Hundreds of workers at Vodafone Ghana are expected to lose their jobs through another compulsory redundancy exercise which the management of the company has described as a “necessary evil” meant to turn the financially ailing company from its present predicament of losses to one of profitability. The move which begins this month until the end of November this year has also been described as one "meant to transform the company" as it strategically positions itself to compete with others in the telecom industry in the country. The company will not mention how many of the 2,400 workers it presently maintains would be axed but the Graphic Business gathered that the figure will be about 1,300. This figure is meant to bring the number of employees of the company at par with its competitors whose staff strength is around 1,000 nationwide. Until the sale of the company to the new owners, the then Ghana Telecom had a staff strength of more than 4,200 across all its regional and district offices. A combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancy exercises earlier undertaken by the company has seen more than 1,800 workers already laid off. Some of the workers of the company who spoke to the Graphic Business on grounds of anonymity are not happy with the exercise and have described the intended exercise by the new owners of the company as not just an "act of betrayal but a stab in the back". Although they claim to be ready for the exercise, they argued that after they had fought hard to get Vodafone to win the bid to acquire 70 per cent stake in the then ailing company, they deserved a better deal. They wondered why the management of the company was still recruiting people and embarking on a redundancy exercise at the same time. Some analysts had before the sale described the 4,200 workforce of the company as unacceptable because the company could not break even with such large numbers. In an exclusive interview with the company, Mrs Stella Appiah Nkansah, the Head of Human Resources, asked the workers of the company not to panic about the whole exercise but know that "there is life after Vodafone". "We in management know it is a tough decision that we need to take at this time but it is simply a necessary evil if the company is to stay afloat", she said. Vodafone, she added is undertaking a complete business transformation and the rationale is trying to build a sustainable business. She admitted that the entire exercise was hurting but noted that the management had to take what she described as this 'tough decision' because it was in the interest of not just the people but the sustenance of this company. "We had a workforce at the time of the acquisition which was double the entire workforce of all our competitors put together and this was simply not right when we are third in the market, she said. According to her to compete in the same market with such a huge employee numbers, there was no way the company would be sustainable in the face of the numerous challenges and the nature of the competition the company was faced with. She said to be able to meet the current trend, the company needed to be customer obsessed to meet customer demands and considering all these, there was the heed to realign the business structure. "This simply means that certain roles within the company had to be merged while others or be entirely scrapped or we massage roles to be in tandem with the strategy adopted by the company", Mrs Nkansah noted. She also explained that; "Obviously when such a thing is being done, people will have to be affected. So for us to be sustainable and to meet market demand and be customer obsessed to meet the Vodafone tenets, speed, simplicity and trust, the exercise is inevitable". She maintained that the management had not finalised the numbers to be made redundant in spite of the speculations of 1,300 likely to be sent home. "We did a voluntary one and now we are working around our organisational functions and it is only after this that we will be able to tell what numbers will be made redundant”, she said. Mrs Nkansah said the management of the company was being highly circumspect about the issue because the sensitivity of the issue so people are not either agitated or angered. There had been some rumours about the company intending to outsource some of its departments to private companies and when asked about it, she replied in the affirmative saying that the exercise was also necessary for the growth and sustainability of the company and mentioned the company' s Call Centre for instance as one of the departments to be outsourced. She said the redundancy package for the workers to be affected is in strict compliance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between management and the local union adding that: “we have remained in constant communication with the local union as part of efforts to ensure maximum transparency”. Mrs Nkansah said interestingly, there are some of the people to be affected by the exercise who, after receiving their full packages, would be engaged the following day by the new company that takes over. She also noted that everyone affected will be given three months as usual to prepare and added that "during that period, line managers would be very flexible on them so that should any want to attend an interview elsewhere, that person would be allowed to go”. Mrs Nkansah said workers would be given thorough counselling and career guidance to prepare them for the future after their exit. All these, she said were being done to ensure that the workers become better off even after they finally say goodbye to the company. Source: Graphic Business