Zsuzsanna Toth, HR Director at Vodafone: Recruiting future talent to become a master of IoT services

Zsuzsanna Toth, HR Director at Vodafone, draws from her extensive 25-year industry expertise to shed light on the 2023 labor market landscape and talked with Business Review about the complex HR practices employed by Vodafone Romania, offering valuable insights into the evolving landscape of hybrid and remote work dynamics.

Empowering the Workforce: Vodafone’s Focus on Skill Development and Transformation

Zsuzsanna Toth believes that the private sector can play a great role in skilling, re-skilling, and up-skilling the labor force. “More than 50% of our colleagues work in call centers and retail stores. As Vodafone is going through a transformation from a telecommunication company to a trusted technology company and partner, certain IT skills are needed, which is why we are investing a lot in training our call center and retail colleagues. As we speak, a thousand people go through different trainings because we want to equip them with the needed skills.” Says Toth.

Recruitment Challenges: Global Competition for IT Professionals

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“We see a tendency when we recruit that we compete not only with other Romanian companies but also compete with other countries that are recruiting great IT professionals. I think that companies that require employees to work exclusively from the office will have difficulties in recruiting. At Vodafone, we want people to work from the office two days a week for special and certain reasons like socializing, collaboration on projects, and brainstorming. but we cannot go back to the pre-Covid period. There are certain jobs in which if you don’t give the possibility for remote work, you won’t find employees.” Believes Vodafone Romania’s HR Director.

Empowering Future Talent and Expanding Beyond Connectivity

“At Vodafone, we understood that we can become a tech company, to play a role beyond connectivity. To become a master of IoT services, to have an offer beyond the connectivity technology. This means recruiting future talent, not only in the IT department. We have a young talent program and we want to bring 50 fresh graduates and offer them a two-year development across all departments. A big part will be going to the technology departments, while 40%  will go into the commercial area. We are looking for people who want to study and invest in themselves.” Stated Zsuzsanna Toth.

Vodafone’s Quest for Innovation: Seeking Creative Thinkers and Innovators

Probably the most important aspect of Vodafone is its continuous need to innovate and create, declared the Vodafone Romania representative. “This is why we are looking for people who are ready to learn, experiment, and develop. Mainly, the greatest assets that we’re looking for are creative and innovative thinking, capability, and resilience.”

Sustainable Future: Transparency, Adaptation, and Eco-Friendly Practices

“Vodafone has three main pillars, and one of them is looking after the planet, and doing things in a sustainable way. One of the sustainability measures we take is how we turn our company car policy into having more plug-in hybrid, electrical cars. It will take some time, but if we have a clear strategy, we can support it. Moreover, at some point, the salary will become transparent so we need to ensure that we are prepared for that and that we can explain to our employees what we do and why we do it. It’s part of the company’s purpose and strategy, and the HR policies have to adapt.” Concluded Zsuzsanna Toth, HR Director at Vodafone.