Vodacom has moved closer to its parent company's way of doing things by adopting Vodafone's “code of conduct” that regulates how staff must behave in a number of situations, including in terms of customer, supplier dealings and government relationships.
E-mailed to all staff earlier this week, the code of conduct is adopted by the UK-based Vodafone as a global standard for all its business units in almost every country it operates. It does make some exception for local conditions.
Business principles are among the first issues to be laid out. These principles state the group will comply with the law in all cases. In terms of financial integrity, although the principles will provide the best possible return over the longer term, this will take into account social and environmental concerns.
The code of conduct also states that, while Vodacom/Vodafone will voice their opinions on government policy, they will not make gifts or donations to political parties or intervene in political party matters.
Other business principles call for customer information to be safeguarded; employee relationships to be based on respect; and that child labour would not be tolerated. The company will engage with local communities, especially over network deployment, and individual conduct will be based on honesty, integrity and fairness.
The code also restricts employees making comments to the media or releasing product details without proper authorisation.
Staff are encouraged to blow the whistle if they find any breaches of the code or alleged wrongdoing, such as money laundering or fraud.
The way
“The code of conduct is part of us moving closer to the 'Vodafone Way',” says Richard Boorman, Vodacom's executive for corporate communications. “This includes adopting standard procedures for human resources practices, remuneration practices and a host of other things.”
Boorman denied that the code had been adopted following allegations that former Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig had acted improperly when the network bought a chunk of ISP iBurst, which had his son at the helm.
There were also question marks about the behaviour of other former Vodacom employees, following the group's failed Nigerian strategy.
“The KPMG report found that there was no wrongdoing (by Knott-Craig) and the other instances have been dealt with. This is all part of moving towards the Vodafone Way,” Boorman says.
A Vodacom employee says that, while it makes sense for the group to have some kind of international standard that can be used as a yardstick for global behaviour, it has become another document to read and consider before embarking on a project.
“There are so many of these directives coming through that they are chewing up bandwidth at a rapid rate,” the employee says.
Vodafone took effective control of Vodacom last year after Telkom had unbundled its stake in order to pursue its own mobile offerings.
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