SHRM Assessment: Analysis of Vodafone's HR Practices

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SHRM ASSESSMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1...................................................................................................................................... 5
ANALYSIS OF HR PRACTICES AND POLICIES WITHIN VODAFONE AGAINST THEORETICAL
CONCEPTS............................................................................................................................ 5
TASK 2...................................................................................................................................... 8
ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL FORCES AND EFFECT OF HR STRATEGIC DECISIONS WITHIN
VODAFONE...........................................................................................................................8
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................... 11
ANALYSIS OF HR FUNCTION AND DELIVERING HR PRACTICES AND POLICIES....................11
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 14

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Hard and Soft HRM approach.....................................................................................6
Figure 2 Ulrich Model of HR role............................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
This report will analyse the human resource management and strategies for selection,
learning, recruitment, training and development etc. This report will focus on the wide
information of the company Vodafone which is a telecommunication company and provide
high-quality standards including 2G and 3G mobile networks and internet broad bands. The
company was founded in 1982 and the CEO is Nick Jeffery and it has earned the 2nd position
in the world and has 17.2 million subscribers. This report will include the analysis of the HR
policies and procedures and will show the effect of the HR strategies on the external forces
as well as decision making. This report will also focus on the manager’s role as well as the
HR policies by using the Ulrich model.

TASK 1
ANALYSIS OF HR PRACTICES AND POLICIES WITHIN VODAFONE
AGAINST THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
SHRM is a modern concept of business which gets practised in every organization which are
used for the value and profitability of the company by indirect ways (Ahmad, 2015). The HR
are the essential resources of Vodafone its practices and policies help in gaining the
competitive advantage as the company has the diversification of its products and offerings
as well as market strategies (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
The performance of the company depends on the skilful and knowledgeable employees of
the Vodafone who are having innovative ideas to increase the brand name as well as the
effectiveness of the company offerings (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
The Vodafone has its stakeholders who get impacted by the HR policies and practices which
are followed in the company in a direct or indirect way which involves its employees,
government, shareholders, unions, management and community (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
HR PRACTICES at VODAFONE:
Provides securities to employees
HR of Vodafone provides benefits and securities to the employees such as life insurances,
health and safety, food, shelter etc. which results in motivation for them to work effective
and hard (Ahmad, 2015).
Training and development
The main duty of the HR is to provide the training to the employees for reaching towards
the goal and the development of the employees for their as well as organisational benefit.
The training activities enhance motivation and result in better performance (Cohen, 2017).
Selective hiring
The HR of Vodafone select and choose the best and fit employee for the company who can
become the perfect match for the vacant job at the workplace. The selection and

recruitment are based on various activities like group discussion, interviews, job offer letters
etc. (Bolander, 2016).
Performance-based compensation
The employees get motivation after they are getting the reward based on their effective
performance which results in better results and profitability to the company as well as they
also help the company in gaining the competitive advantage (DeNisi and Gonzalez, 2017).
Employee’s engagement
The managers and leaders are responsible for the employee’s engagement in the activities
of the organization. They motivate and inspire the employees for performing well by
maintaining the communication with them at the workplace in context to increase their
performance (Mone and London, 2018).
HR POLICIES at VODAFONE:
 HR assists how Vodafone policies can be used which includes the company's
property, cars, mobile phones etc. (Ahmad, 2015)
 They help in determining the flexible working schedule (Ahmad, 2015)
 They handle practices of paid time off like vacations, sick time and holidays
 They provide compensation to the employees for business and travelling (Ahmad,
2015)
Types of HRM strategies:
There are 2 types of approaches used in the human resource management system which
includes the hard and soft approaches of the skills of the employees.

Figure 1 Hard and Soft HRM approach
(Source Michael, 2017)
Hard HRM approach
This is the approach where the company treats its employees as their resources like building
or machinery (Michael, 2017). These are cost-effective in nature where the decision-making
focuses only to the senior managers. Hard approaches give less importance to the
employees that result in lack of motivation and less job satisfaction (Michael, 2017).
Soft HRM approach
This is the approach where the company treats employees as an important business
resource and the source for gaining a competitive advantage (Michael, 2017). The
employees get treated equally under this HRM approach as the company managers focus on
the 2 way communication and long term personnel planning (Michael, 2017).
Hence the Vodafone follows the approaches of soft HRM where the company treats equally
to its employees and make them participate in the decision-making activities of the business
(Michael, 2017). Vodafone also follows the leadership of democratic style, where the
leaders in the company assign authorities to their subordinates, maintains relationships and
treat them equally and as the asset of the company (Khan et al., 2015). These results in
enhancing the morale of the employees which results in improving the quality of work,
services and productivity which also helps in attaining the defined goals of the Vodafone
(Khan et al., 2015).

TASK 2
ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL FORCES AND EFFECT OF HR STRATEGIC
DECISIONS WITHIN VODAFONE
The strategic decisions of the managers at the Vodafone have been impacted by the
external as well as internal forces which are crucial to getting focused.
THE INTERNAL FACTORS INCLUDE:
Communication
A successful company has strong communication practices between the team leaders and
other members as they come in contact for improving the results (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Organizational structure
Vodafone follows the hierarchical structure which means the authorities flows from top to
bottom which affects the strategic decision of the HR (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Learning
This is the activity of human which accounts indirectly or directly for the success of the
Vodafone. This includes gaining knowledge, use of latest technology etc. the managers and
the leaders focus on giving training and development to the employees for enhancing their
knowledge and skills via teach (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Leadership
The decisions of the HR of Vodafone company get impacted by the leadership in a positive
manner. The company follows the democratic leadership style where the leaders in the
company assign authorities to their subordinates, maintains relationships and treat them
equally and as the asset of the company (Khan et al., 2015).
THE EXTERNAL FACTORS INCLUDE:
Political factors
The political factor affects the Vodafone as these include the government laws and
regulations which impacts on the operations of the company. The Vodafone is the largest

channel of telecommunication which has foundations and limitations of the government
(Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Economic factors
The economic factors affect the Vodafone as these include the economic crises,
unemployment, global recession etc. which impacts the profit of the company as well as
affects the decision-making of the human resource managers (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Social factors
The social factors include the trends, customer perceptions, societal wants related to good
quality products at reasonable and affordable prices. These factors impacted the decision
making as well as the profitability of the Vodafone (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Technological factors
Change in technology impacted a lot on the decision making of the HR for gaining the
competitive advantage as people are converting more towards latest technologies like 4G
and 5G and Vodafone only providing 2G and 3G mobile networks which affect the company
(Stone et al., 2015).
Environmental factors
The environmental factors impacted the company channels like due to change in climate,
the mobile phone cannot catch the signals properly which affect the company decision
making as well as profitability (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Legal factors
Legal factors include the government laws, legislation and regulations which have to be
followed by the Vodafone for gaining the competitive advantage as well as profitability.
These factors have affected the decision making of the HR of the Vodafone in strategic
planning (Zinovieva et al., 2016).
Customers
Customers are the main and important asset to the company. They are called the king of the
market. The companies make their products for gaining the customer's satisfaction and

improving their profitability in the market. For achieving the success of the Vodafone the
managers and leaders tend to follow the market trend and customers preferences for
changing the strategic decision making of the HR which gets impacted by the change in the
customer preferences and demands.
Competition
In the sector of telecommunication, the competition is booming day-by-day many of the
companies introducing many devices for attracting the customers to gaining a competitive
advantage. The decision making of the human resource department gets affected by the
increase in the competition in the market for the same offerings in the market (Zinovieva et
al., 2016). This impacts the Vodafone to be stable in the market as they are not using the
latest technology for mobile phones which results in decreasing their sales and profits
(Zinovieva et al., 2016).
In this way, the Vodafone strategic decision making of the HR gets impacted by the internal
and the external factors which should be taken into considerations as well as involve the
employees in decision making activities before taking and deciding any decision as it helps in
the retention of the employees as well as a decrease in the absenteeism of the employees
through which they will feel motivated and encouraged to attain the company's goal and
objectives (Zinovieva et al., 2016).

TASK 3
ANALYSIS OF HR FUNCTION AND DELIVERING HR PRACTICES AND
POLICIES
The human resource manager at the Vodafone emphasis on the functions of the HR
department such as acquisition of talent, employees’ benefits, employee-employer
relationships, payroll processing, employees performance improvement, health and safety
of employees, allowances, keep records of staff, management of remuneration, controlling
performance etc. these are the functions of the HR which helps in achieving the business
needs as well as future objectives of the Vodafone (Nadiv et al., 2017).
The HR practices and policies are followed by the Vodafone which are also communicated
with the employees by taking help of the Ulrich Model of HR role for encouraging effective
and friendly communication within the company (Nadiv et al., 2017). The role of a manager
under Ulrich model is as follows:
Figure 2 Ulrich Model of HR role

(Source Storey et al., 2019)
Strategic partner: these are known as the strategic role of HR in the Vodafone who builds a
strategic relationship and partnership with the internal clients and represents the HR as well
as advertises Human Resource services in the company. The role of the manager is to
influence the design of the company and identify its key holders and helps to spread their
acquaintance across the Vodafone. The HR managers give honest feedback to the clients
and improve services and procedures of human resource (Storey et al., 2019).
Change agent: this is also the strategic role of HR at the Vodafone as they participate with
the teams of change management and take responsibility for communicates changes within
the company and gain the employee's trust (Storey et al., 2019). The human resource
manager plans training activities for the employees for gaining competencies and skills
which are essential for changes role. The managers collect feedbacks from the staff and
transfers to the change management team which is required for introducing the
adjustments and changes which are beneficial for the employees (Storey et al., 2019).
Administration expert: this is the transactional role of the HR manager who is trustful. They
demonstrate deep knowledge of the bargaining trade unions, labour laws, deal with
employees' difficulties as well as keep the personal data safe and correct (Storey et al.,
2019). The human resource implements all the needs involving changes in the regulations,
legislation until the work and safety of the employees (Storey et al., 2019).
Employee champion: these are the core of the role of the HR which must represent the
employees as well as guards their interests and ensures the strategic initiatives are finely
composed (Storey et al., 2019). The human resource at the Vodafone ensures that the
employees should provide a fair chance to apply for the innovative roles in the company.
The HR manager of the Vodafone leads initiatives for improving the employee’s experiences
within the company (Storey et al., 2019).