Vodafone: First The Network Went, Now The Jobs


No-one expected Vodafone’s full-year results for 2011 to be stellar, and they’re not: the troubled telco announced today it had lost $167 million, a decline of $240 million on the year before, while another 200,000 customers left the company between June and December. The most obvious impact: hundreds of staff could be getting the chop.

Though Vodafone has been in the process of network improvements, the fallout of those network issues last year continue beyond a drop in customers. In January, the telco flagged plans to merge its sales and marketing divisions, a restructure targeting senior jobs. Just weeks later, The Australian reported that that staff were told “hundreds” of redundancies were now planned. Those are numbers that Vodafone has not yet publicly confirmed, but Gizmodo has now heard the same claims from multiple separate sources within the company.

In the results announcement, CEO Nigel Dews, does allude to the potential for cutbacks, though in very vague terms:

We are moving quickly to further reduce the cost base, by consolidating functions through the simplification of the organisation structure and creating a more efficient go-to-market approach. All other costs have also been reviewed and are being tightened.

Gizmodo now understands that the GM of online, Ben Kimber, has been replaced with Scott Taylor, while the online division repositioned as a sales-focused digital channel with four main teams: production, strategy, experience design and social media.

It would seem that GM, executive and head-of positions were first to be tweaked, with regular-level jobs now to follow. For all the trouble we’ve experienced with Vodafone’s network, it’s never nice to see tech workers lose their jobs. (We’ve asked Vodafone for comment, and will update if we hear anything.)


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.