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Internship project
How is SHRM practiced in Vodafone idea?
- By Chandan Bhosale
M15003

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Introduction
Strategic Human Resource Management is a modern day business concept that has been now
been widely used the organization; the crux of the concept is that all the human resource
activities of the companies should be aligned with the organizational corporate objectives. In
this Project I had selected Vodafone Idea for my analysis of SHRM, I have explained how the
practices and strategies of human resources department are aligned with the company’s
objective. What are the areas that are performing well and what the areas that need the
improvement are?
This project will analyse two dimensions, one is their strategies for recruitment, selection,
learning, development and training and I shall explain how these strategies are maximizing
employee performance and are linked with corporate strategies. The second part of this project
will present the performance management processes of the organization we shall how this
organization manages the performance of their employees and how human resource department
is managing the employee relations.

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Introduction to the Company
Vodafone Idea Limited is an Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group partnership. It is India’s
leading telecom service provider. The Company provides pan India Voice and Data services
across 2G, 3G and 4G platform. With the large spectrum portfolio to support the growing
demand for data and voice, the company is committed to deliver delightful customer
experiences and contribute towards creating a truly ‘Digital India’ by enabling millions of
citizens to connect and build a better tomorrow. The Company is developing infrastructure to
introduce newer and smarter technologies, making both retail and enterprise customers future
ready with innovative offerings, conveniently accessible through an ecosystem of digital
channels as well as extensive on-ground presence. The Company is listed on National Stock
Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India.
Vodafone Idea Limited begins its operations in the country. The merged entity has confirmed
that it will have over 408 million subscribers, Revenue Market Share of 32.2% with top position
in 9 circles, over 3,40,000 (3G+4G) sites spread across the nation and much more. So it’s now
official that Bharti Airtel will not be the leading telecom operator anymore as it has close to
350 million subscribers under its belt, nowhere close to the merged entity’s 408 million user
base. Vodafone Idea LTD also states that they have over 15,000 branded customer stores with
over 1.7 million retailers, making it the widest distribution reach.

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Company Vision
Create world class digital experiences to connect and inspire every Indian to build a better
tomorrow
They see their future in outstanding data services and products – backed up by the best customer
experience in the business. Their journey has already begun, with things like Mobile Internet
and Mobile Broadband. And their Vodafone Idea at home fixed broadband service. And their
targets are big, which means millions of customers using their data services every day.
Company Values
Speed
They are focused on speed to market, they relentlessly priorities and pursue the outcomes that
matter to our business.
Simplicity
They make things simple for their customers, partners and colleagues.
Trust
They are reliable and transparent to deal with. They deliver for others, and trust others to do
likewise

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Literature Review of Strategic HRM:
Strategic Human Resource Management is a modern day business concept that is now being
practiced in many of the organizations, its acceptability and practice is increasing with the time
as organization have realized that this management philosophy is actually adding value to
business profitability in many indirect ways.
As we know that human resources are one of the most important resources of that a company
can have, their ability to participate in development of companies’ sustainable competitive
advantage is unquestionable, in past the human resource management has been a separate
department with no influence and participation in strategic management of the company.
Whatever have been the corporate strategies companies were not linking the human resources
management with it. The result of which was the disintegration of company’s objective and
human resource management, this scenario made the human resource participation in
sustainable competitive advantage limited.
With the evolution of modern business era, that has started from 1980s, the management
practitioners and commentators has been feeling the need of taking the companies to one
direction, and they have also realized that it very important that human resource department
should be made part of the strategy formulation process and their human resource strategies
should be made while keeping in mind the business strategy of the organization. Therefore, the
researchers came up with the concept which is called the Strategic Human Resource
Management, that enables the HR department to derive their practices from the corporate
strategy and they are also made part while making the business strategy (Armstrong, 2006).
Strategic Human Resource Management requires the dept being proactive rather than being
reactive, they are required to adjust themselves according to the human resource need of the
company. They are also required to foresee the upcoming needs of the company and then plan
beforehand accordingly

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Strategies for Recruitment, Retention, Training & Learning
Vodafone idea is a market leader in their category, they have a competitive advantage because
of their diversification in products, services and marketing strategies, therefore their corporate
objective is to sustain their marketing leader position with the help of their diversification.
Below is the snapshot of HR strategies for various HR functions of the organization that tells
us the organization is linking their business strategy with their human resource strategy:
Recruitment & Selection
Vodafone idea’s recruitment and selection process is aligned with their business strategy, as
they are in the business of providing services and their market position is a leader with
differentiations, therefore when they recruit individuals on different seats, they have set of core
competencies that are required for each position and they check these while hiring someone.
Their selection process makes sure that the right person with right set of capacities and attitude
is selected, for example if they are hiring for the position of customer service they would make
sure that person being hired has the soft skills, the empathic attitude and is not aggressive in
nature. They have devised a set of such soft skills that are evaluated on each of the hiring and
these skills vary from position to position. For managerial level position they make sure they
hire someone with good analytical skill along with flare of leadership in them. So in Vodafone
idea the entire selection process is linked with the corporate objectives.
Compensation & Benefits
Vodafone idea’s entire compensation and benefits are also linked with business strategy, their
remuneration systems and annual appraisal systems are derived from corporate strategy. Since
our case company is working in highly competitive environment and they have to maintain
their position therefore they have designed their compensation system that encourages the
quality individuation to work in this organization. They provide they employees with state of
the art facilities and salary packages so that the best in the industry are attracted to work in the
company and then they play their part in making the organization a market leader.
Annual appraisal system is also managed strategically, in Vodafone idea, every department has
their quarterly and annual objectives, and these objectives are then used to make the individual

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and team’s quarterly and annual objectives. Now when performance appraisal is done,
Vodafone idea’s human resource department makes the objective achievement the part of the
appraisal system and all the increments in salary and bonuses are linked with the objective
achievement in teams and individuals. For their objective achievement calculation, they make
sure that performance objective is time bound, quantifiable and measureable.
Training & Development
Training and Development is an important component of their human resource strategy. They
keep on adding value in their human resources by training them on hard skill and soft skill
whatever is required by the nature and role of the job. The processes start from identifying the
training needs of each of the department. They after understanding the objective of the each of
the department for the coming year, asks the relevant managers to identify and evaluate the
individuals in their teams that require the training and development in certain areas of their job.
These training needs can be of soft skill and also can be of hard skills that are directly related
to the job.
Once the training needs are identified then human resource department manages the training
calendar of the year, in which all the required training are mentioned and employees are sent
for on job and off job training. Human resource department also have the eye on the upcoming
expansions and technological developments in the market so the relevant employees can be
trained before the time and they are ready to work when there is any technological advancement
and change in the organization.
Learning
Human resource department of the organization put special emphasis on developing the
learning culture within the organization. Employees are encouraged to share their experiences
and learning with each other so that team members can have a learning culture in the
organization. Since Vodafone idea is working in different geographical regions of the county,
therefore they make sure that employees are encouraged the learning’s regarding technical and
marketing knowledge with each other, so that employee of one region can learn from the
experience of the other region.

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As discussed above they also send employee on training, they also send different employees of
different department to their different geographical markets so that they can have the training
of various situations and have the understanding of various markets, that rotation also helps
employees and increase the learning within the organization.
Career Building
Since attracting and retaining the quality employee is challenge for the organizations working
in today’s competitive market, therefore Vodafone idea have the policy of having a clear and
well defined career path for each of their employee. This clarity of career path makes it clear
for employee that where they should see themselves after spending different number of years
in the company. The department also makes sure that all the career advancement of the
employees is based on their performance and every top performing employee should have the
advancement in their career, this policy helps to control the employee turnover and encourage
employees to work hard and perform as they would have the chance to grow.
Empowerment
Vodafone idea is working in competitive environment and to stay ahead of competition it is
very important for organizations to have the fast and correct decision making. Therefore, the
human resource department put the special emphasis on empowering the employee for timely
decision making.
For this purpose, they have worked in devolution of power, decentralization of decision making
and flatter organizational culture. They have been working on the dimensions on giving the
employee the power of making the less critical decisions and top management should only be
making decision that are or critical nature are of strategic importance. This empowerment of
employees gives them sense of responsibility, increases their commitment towards the
organization and save the precious business time that is required to take the decision from top
management.

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Retention
As it is very important for organizations working in competitive business environment,
Vodafone idea’s human resource practices also work in the same way, they try to retain their
quality employees to go to the competition. Their retention strategies revolve around the good
compensation and benefits, pay per performance, rewards and increments on good performance
and then having the well-defined promotional system that gives the chance to every employee
to perform and build their careers and then grow. Their retention policy is derived from the
strategic objective of the organization to be diversified in their business, and same is the case
in their human resource management.
Performance Management & Employee Relations
Below we shall see that performance management is done in Vodafone idea, these lines will
have presented the different methodologies and practices that are being adapted in the
performance management section of strategic HRM of company.
Determination of Performance Targets
The first step in strategic performance management of the organization is to determine the
required performance targets of the organization for the year. These targets are derived by
combining number of activities, first of all market analysis is done; the management analyze
the external environment so that market growth trends and competitors market share can be
understood.
Once this step is done management have the background information for dominating the
organizational performance for next year, then the next step is to decide and agree upon the
performance targets, once the corporate level targets are decided then these targets are divided
into department level targets. These department level targets are then reflected in individual
level targets and objectives.

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Encouraged Individual Commitment
Vodafone idea has realized the importance of encouraging the employee commitment towards
organizational objective, as without this commitment employee will not be able to achieve the
performance that organization is expecting them to achieve.
Once organization is able to make the organizational objectives the target of the individual then
we can see the success rate of achieving this objective is high. Therefore, Vodafone idea
increases the employee commitment to the organizational objectives by involving them in the
objective making process. It has been the practice in the Vodafone idea that managers and
teams decide their performance targets themselves and once these are approved by the
management their personal commitment to these targets is high. They strive and struggle more
to achieve the targets that has been made in consultation with them.
Delegation, Mentoring and Coaching
There are some other activities that play their role in strategic management of the performance
of the organization, Vodafone idea on the also using the three of the activities that are
delegation of power with responsibility, proper mentoring and feedback system, and coaching.
Vodafone idea believes in delegation of power to the employees that are responsible for
achieving certain targets, as responsibility comes with authority, same is the philosophy that is
applied throughout the Vodafone idea. Their culture is devolution of power so de-
centralization; they try to give maximum power to their employees so that they can achieve
their responsibilities with given authority.
Vodafone idea also believes in mentoring and coaching of employees, managers are
encouraged to act as mentor for their team members, this also involves on job training for the
teams, this system encourages learning environment in the organization.
Monitoring and Feedback
Monitoring and feedback system is an important part of the organizational performance
management; same is the case with Vodafone idea. They have proper monitoring and feedback
system that helps us monitoring the performance and individuals and teams. They have a
quarterly performance management system that relates the performance of the employees with

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their objectives of that quarter. After the evaluation and monitoring of the performance of teams
then feedback is provided to them. That system helps the organizational performance on the
track and helps the organization to stay on their performance objectives throughout the year.
Handling Under-Performance
Vodafone idea handles the underperformance of their employees by having a proper
monitoring system, they first evaluate the performance of the employees, then if team members
are found to be underperforming then they see that if there is any training needs. If there are
training needs then employees are sent on training, after the trainings their performance is again
monitored. If performance is found satisfactory then it is ok, if again performance is not found
satisfactory then employees are replaced to other jobs.
Employee Relations
Vodafone idea puts special emphasis on managing good relations with their employees; they
believe that their employees are their more important assets, their human resource policies are
more focused towards managing their employee’s relations with the organization. Their
performance evaluation, benefits and compensation system is targeted towards retaining their
employees and maintaining their motivation with the organization.
Conclusion
Strategic human resource management is the modern concept that is in practice by different by
different organizations, in this project we have observed the strategic human resource
management practices by one of the leading organization in telecommunication. We have
observed their organizational objectives with relation to their human resource management
activities. The focus of the project has been on the recruitment & selection, training and
development and learning functions and their relationship with organizational strategy. It has
also been observed that how performance management system is working on strategic
guidelines provided by the organization and how it is playing role in competitive advantage.

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Self-evaluation
1 for never, 2 for seldom, 3 for frequently, 4 for always
Quality Producer 1 2 3 4
I worked successfully as a team player *
I produced quality projects and assignments during
the tenure of internship
*
I met due dates / deadlines *
Effective Communicator 1 2 3 4
I effectively contributed my ideas and thoughts in
discussions
*
I dealt with problems, contribution or fights in a
positive way
*
I made no mistake while talking with a candidate
on phone
*
Responsible intern 1 2 3 4
I demonstrated personal responsibility for attitude,
actions, words and work
*
I demonstrated respect and understanding for
myself and others
*
Self-directed individual? 1 2 3 4
I started work, stayed on task and completed the
assignment without being reminded or prompted
*
I showed maturity and responsibility by making
healthy, safe and wise choices
*
Perceptive thinker 1 2 3 4
I used knowledge and creativity to solve problems *
I thought beyond the obvious *

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Learning and Reflection
This year in January, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be selected for one of the
best Telecommunication Industries. It would be my first-ever internship in a MNC, and I was
as nervous as nervous gets. I had so many questions & worries:
How will I manage to travel daily to Andheri as I am not a frequent train traveller?
What if I don’t meet their expectations?
These are the few things I learned while working in a MNC
1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions!
On my first day, I was terrified of appearing unknowledgeable and inadequate to my boss and
the people I was working with, so I just took direction and avoided asking any questions that
didn’t directly affect my work. However, after spending time in the office and getting into the
groove of things, I realized that internships are supposed to be a learning experience –
nobody expected me to know everything!
I started asking more questions and engaging in discussions related to my work that really
interested me, and I was able to pick up knowledge that I never would have been able to
come across in any other setting. Just the simple act of asking a question opened up the door
to not only a better understanding of the work I was doing, but also the perspectives of people
that come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences.
2. Connect with your co-interns.
As one of two interns selected, I found that I was fairly lonely – in a sea of college graduates
and full-fledged adults, I felt like a little kid and completely out of place. I initially didn’t
know how to interact with other people in the office or even the other intern, so the first day
or two I kept mostly to myself. After another day at work passed, however, I reached out to
my co-intern & began keeping regular contact with her. We had been friendly before we
received the position, but connecting and being able to discuss our assignments helped me
feel less alone, and in retrospect it was one of the best decisions I made during my internship.

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Connecting with her was a great way to help me stay on track in both my job and in my
academics, and I believe that I gained a true friend out of the whole experience.
3. Know your limits.
I am a person that loves being busy. Even though that might sound terrible & awful to some
people, having a full plate of work and responsibility makes me feel happy and fulfilled, and
it keeps me on track. For some reason, I do worse when I have less on my plate, because I’m
less inclined to follow through on the small number commitments I have made – is it just me?
Yeah, I thought so.
However, after taking on this internship, a leadership role in my College, becoming
Placement committee member if our college, enhancing one of my major courses, there were
times I definitely felt burnt out. As a result, I learned to be okay with the fact that I can’t do
everything. I’m not saying that it was the best plan of action, but now I know my limits – if I
had to miss a club meeting to focus on some homework, so be it; if I had to give up time with
my friends to study for an exam, that’s just what I did. I am comfortable with knowing what I
can and cannot do, and for that I am forever grateful.
4. Prioritization is everything!
In the same vein as the last lesson, I became the most organized that I had ever been in my
whole life just to stay on top of everything. I made list after list after list and I set goals for
every single day.
It was a lesson that definitely came with some trial, error, and sleepless nights, but ultimately
I was able to conquer it all to the best of my ability. Prioritization is something I know I’ll
continue to use in the future, and I’m glad that I learned its importance sooner rather than
later.
Seize every opportunity, even if it doesn’t seem like it fully relates to your major.

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Reference
https://www.vodafone.in/
https://twitter.com/VodafoneIN?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.vodafoneidea.com/
https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/vodafone-launches-safety-mobile-app-road-
safe-for-android-users/58414356
https://www.ideacellular.com/