Innovative Career Model for VodafoneZiggo

“We really wanted something new,” says Thijs van Loon, HR Director Reward & People Experience at VodafoneZiggo. And it was about time. Three years ago, telecom companies Ziggo and Vodafone merged. The result: two separate job classification frameworks with 1,400 roles coexisting, creating a confusing and unclear situation. Van Loon: “That lack of clarity hindered internal mobility, and that was a major concern for me.” What he wanted was a dynamic model fit for a rapidly changing world. Lianne Hamstra of Highberg immediately saw the appeal. “These plans required an entirely new career model,” she says. “You can’t fit this into existing structures.” The result: Career4you.

The two had worked together before. During the previous merger between UPC and Ziggo in 2015, Lianne Hamstra helped harmonize employment conditions and job frameworks. It was an intense project, with employees from both legacy organizations involved through workshops and inspiration sessions. “That was true co-creation,” says Hamstra.

That employee involvement is now back in the development of Career4you. But it’s a big leap from traditional job descriptions to the dynamic career paths VodafoneZiggo is now pursuing. With the new model, almost ready, employees can plan their careers, see how they can grow, and what’s needed to get there. For example, someone looking to develop marketing skills can see what skills they need and what training can help them build those. “Eventually,” says Hamstra, “you’ll even be able to see how colleagues with similar ambitions made their moves.”

Van Loon had several key requirements for the model. First: simplicity and transparency. Employees using Career4you should instantly see where they are now and what career paths lie ahead. Second: future-readiness. “Too often I’ve seen new job frameworks become outdated as soon as they’re implemented. One project shifts responsibilities and suddenly, job descriptions no longer apply.”

That approach doesn’t work anymore, Hamstra agrees. “The world is changing too fast—organizations need flexibility. That’s why we focused on skills instead of responsibilities. When the organizational structure changes, the model still holds. You can always assess what capabilities are available and deploy them accordingly.”

Traditionally, job frameworks emphasize output: what an employee delivers. That’s now shifting, says Van Loon. “In agile teams and short-term projects, it’s much more about input: what skills do we need now or in the near future, and who can provide them?” That means roles aren’t fixed anymore. That was already the case at VodafoneZiggo, where it’s not uncommon for someone in HR to join a commercial project, or business employees to act as agile coaches.

The new career model doesn’t stand alone. VodafoneZiggo is also launching a new way of doing performance reviews, called Grow. This replaces the traditional annual planning cycle with a quarterly rhythm. Van Loon: “Targets change quickly these days—and so do the skills needed. It’s no longer just about what needs to be done, but how, and which skills are required. Conversations are increasingly about how to stay relevant.” With Grow, agreements on output and personal development are recorded and updated quarterly.

A third initiative is the training platform Progress for you, where employees can sign up for any training they want. Really any? Van Loon nods: even courses not directly related to their job. “We offer a broad range of training, and Career4you helps people choose wisely. It shows what skills you need to develop to move in a certain direction and what learning matches that. But if someone wants to learn Spanish or Turkish for fun, that’s totally fine too.” Those courses are done in employees’ own time, but there’s no strict limit. “There’s no cap on the number of courses,” says Van Loon. “We do expect people to finish what they start. And to give some direction, regular check-ins with the manager remain important. Helping people stay relevant, now and in the future, is part of our HR strategy.”

Back to the beginning: after the Ziggo–Vodafone merger, a unified job framework was essential. Van Loon seized the opportunity. “I wanted to move away from the traditional focus on output—it’s outdated. But how to do that? That’s when I turned to Lianne.” Together, they crafted the new career model and tested it throughout the organization.

Engagement remained a top priority, involving a steering group, feedback panels, adjacent project teams, and the works council. In several “pressure cooker” sessions, 300 VodafoneZiggo managers were involved, providing input that shaped the final content.

But the team also had to protect the project’s guiding principles—clarity and simplicity. “Everyone always wants to add something,” says Van Loon. “We wanted only a few roles per area of expertise. But there’s always the temptation to create more distinctions.” Hamstra kept bringing everyone back to the core goals. “Stay focused. That’s where she really excels.”

Hamstra also notes how VodafoneZiggo consistently involves the entire organization in the process. “That strong emphasis on communication is really powerful.” Even early on, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the communications team created an insightful animation to explain Career4you.

The new career model aligns closely with VodafoneZiggo’s motto: Enjoyment and progress with every connection. Van Loon: “A big part of working here is that you keep learning, whether you want to grow vertically or horizontally. That you stay relevant.” And that relevance doesn’t have to be within VodafoneZiggo. “I always say: if you leave us someday, say ten years from now, I hope you’re not just ten years older, but ten years more relevant, with ten more years of mastery. I’ve been here since 2008. Not everyone grew with the company, but many moved on to great roles elsewhere. That’s fine. We’ve added value to each other.”

That mindset was already there, but the supporting systems were missing. With Career4you, Grow, and Progress for you, VodafoneZiggo can now realize its ambitions in practice.

The career model isn’t fully finished yet. Highberg consultants and the internal project team are now working on implementation. The system will ultimately include 7,500 employees. It will map 400 technical skills, like web design or network engineering, each with three development levels, from practitioner to expert.

The second dimension includes more general skills, such as leadership style, analytical thinking, and whether someone is a specialist or generalist. These roles can be linked to areas of expertise. “That lets you combine endlessly,” says Hamstra. “You can see exactly what suits someone—and select project candidates based on the skills needed at the time.”

This also enables powerful data analysis on existing and missing capabilities, helping the company steer development priorities. “That’s valuable steering information. It helps you understand where to focus your efforts.”

The goal is to make the system self-learning as well, so it can suggest logical career paths and skill combinations.

The dynamic career model VodafoneZiggo is adopting is, according to Van Loon, unprecedented in the Netherlands. “In the market, I often get asked: ‘Sounds great, but how did you actually do it?’ It’s a complex project, and yes, we’re asking a lot from the business. But soon, we’ll have a future-proof career model for an agile organization. A model like this has never been rolled out in such a large company. It will really help the business, and our people, move forward.”