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1. Executive summaryThefollowing is an analysis of the human resource structure of VodafoneTelecommunications Company. The analysis provides an overview ofVodafone with an emphasis on the company’s operations in Europe. Itpresents information about the formation of the company and factors,such as the rapid adoption of GSM networks, which accelerated thegrowth of the company since its establishment in 1982 (Vodafonen.d.). Thepaper also provides an overview of the structure of the company inthe year 2013. Specifically, it presents information about thecomposition of the board and its functions as well asresponsibilities during the financial year 2013. The analysisrevealed that Vodafone is committed to cultural diversity andprofessionalism. The board of directors is composed of nationalitiesfrom seven countries. Besides, the company is sensitive aboutmaintaining gender equalityby allowing a 15% representation of women(Vodafone n.d.).Thepaper provides insight into factors that shape the human resourceservice structure with an emphasis on human resource delivery. Itproceeds to evaluate the size of Vodafone in Europe. Vodafone is alarge and innovation-driven multinational organization withoperations in 12 European countries. In Europe, Vodafone has thelargest telecommunication penetration network, which stands at 78%,while in the United States it has 75% penetration (Hennessey 2009, p.66). Thepaper proposes a human resource structure for Vodafone based onUlrich’s 3 legged model. The proposed model calls for theestablishment of centers of excellence, and a human resourceself-service center. The centers for excellence provide communicationto the top management it is a point of contact with the humanresource service delivery department. The human resource self-serviceis an approach to reduce administration work and operational costs.It enables employees to update their database as well as generateimportant employment reports. Consequently, it allows the managementto focus on things that matter as well as streamlining the humanresource operations at the company (Appelbaum et.al 2000, p.96).Thepaper provides an overview of innovative practices by Vodafone in thetelecommunications sector and provides examples of new services.Finally, it delves into the operating culture of the company with anemphasis on the human resource service goals. The conclusionscomprise of the proposed human resource structure for Vodafone’sthree locations in Germany, United Kingdom and Italy, as well as, theexplanation for the structure. It also provides insight into thepossible impacts of implementing the structure. It also evaluates thelimitations that may arise after application of the structure(Vodafone n.d.).2.0Vodafoneprofile2.1IntroductionVodafoneis a leading multinational company in the telecommunicationsindustry. The company was created in Europe in the year 1982. Itspecializes in the provision of a range of services, such as, voice,data, messaging and fixed communications. European leaders formed thecompany after a foresight on the way to support interoperablewireless communications across the borders. In the 1990’s, therewas a rapid adoption of the GSM standard that transformed Europe intoa world leader in mobile communications technology for twenty years(Vodafone n.d.). Thegrowth of Vodafone accelerated after the liberalization of theEuropean telecommunications markets in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Thecompany was able to expand across and beyond the European markets.Consequently, the company entered markets historically dominated byincumbent operators and offered superb competition and consumerchoice (Vodafone n.d.).2.2Vodafone organization in Europe Aboard of directors, whose principal responsibility is to evaluate themanner in which the organization conducts its affairs, leadsVodafone. Besides, the board is responsible for ensuring that thegroup applies the highest standards of corporate behavior in itsactivities. The directors that serve on the board come from sevennationalities that include the United States of America, Belgium,Britain, Holland, France, Ghana, and Italy. Each of the directors hasextensive knowledge on emerging markets, international businesses,and technology and data management. Regarding gender composition, theboard is comprised of 15% female directors (Vodafone n.d.).3. Vodafone organization structure in Europe -2013Vodafoneis the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company with ahistory of 25 years of operations. The company has emerged through aconglomerate of acquisitions to form a singular identity- “OneVodafone”. The company is dependent on human resources it hasinvested a significant amount of time and resources on its staff. Inthe European region, the company employs 50,000 people in its ninesubsidiaries that include the United Kingdom division (Vodafonen.d.).Vodafone’sboard is comprised of 13 directors and 12 of who served throughoutthe year. As at 31st March 2013, the board consisted of threeexecutive directors, nine non-executive directors, and thechairman-Gerald Kileisterlee. Omid Kordestani was elected as anadditional non-executive director on 31 March 2013. The executive andnon-executive directors are equal members of the board. The keyresponsibility of the board is providing the overall direction forthe company. Specifically, the non-executive directors have a keyresponsibility of bringing varied skills and experience (Purcellet.al 2003, p.49). They provide an independent judgment on thecompany’s strategy, risk management as well as the overallperformance by challenging the policies proposed by the chiefexecutives and the executive directors. They are also responsible fortesting Vodafone’s performance and assessing the integrity ofVodafone’s financial information. Finally, they determine thecompany’s broad policy for the remuneration of the executivedirectors and the chairperson (Vodafone n.d.).4. Factors that shape human resource service structure4.1Human resource service deliveryHumanresource service delivery is a model that depicts the delivery ofhuman resource services to a large workforce by human resourcepersonnel. Human resources provide many functions to an organization.Some of the services include career advice, payroll processing, andemployee benefits. The Ulrich’s 3-legged model is an example of ahuman resource service delivery model (Taylor &Wood hams 2012,p.87).4.2Size of Vodafone in Europe4.2.1Large MNCVodafoneUK is a large multinational company, and Europe is one of its majormarkets. The company has established its operations in 12 Europeancountries, including, Germany, Greece, Czech Republic, Ireland,Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, UK, andAlbania. It leads the UK telecommunications sector with more than 5.3billion Euros in revenue. The company’s customer base stands atmore than 120 million mobile customers as well as an additional 11million fixed customers across Europe. Vodafone’s networks andservices have contributed to the highest mobile network penetrationin Europe. For example, in 2013, Europe had the highest mobiletelecommunication penetration in the world at 78%. The United Statesfollowed closely at 71%. The rate of mobile penetration in Europe isremarkably higher than the global average of 50% (Vodafone n.d.).Thecompany has expanded its network across Europe through the 4G networkthat is currently used by a majority, 65%, of the population acrossthe 12 member states of operation up from 38% in the year 2012. Bythe end of the financial year 2013, the data consumption onVodafone’s network increased rapidly and accounted for 26% of alldata traffic in the European market compared to 17% in the year 2012(Vodafone n.d.).4.2.2Innovation drivenVodafoneis an innovation driven company in the provision of voice, data, andmessaging as well as fixed communications. One of the key innovativeprojects of the company is the provision of 4G networks acrossEurope. Specifically, it provides 4G networks to 12 countries on thecontinent. Besides, there are planned investments amounting toapproximately 23 billion Euros through the project spring globalinvestment program. The project is the fastest and the largest in thecompany’s history. The fundamental vision of the company in Europeis empowering everyone to be confidently connected through Vodafone(Vodafone n.d.).4.2.3Proposed Ulrich 3 legged modelAccordingto Ulrich’s three-legged model, the company’s most appropriatehuman resource structure should entail a chief executive officerlocated in each regional office at Germany, Italy, and the UnitedKingdom. Line managers heading various departments in Marketing,Finance, Production and Human resource service delivery, shouldreport to the CEO. Under the Human resource service delivery are theCenters of Excellence, together with the human resource self-service.The Human resource self-service should work in coordination with thebusiness unit, the commercial, technical and the Human resourcebusiness partner. The model should be repeated for each location inGermany, Italy and the United Kingdom (Ulrich, Younger &Brockbank 2008, p.14). 4.3Innovative practices by Vodafone in the telecommunications sectorVodafonevalues diversity as an asset that fosters innovation to understandand meet the customer needs. The company hungers for change and isobsessed by its customers it operates with speed to bring servicesand products to the market quickly, and it prioritizes the thingsthat matter. The company supports the European Commission strategythat aims to digitize the European economy. Specifically, it supportsthe plan of the Commission to harmonize policies related to theproject, commonly known as ‘the internet of things,` across Europe.Besides, the commission also plans to remove the barriers to the flowof data across borders. Vodafone, in conjunction with the Commission,aims at making Europe a leader in the development of a new generationof connected devices as well as processes that will transform theworkplace and the home environment (Wetherly & Otter 2008, p.53).4.3.1Innovations–telecommunications-new servicesThecompany has implemented different strategies to ensure that Europebecomes a gigabit society. For example, it has innovated its mobilenetworks in 12 EU companies to accommodate and recognize the e-callservice. The service is an initiative to reduce the response time foremergencies with a purpose of catering for emergency services duringaccidents. Specifically, the installation of e – call on a carenables it to call the nearest emergency center, in case of anaccident, even if no passenger can talk due to injuries (Vodafonen.d.). Theservice enables the car to send a minimum set of data, which includesthe exact site of a crash, shortly after the accident. Consequently,emergency service providers can know that an accident has occurred ata given location, which facilitates the deployment of emergencyassistance. Besides, the device provides an allowance for theindividual involved in a car accident to notify the emergencyresponse system by a simple push of a button (Vodafone n.d.). 4.4Operating cultureTheVodafone human resource department has created a culture of trainingand development to ensure that employees hone their skills andexperience to reach their full potential. In the year 2008, thecompany delivered a training program to increase communicationawareness and capability of the employees. The training equipped theemployees with an understanding of the company’s new totalcommunications plan, the new technologies, resources and Vodafone’sproducts and services. A majority 4,500 managers completed 36,000hours of communications training (Pritchard 2010, p.42)Thecompany also operates a global performance dialogue process for everyemployee to ensure that they have a clear connection between theirgoal and those of the business. During the dialogue, the managers setcareer development goals and discusses employee’s performance(Reilly, Tamkin & Broughton 2007, p.101).Concerningrewards and recognition, the company has an initiative that rewardemployees based on their contribution to the success of the business.Global reward programs are used in enabling reward differentiationaccording to an employee’s contribution (Pritchard 2010, p.51)4.5Human resource service goals- improve touch point experienceThehuman resources endeavor to ensure that customer needs are at thecenter of Vodafone’s actions. The human resources created a globalcustomer value management team to engage directly with customersthrough a data-driven approach. The aim is to ensure a brandedcustomer experience through all the companies touch points. The humanresource has rolled out a consistent and innovative global trainingacademy for staff that faces customers. Vodafone`s staff is trainedon how to handle various types of clients and ensuring they providetotal satisfaction as well as obtain feedback. The aim is to make thecompany a customer driven organization (Vodafone n.d.). Theorganization’s people strategy aims to increase employee engagementby developing a framework for enhancing Vodafone’s clarity aboutthe desired employee experience. It enables the organization toengage the employees to provide customers with first class services,as well as, increase Vodafone’s performance. The human resources ofthe company embedded a Vodafone brand essence referred to as “RockRock Solid, Restless.” The model communicates the common way ofbehavior designed to increase customers’ orientation. The inductionand training programs are designed to provide employees with a deeperunderstanding of ways for demonstrating the desired behaviors at work(Deloitte 2009, p.91).5.0Recommendation5.1RecommendedUlrich’s 3 legged model
GERMANY
HR Service Delivery 
CEO
Marketing 
Finance 
Production 
HR Service Delivery 
COE
Business Unit
Commercial
HRBP
HRSS
Business Unit
Technical
HRBP
l
ITALY
HR Service Delivery 
UNITED KINGDOM
Marketing 
Finance 
Production 
HR Service Delivery 
HR Service Delivery 
Marketing 
Finance 
Production 
HR Service Delivery 
Business Unit
Commercial
HRBP
HRSS
Business Unit
Technical
HRBP
l
COE
COE
HRSS
Business Unit
Technical
HRBP
l
Business Unit
Commercial
HRBP
5.2Advantages and reasons
1.With each country having its own three-legged model, the HR is closerto the company’s business units and the employees. Consequently,the human resource can respond quickly and the employees get easyaccess to Human resource services. The human resource department ineach country can easily identify skills gaps and recommend trainingthat is customized to the country (Yoder-Wise & Kowalski 2010,p.47).2.The creation of the centers of excellence for each country enhancesthe strategic planning of the company. The centers of excellence canconcentrate on developing key strategies to penetrate theircountries. The ability to specialize on a given market increases thequality of the developed strategies and boosts the ability of thecompany to beat competition (Yoder-Wise & Kowalski 2010, p.47).3.The human resource shared services streamlines the activities of thehuman resource department. The department can concentrate on itsprocesses and maximize the technological investment. For example,it’s easier to monitor employee absence and enable employee toaccess human resource services such as printing of pays lips and taxpayments. The human resource self-service improves service deliveryand drives down costs for the company by replacing employeerequirements with technology (Reilly 2000, p.38).4.The proposed model enables job differentiation by creating clearresponsibilities and roles for the company’s human capital.Consequently, it reduces task ambiguity and increases jobsatisfaction that improves the productivity of the employees. Thecreation of specific posts in the human resource department enhancesthe ability to match the competencies of the employee to skillsrequired for a given post. The human resource department is able torecruit the most appropriate personnel and conduct training toimprove the skills of the employees (Ulrich 1997, p.42).6.0 Impact implementation6 .1 LimitationsTheapplication of the Ulrich’s three-legged model is subject tolimitations such as the rushed implementation by managers. Themanagers in various countries should understand the benefits theyrequire from the model before implementing it in their locations.Besides, the managers may copy a successful design in one country andapply in and another location resulting into failure due to locationdifferences in terms of employee’s attitudes and human resourcerequirements. For example, the managers should differentiatetransactional and transformational work in Germany, United Kingdomand Italy (Deloitte 2009, p.69).TheUlrich 3 legged model is subject to limitation based on culturaldifferences. The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have culturalhuman resource strategies to ensure leadership, goal definition,group performance and team organization. Besides, the decision on themost qualified individuals for the posts in the model may be splitbetween educational achievement and work experience of individuals.Consequently, the proper application of the model requires the humanresources expertise in determining the best criteria for choosing theright skills and qualifications for each country (Deloitte 2009,p.71).6.2 MonitoringTheappropriate monitoring of the model calls for the establishment ofkey performance indicators for each unit in the centers ofexcellence, the human resource self-service and the Human Resourcepartner levels. The Centre for Excellence should be evaluated at thecorporate, national or business unit level. The evaluation shouldestablish the number of developed strategies and menu’s on humanresource policies of the company. Besides, the quality of theproposals presented by the department should be evaluated toestablish viability in the end (Ulrich 1997, p.42).7. ConclusionsThethree-legged model of Human Resources by Ulrich provides insight intothe strategic decisions required to oversee the operations of aninternational company. The model provides the ability for anorganization to increase human resource processes through thedistribution of responsibilities across the departments. The divisionof labor is appropriate for ensuring adequate performance anddecision making in the leading international organizations. The modelenables an international company to streamline its activities thatfurther results to improved service delivery. It also calls for theimplementation of technology to reduce human resource workload andenable the human resource department to focus on key strategies of aninternational company. Consequently, the model increases efficiencyand reduces the cost of operations through cutting the employeerequirements of a company (Deloitte 2009, p.91)Thethree-legged approach calls for the creation of departments such asthe center of excellence, the human resource self-service center, andthe human resource business partner. The creation of such anorganization structure requires monitoring and evaluation toestablish the level of achievement for each department. Among the keylimitations of the model is the hurry by management to implement themodel without evaluating their business needs that suit the model andresult into failure. Cultural differences in various countries aresubject to affect human resource decision making in the choice of themost appropriate personnel. Consequently, the expertise of the humanresource managers is important in choosing the appropriate practicesof the company (Ulrich 1997, p.58).References
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