
TASK 1
P1 Project aims and objectives to improve the recruitment, selection and training of their
employees to meet International requirements
Overview of the Project : research report explains importance of requirements
can be met. For a company to be successful it is very necessary for the company that to have
diverse workplace and promote equality. This is because of the major reason that if equality and
diversity will not be there then the employee will not like to work in the company. Equality is
defined as treating every person equal (Dennissen, Benschop and van den Brink, 2019). In
context of workplace the equality is defined as the practice which is followed by the company to

maintain equality in different context like the age, gender, race, nationality and many other
factors. On the flip side diversity means that the employees come from diverse and different
cultural and religious background.
The present research is based on the company Vodafone Group Plc. This company is a
multinational company of British background which is a conglomerate in field of
telecommunication. This company was founded in the year 1991 by Ernest Harrison and Garry
Whent which is headquartered in Newbury and London. The present research will focus on the
different strategies that may aid in promoting equality and diversity to develop and maintain
inclusive and diverse workforce. This is majorly done to gain a competitive advantage.
Aim : To identify some ways and strategies of developing inclusion and diversity to take
competitive advantages. The study is based on Vodafone Group plc.
Objectives :
 To understand importance of diversity and equality in an organization.
 To analyse the importance of strategies and policies that can develop diversity at
workplace to gain competitive advantages.
 To identify some challenges occur while developing diversity within an organization. To recommend some ways in which problems related to diversity can be solved out?
Questions :
 Do you have the basic understanding of importance of diverse workforce?
 What is the importance of strategies related to diversity that help the company to
accomplish its goals.
 Which types of challenges occur at the time of promoting and developing diversity at
workplace?
 What are some ways in which problems related to diverse workforces can be solved out?
P2 A project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality, communication,
risk, and resources.
Project Management Plan defines how a particular project is to be executed, monitored
and controlled. It includes schedule, budget, quality, human resource plan, work breakdown
structure and many more. It also provides appropriate information to the stakeholders regarding
the task so that tasks can be completed efficiently on time.
Cost Cost plays significant role in any research project, having lack of fund can

cause difficulty for the project manager. It is very important to manage funds
properly to minimise fund wastage and utilise financial resources in efficient
manner. The cost of this project would be £48,000.
Basis Cost
Investment £18,000
Research and Development £4,000
Resources for training £3,000
Implementation of project £13000
Employees training £10,000
Total £48,000
Scope This project has huge scope, as companies can get opportunity to get wide
range of staff members those who have many innovative ideas to improve
company’s performance. It will raise knowledge of scholar about benefits of
equality and diversity and how such things can raise moral of workers to
great extent. That would give brief idea about this topic so that other scholars
can conduct their studies in near future.
Time Researcher divides activities and make proper schedule so that research can
be finished on time. For that there is required to have close monitoring over
each activity. This study will be completed on 3 months. Scholar will make
aims and objective and will collect data. After that analyses will be done and
results will be drawn in summary manner. Hence all these activities will take
time of 3 months.
Quality To maintain the quality, researcher will ensure that data is being collected
from relevant sources. The quality of the project helps the company in
efficiently and efficaciously implement the results of the research.
Communication The researcher uses telephone and e-mails to interact with the clients from
where the data is being collected; the researcher interacts with the managers
of the company about the progress in the research via e-mails and video-

conferencing and the managers further interacts with the employees through
democratic communication channel that prevails in the company to upgrade
them on the new techniques and get feedbacks from the employees.
Risk Human resource risk would be there because participants may give irrelevant
answers. Apart from this, financial risk may be there because scholar might
get failed to manage funds and complete this project within 48000. Apart
from this, technical risk might take place because individual might get failed
to operate different software properly.
Resources The company requires various resources to competition the project on time
like technology, human resources, money, better facilities for improving
recruitment, selection and training process. The resources required by
researcher are better internet connection, time and money to carry out the
research successfully.
P3 Gantt Chart and Work breakdown structured to provide time frame and stages for completion
of the project
Gantt Chart : This chart was invented by Henry L. Gantt and this is the most widely
used chart in project management. The Gantt Chart is a graphical depiction of a project
schedule. It a type of bar chart which helps in depicting the exact start and finish dates of several
elements of a project such as resources, tasks etc. which helps the researcher in finishing the task
within time (Flaherty, 2015).

Work Breakdown Structure : work break down structure divides work into small
tasks for better and timely completion of work . Larger tasks when broken down into smaller
tasks helps in easy supervisor and estimation. This helps in completion of the project on time
(Fletcher, 2017).

TASK 2
P4 A small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting
project aims and objectives.
The researcher needs to conduct the research for completion of the project on time and in
an efficient manner. For this the researcher can use various methods of conducting the research
and data collection that are discussed below :
Methods of Data collection
 Primary Data collection : By using this method primary data can be collected through
original or first-hand research. In this method the researcher directly goes to the source
from where appropriate information can be gathered based on questionnaires, surveys,
observations, interviews etc. Secondary Data collection : Secondary data is the data that have already been collected
by someone else and secondary data is ready for use. This is a cheap method as the data

is more quickly obtainable (George and Park, 2016). The sources of data involves books,
journals, websites etc.
Methods of research
Different methods can be used by the researcher for collecting and analysing the data.
 Quantitative method : Through this method information can be collected based on facts
and figures which helps in proper interpretation of data. This method focuses on
gathering numerical and unchanging data with detailed convergent reasoning (Issa and et.
al., 2015). Qualitative method : This is a another method of research that used to gather non-
numerical data through open-ended conversation and communication. This research helps
in understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations of the human-beings
through direct inquiry. It is a type of explanatory research that gives an in-depth
knowledge about views and opinions of individuals (Milanovic, 2016).
Sample size : we can not select the all population we have to select some people from the
population that is called sample size. Sample size defines or presents the whole population. The
researcher has taken a sample size of 20 respondents to analyse their opinions to conduct the
research for successful completion of the project (Mahmood, 2015).
Research approach: this is the important method that aids in selecting the correct path to
conduct the research in efficient manner. Inductive research approach is the method which is
helpful in carrying out the investigation in theoretical manner whereas deductive is the method
which conducts study by using statistical calculation. In the deductive method researcher ensures
to make hypotheses and test these assumptions. Both these approaches have their unique features
and scholar has to use most suitable method so that valid results can be generated. In the current
study on equality in diversity in business researcher has chosen inductive method, this has helped
in reviewing theories and getting appropriate results.
Research philosophy: This is another tool which is used to determine the way of conducting
research. Interpretivism is the technique in which human resources are being involved whereas
positivism is another philosophy in which facts and figures are being taken into consideration.
Both these tools support the researcher in unique way to get the end results. In order to carry out
current investigation scholar has taken assistance of interpretivism tool. This technique has
supported in managing the research in efficient manner and getting the desired output.

Data analyses: this is the method which supports in evaluating data in effective manner and
getting the actual results by evaluating detail in proper manner. There are various methods to
analyses details, if this is qualitative research then scholar can use thematic method to analyses
the data but if it is quantitative method then scholar has to use SPSS. Both these tools play
significant role in evaluation of data. It is depended upon the nature to investigation that which
analyses method can give the most relevant results. In order to carry out study on equality and
diversity researcher has used thematic analyses method in which researcher has prepared themes
and have prepared graphs.
The researcher uses quantitative research for the project to define and remove the
problem through collecting numerical data by converting it into useable statistics (Ong, Wang
and Zainon, 2016). This method studies about attitudes, opinions, behaviours of the sample
population to determine results. This is done through questionnaires, pie-charts, frequency tables
to understand better the views of respondents. The researcher prepares a questionnaire for 40
employees of the company to know their opinions on some of the questions :
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you know about the actual meaning of diversity and inclusion strategy?
 Yes
 No
Q2) Do you believe that implementation of diversity strategy can help Vodafone Group plc to
take competitive advantages?
 Yes
 No
Q3) Do you agree that employees from different cultures are being treated fairly by your
company?
 Strongly agree
 Disagree
 Neutral
Q4) Which leadership style is being followed by your company to promote diversity?
 Autocratic
 Democratic
Q5) Did you feel discriminated and harassed at workplace?

 Yes
 No
Q6) What are the advantages of developing diversity and inclusion in Vodafone Group plc?
 Increase in profitability
 More innovation
 Higher level of employees retention
 All of the above
Q7) What are the potential barriers and challenges that can be faced by the company in
promoting diversity at workplace?
 Language barriers
 Interpersonal conflicts
 Acceptance of employees
 All of the above
Q8) Which strategy is being chosen by your company to promote diversity?
 Training to employees
 Rewarding diverse referrals
 Learning and development programs
Q9) Recommend some measures that can be taken by Vodafone Group plc to overcome the
issues faced by the company at the time of implementing diversity strategy.
…................
TASK 3
P5 Analysis of data using tools and techniques
Theme 1: Actual meaning of diversity and inclusion strategy?
Frequency
 Yes 16
 No 4

Interpretation : It can be interpreted from above data that out of the 20 respondents, 16
Employees of Vodafone know that what is the actual meaning of diversity and equality at
workplace. They also said that the company recruit diverse workforce so with the policy of
diversity they came to know the importance of diversity and its meaning. On the other hand, only
4 employees said that they do not have knowledge about diversity. They know the meaning of
equality but do not have proper and cast knowledge about it.
Theme 2: Implementation of diversity strategy help to gain competitive advantages?
Frequency
 Yes 14
 No 6