GOVERNANCE

We are committed to deepening engagement with our customers to develop long-term, valuable and sustainable relationships. We have hundreds of millions of customers across our global footprint, from individual consumers to large multinationals.

How did we engage with them?

• Digital channels, call centres and branded retail stores.
• Account managers, solution specialists and, for large accounts, executive level engagement.

What were the key topics raised?

• Fast and reliable fixed internet, wider mobile coverage and strong connectivity.
• Easy access to empowered, high-quality support and reduced resolution times for customer problems and queries.
• Better value for long-term customers and ensuring greater transparency around price changes.
• Connectivity with digital services, such as security and cloud,
• Understanding the potential benefits, and how SMEs can make the best use of the latest digital products and services.

How did we respond?

• Held Customer Experience (‘CX’) as our top priority, with our ‘Ask Once’ programme being rolled out across markets to deliver seamless service guarantee and access to help customers.
• Set up CX boards to regularly review customer pain points, and implement action plans with dedicated investment and senior management visibility.
• Conducted initiatives such as Spirit surveys and site visits to call centres in key regions.
• Used Gen AI for more personalised and comprehensive interactions through digital self-service and to enhance frontline digital experiences.
• Used integrated trade-in, flexible financing and second-life refurbished devices, increasing trade-in volumes and second-life refurbished devices, generating significant savings for customers.
• Offered support such as free data to customers in the Czech Republic affected by major Central European flooding.
• Continued progress towards closing the digital divide for people across Europe and Africa, prioritising the affordability of data for all.
• Partnered with AST SpaceMobile to make the world’s first space video call on a standard smartphone from a remote area in UK without coverage.
• Focused on understanding and improving business CX, including the needs and engagement preferences across customer segments and sales channels.
• Deployed and optimised digital channels for business customers enabling self-serve, seamless experience.

Our people are critical to the successful delivery of our strategy. It is essential that they are engaged and embrace our purpose and values. Throughout the year we focused on a number of areas to ensure that everyone is highly motivated, and we remained focused on wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, and employee engagement.

How did we engage with them?

• Regular meetings with managers.
• European Employee Consultative Committee.
• Vodacom Group Employee Engagement Forum.
• Executive Committee discussions.
• Internal website, live webinars, newsletters and other communications posted on our internal digital platform called ‘Viva Engage’.
• Employee Speak Up channel.
• Global employee surveys, including onboarding and exit surveys.

What were the key topics raised?

• Changes to our commercial portfolio.
• Company strategy.
• Generative AI.
• Results of employee listening and Spirit Beat survey.
• Hybrid working.
• Ownership and active engagement around safety, health and wellbeing, including mental health.
• Diversity and inclusion.
• Employee experience and engagement.

How did we respond?

• Updated employees on business and trading performance, regularly.
• Launched foundational Generative AI training for all employees.
• Delivered leadership training to support our Company transformation.
• Embedded our hybrid working policy.
• Continued to focus on opportunities identified in employee surveys.
• Developed a three-year global capability plan.
• Remained committed to safety, health and wellbeing.
• Continued to embed diversity and inclusion through attraction, retention, development, allyship and education.

Find out more about our People and Culture

We partner with over 8,000 suppliers to deliver the products and services that we need to deliver our strategy and connect our customers around the globe. These range from start-ups and small businesses to large multinational companies.

How did we engage with them?

• Regular collaborative performance review meetings with strategic suppliers.
• Forums, events, conferences, and site visits.
• ESG criteria incorporated into tender process, supplier selection and performance management.
• Supplier audits and assessments.

What were the key topics raised?

• Strategic and commercial delivery and performance.
• Supplier and product innovation.
• Human rights in the supply chain.
• Driving health and safety standards.
• Diversity and inclusion.

How did we respond?

• Collaborated with industry peers and supplier through the Joint Alliance for CSR (‘JAC’).
• Supply Chain Sustainability Finance Programme for driving environmental progress.
• Quarterly supplier safety forums.
• Identification of Corrective Action Plans (‘CAP’)s to protect human rights at supplier sites.

Find out more about our Suppliers

We believe that the long-term success of our business is closely tied to the success of the communities in which we operate. To achieve this, we engage with local communities and international NGOs across our markets.

How did we engage with them?

• Participation in industry working groups, such as those organised by the GSMA, on policy issues at national and international level (including digital inclusion, biodiversity, net zero).
• Participation in global multi-stakeholder coalitions established by the United Nations including the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development and the ITU Partner2Connect alliance.
• Locally led direct NGO engagements and partnerships.

What were the key topics raised?

• Increasing access to connectivity and digital services, by closing the digital divide.
• Environmental topics including net zero, biodiversity and the circular economy.
• Human rights topics.
• Delivery of global and national development goals including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’).

How did we respond?

• Provided affordable and accessible services, technology, and connectivity, through our everyone.connected campaign.
• Provided leadership in respect of closing the digital divide at the International Telecommunication Union’s SDG Digital event during the UNGA79.
• Partnered with industry working groups including Trussell, NSPCC and Good Things Foundation to help provide essential digital skills, connectivity and deliver social value.
• Engaged with industry working groups covering human rights, network access and digital inclusion.

As a heavily regulated industry and part of Critical National Infrastructure, our relationships with governments and regulators are crucial. We aim to collaborate on policies that impact our industry and service to customers, while fostering a deeper understanding among governments and regulators of our positive contributions to customers, the economy, the environment, and communities.

How did we engage with them?

• Held meetings with EU institutions, national, regional and local governments, regulators and international organisations.
• Participated in industry bodies, consumer alliances, and public-private initiatives.
• Hosted and attended workshops and events to enhance sector understanding of key issues.
• Sponsored the NATO Public Forum in Washington DC.
• Our Chair leads the European Round Table for Industrialists, engaging with European and global institutions and governments.

What were the key topics raised?

• The EU regulatory and policy environment, including a review of the Single Market. Spectrum and licensing, including prolongation of existing licence holdings.
• Security of critical infrastructure and supply chain resilience, from subsea cables to satellites.
• Protection of investments abroad and inward investment screening.
• Vodafone UK and Three merger approval.

How did we respond?

• Contributed to the Commission’s White Paper on EU Connectivity.
• Participated in three European Commission studies.
• Contributed to EU consultations.
• Responded to the 2025 Single Market Strategy Call for Evidence.
• Submitted policy responses to trade questions from the UK’s Department for Business and Trade.

Our investors include individual and institutional shareholders as well as debt investors. We maintain an active dialogue with our investors through our extensive investor relations programme.

How did we engage with them?

• Personal meetings, roadshows, conferences.
• Annual and interim reports and presentations.
• Our investor relations website is used as our primary digital communications tool and is available to all shareholders, including 11 hours of dedicated video content covering investor events and interviews with Board Directors.
• Regulatory News Service (‘RNS’) announcements.
• Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’).
• Investor perception study and regular feedback survey.
• Online presentations aimed at retail investors, in our ’Investor Meet Company’ in FY25.
• Our Registrar operates a portfolio service which provides shareholders with the ability to manage their holdings.

What were the key topics raised?

• Our strategic roadmap and strategic priorities of Customers, Simplicity and Growth.
• Allocation of capital, including capital investment, leverage and shareholder returns.
• Portfolio right-sizing for growth, market performance, and trading outlook.
• Corporate governance practices.
• Environmental, Social and Governance (‘ESG’) strategy, targets and reporting.

How did we respond?

• We conducted over 1,000 investor interactions through meetings with major institutional shareholders, debt investors, individual shareholder groups and financial analysts, and attended conferences.
• Meetings were attended by Directors and senior management, including our Chair, Group Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer, and Executive Committee members.
• Provided comprehensive reports and transparency disclosures on ESG matters.

Contact the Investor Relations team