At Vodafone Portugal, internal communication has moved off the sidelines. It no longer passes along announcements. The team behind it sees its job as helping employees understand the strategy, believe in it and act on it. Susana Ferreira, Senior Manager of People Comms, Culture and Engagement, explains how that shift works in practice, and why it matters for any telecom transformation that wants to stick.
Making strategy something people can feel
Ferreira says the initiatives with the most impact are the ones that bring strategy closer to people, in words everyone understands. Regular alignment moments do a lot of that work: the monthly “CEO Update,” leadership forums, Vodafone Meetings and the Spirit of Vodafone Day. They give context to priorities and show each person where their own work fits.
Celebrations count too. Company anniversaries, seniority milestones and team parties at Christmas, including one for employees’ children, keep the human side visible.
REDvolution: an employee-led transformation in practice
This year’s People strategy, REDvolution, puts storytelling at the centre. Campaigns like “Are you a Transformer?” made change feel closer and more concrete, and invited people to take part rather than watch. Then there’s Office REDesign, which links the redesign of workspaces to a bigger message about collaboration and new ways of working. If you’re curious how modern coworking offices shape the way teams meet, this is a close cousin of that idea inside one company.
Ferreira calls it a success because it turned organizational change into one relatable story, tying strategy, culture and employee experience together. That’s what makes it feel like an employee-led transformation, not a memo from the top.
Less noise, more relevance
Nobody likes an overflowing inbox. The team’s answer is to be picky about what gets said, to whom, when and through which channel. Not everything needs the same prominence or the same level of detail. Their rule of thumb: relevance beats quantity.
Formats mix digital and live. Email, webinars, SharePoint pages, the internal social network and office screens sit alongside face-to-face moments, which still carry weight for culture, recognition and wellbeing. The language has become shorter, more direct and more human, with real employee testimonials and help from key people in each area. Ferreira’s point is that progress comes less from brand-new formats than from how existing ones are used.
In a hybrid setup, fairness means everyone gets the same context. Big moments pair strong in-person experiences with digital follow-up so nobody is left out.
Listening, measuring and the manager factor
Diversity starts at planning: choosing topics, voices and formats that reflect different generations, backgrounds and roles. Regular contact with departments helps check whether the picture is accurate.
Culture runs through The Spirit of Vodafone, with its four behaviours: earning customer loyalty, creating the future, experimenting and learning quickly, and making it happen together. Managers act as ambassadors, supported by leadership forums, Leader Labs and sessions to read the Spirit Beat survey results and build team action plans. Feedback comes from the annual Spirit Beat Survey, Spirit Pulses through the year, onboarding questionnaires and team meetings.
To judge impact, the team looks at reach, open and click rates, event participation and page visits, then compares them with survey data on engagement, clarity and alignment.
What comes next
The big challenge ahead is artificial intelligence. It can help analyze data and segment content, but Ferreira insists authenticity, ethics and the human touch can’t be outsourced. According to the devs.com.pt website, conversations like this are becoming part of how tech and telecom firms think about talent and culture.
Her closing thought is practical: in a hybrid world, internal communication has to keep helping people see the context, their own contribution and what matters most right now.
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