Company: Vodafone Czech Republic a.s.

Company Description: Vodafone Czech republic is subsidiary of Vodafone Group. Vodafone is the largest mobile telecommunicatinons group in the world spearheading operations in 27 countires and additional 31 partner markets. At the end of 2005, the group provided services to approxiamately 180 million mobile users world-wide.

Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories

Nomination Sub Category: Best Human Resources Organization

Nomination Title: Vodafone Czech Republic - learning and growth

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

They say you should learn something new every day and nobody knows that better than the Human Resources department at Vodafone. That's why they like to call themselves the Learning and Growth department.

The need for employee learning to better achieve business goals is obvious, in the past each department simply ordered their own. But in L&G they thought that there had to be a better way to set up a long term and more strategic framework that was more in line with our corporate priorities.

Since September 2005, every single employee has had access to specialized learning courses, from conflict management, to presentation skills, all of the courses are designed to help you excel in your everyday job. Wherever possible the courses are designed by our in house design team and facilitated by internal staff, so it's financially savvy and saves time, as they already know the culture and mentality of our people.

We know exactly what training we offer to our internal customers, we don't need to be afraid that we invested a lot of money into an external company that may provide a poor or irrelevant product.

Everyone who starts at our company is given a two day New Employee Orientation course, which tells them everything from how to get logged in to the system, what our products and services are, company culture and (most importantly) where the coffee machine is. We even take them to our technical centre outside of Prague so they have a better idea of the industry.

There are also special courses for customer facing employees as well as specific ongoing learning programs for our 500 technicians who need to be on top of the latest technological developments all of the time. During those quiet periods at work, instead of surfing the internet, there is an option to complete one of 50 e-learning courses. And if (by any strange chance) you still can�t find what you are looking for, we can tailor special offsite courses for you.

The hard work of the employees is rewarded through our credit system. In order to get credits you must score over 80 percent in the final test. All courses fall under one of 5 faculties, Technical, Brand, Why, What and How. If you get 8 credits in four of the faculties you become a Uniexpert and, a bit like getting a degree, this should take you around three or four years. Further to that you can also become a Unimaster and teach. Employees like it as it's a measuring stick of their progress, handy at bonus time and they also like the fact that they can choose what weaknesses need strengthening.

All of our courses are full to capacity, with a waiting list in case someone has to drop out for a meeting. We're always looking to improve and there is a satisfaction survey at the end. So far there is a 96 percent satisfaction rate. Trust us, we're continuously working on the other 4 percent.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, http://www.youraddress.com:

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated organization/department:

Before becoming CEO of Vodafone Czech Republic, Grahame Maher was known as a Mr. Fix It. He turned around the fortunes of a flagging branch in Sweden and successfully sold it for 11 times the EBITA. In Australia in 2001 he reduced capital expenditure by 60% and in New Zealand he increased Vodafone's market share from 17% to 46%. He remains one of the only men in the world who lists shopping with his wife as a favourite past time. He also loves spending time with his daughters, running and socializing.