Communications giant Vodafone spent almost 25% less on staff training in 2008-9 than in 2007-8, according to its latest corporate responsibility report.
The sustainability report, released last week, showed average training spend per employee had dropped from £704 in 2007-08 to £536 in 2008-09, a cut of 23%. The number of days that staff were away on training courses also dropped to four in 2008-09, down from five the year before.
Kerensa Sheen, Vodafone’s group talent and leadership director, said the company had moved more of its training online to ensure consistency and greater accessibility for the company’s 75,000 staff in 25 different countries.
“We created a global communications training programme that’s delivered in modules online rather than something that requires staff taking days out of the workplace to train,” she told Personnel Today.
She said many countries and staff did not useEnglish as a first language, so the training modules had been rewritten to ensure the same messages and tips were available to all.
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“Talent is our main focus as it’s essential to fuel future growth on a global scale, so it was important we improved our training product, and at the same time improve the bottom line,” Sheen said.
