Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage
Whether it’s at work or in the community, we’re doing our part to end racial inequality wherever it exists. The more we can do together, the more of an impact we can make.
Networks
Our Multi-cultural Network and Black Professionals networks champion inclusion and celebrate the diversity of our community while helping us ensure we can tackle the areas of racial inequality that our colleagues and customers experience the most. We work together to address barriers to thriving; for example in 2021 we recognised the impact of racial trauma on our colleagues and added in specialist racial trauma support to our mental health provision.
Owning change
In 2021, after researching our global markets, we set targets that by 2030, 25% of our global senior leadership – the most senior 160 leaders across Vodafone’s markets in Europe and Africa – will come from ethnically diverse backgrounds, and that 20% of our UK-based senior people will come from Black, Asian, or other diverse ethnicities, with 4% of those to be Black. In South Africa by 2030, 75% of senior management and leadership will come from ethnically diverse backgrounds. All other countries will have a REACH action plan to continue their journey towards addressing racism in a locally relevant way.
Leading from the top
Our new targets are underpinned by a wider action and awareness plan that supports anti-racism and allyship in the workplace. All our European markets are working within their countries on Anti-racism charters to make communities more equitable. All our senior leadership teams have undertaken REACH fluency training to support local understanding and action. We’re also embedding this into People Leader Training to ensure we create local team environments where people of all ethnicities and cultures are represented and have the best opportunity to thrive.
Celebrating our people
We host a global webinar for International Day of Elimination of Racism, that’s attended by thousands of employees around the world, as well as local market events across the year. Throughout the year we ensure that our events, panels and contributions represent the breadth of our community and that our colleagues and speakers of all ethnicities and cultures are visible and profiled for their brilliant work.