Vodafone India Celebrates ‘#ConnectedSheCan’ During International Women’s Week 6th – 10th March

• Scales up ‘Reconnect’ programme to support women back to work after career breaks
• Committed to ‘Connecting’ women to narrow gender gaps by promoting the use of technology
• Multiple initiatives launched under #ConnectedSheCan for encouraging gender diversity and women empowerment

Armed with a key focus of building a diverse and inclusive work culture, Vodafone India will celebrate the International Women’s Day with a week-long series of exciting events lined up from March 6^th to 10^th, 2017. The theme #ConnectedSheCan is aimed to bring a positive change to the lives of millions of women worldwide by enabling financial inclusion, improving health and well being and building skills and entrepreneurship abilities in them.

Over the years, Vodafone India has consciously worked to build an inclusive work environment and acknowledge the role that women play within the organization and society at large. It has also focused on increasing the representation of women in its 13,000+ strong countrywide workforce.

Expressing his views on the organization’s future ambitions for women empowerment, Suvamoy Roy, Director – Human Resources, Vodafone India said, “We are an equal opportunity employer. Our diversity journey is built on the foundation of creating an ecosystem that is attractive to women professionals and enables them to succeed at the workplace. We are delighted to host a series of engaging initiatives as a part of #ConnectedSheCan to celebrate our women colleagues and their contribution to the workplace during this week.”

Vodafone India’s Diversity Journey: Quick Overview

• Diversity and inclusion continue to remain a top priority for Vodafone.
• Overall diversity(%) – Moved from 14% in FY13-14 to 22% in FY16-17, a significant jump of 8% + in just 4 years
• Discover Graduates hires: over 50% women hires vs. 38% in 2013. In 2016, we have on-boarded 120 students through this programme. Out of the total, 52% are women hires.
• The gender ratio at our mid to senior level management positions is at about 16% (135 women out of 836 senior management positions) up from 10% in 2013.
• Vodafone India currently operators 40 Angel Stores (women only stores) across India
• Launched Vodafone Inclusivity Network – where all employees can join the forum that focuses on influencing culture inclusivity at workplace.
• 95% of all people managers have undergone ‘Inclusive Leadership’ workshops focusing on unconscious bias
• Pathways to success career series – structured intervention to work with the existing women employees to plan and advance their career.

Reconnect

Vodafone India aims to become the best employer for women, supporting them at the workplace in every stage of their lives. We plan to launch a returnship programme for women who have taken career breaks called ReConnect. ReConnect will offer full time role opportunities with a programme structure which includes ongoing coaching and on-boarding to enable successful returns of women who have taken career breaks back to the workforce.

Connecting Women – Aiming to connect 50 million women by 2025

1. Vodafone India has introduced ‘Vodafone Sakhi’, a unique proposition empowering women in rural India. ‘Vodafone Sakhi’ allows women to make a Private Recharge through an OTP code, without mobile number sharing.
2. Smart Snehidi programme is India’s first targeted women centric proposition under the global ‘Vodafone mWomen’ initiative. The objective of the programme is to digitize rural women by overcoming their barriers to Internet usage to enhance their livelihoods. Launched in November 2016, 1000 ‘Snehidis’ have been enrolled across 3 districts in Tamil Nadu.

Women of Pure Wonder

Vodafone is committed to helping women compete on an equal footing across India. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Vodafone Foundation will release the 4th edition of its Women of Pure Wonder book that further reinforces this vision. This coffee table book showcases the achievements of 50 phenomenal women from rural and urban India for their vision to take the path less travelled, for their valour to redefine personal success and for their victory over personal odds and numerous social evils that plague our country to this day. Women of Pure Wonder features leading personalities across spheres of business, culture, arts, civil rights, media & entertainment, sports, public service, such as Seema Rao, Shubha Mudgal, Dr. Firuza Parikh, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, The Phogat Sisters, Flavia Agnes and many more.

Internal Engagements

A series of exciting events have been planned for Vodafone’s women employees, with multiple training sessions and inspiring discussions with renowned women speakers across the globe. Each day, starting 6th March to 10th March, employees can log in to live video sessions and webinars with motivational speakers like Ms. Dame Stephanie Shirley, Ms. Nithya Ramanathan, Ms. Kate Darling, Ms. Claire Harvey and Ms. Margaret Ewing FCA, to name a few. These women will share inspiring stories of their lives and the obstacles they have overcome to break stereotypes and achieve success in diverse fields like technology, sports, finance, enterprise, legal and external affairs, etc.

Additionally, a global webinar on Women Empowerment will be hosted on the 7th of March, with special address by Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao and Vodafone Group Chief Commercial Operations and Strategy Officer Serpil Timuray, along with Vodafone India MD & CEO Sunil Sood.

Vodafone India Celebrates ‘#ConnectedSheCan’ During International Women’s Week 6th – 10th March