Unilever

The company that I chose for this project is Unilever. The reason is because it provides goods to a market that has been continuously stable and growing. This company is expanding year to year resulting in many opportunities for career seeking people and therefore their human resource department has to be prepared.
With more than 400 brands focused on health and wellbeing, no company touches so many people’s lives in so many different ways. Unilever’s portfolio ranges from nutritionally balanced foods to indulgent ice creams, affordable soaps, luxurious shampoos and everyday household care products. Unilever produces world-leading brands including Lipton, Knor, Dove, Axe, Hellmann’s and Omo, alongside trusted local names such as Blue Band, Pureit and Suave. Since Unilever was established in the 1890s, brands with a social mission have been at the core of its business, and now corporate responsibility underpins its strategy. In 2010, Unilever launched the Sustainable Living Plan – a set of targets designed to help the company deliver their objective of growing its business while minimizing the company’s impact on the environment. Unilever’s believe is that as a business they have a responsibility to their consumers and to the communities in which they have a presence. Around the world they invest in local economies and develop people’s skills inside and outside of Unilever. And through their business and brands, they run a range of programs to promote hygiene, nutrition, empowerment and environmental awareness. From long-established names like Lifebuoy, Sunlight and Pond’s to new innovations such as the Pureit affordable water purifier, Unilever’s range of brands is as diverse as their worldwide consumer base. Unilever has more than 400 brands, 12 of which generate sales in excess of $1.5 billion a year. Many of these brands have long-standing, strong social missions, including Lifebuoy’s drive to promote hygiene through hand washing with soap, and Dove’s campaign for real beauty.
Consumers worldwide buy 170 billion Unilever products each year. In 2010, Unilever’s worldwide turnover was $60.5 billion; their products are sold in more than 180 countries; they launched more than 100 brands into new markets in 2010; their top 12 brands all have sales of more than $1.5 billion, and their top 20 brands account for 70% of their sales. Unilever’s underlying volume growth in 2010 was 5.8% - the best they have achieved in 30 years. They operate in 11 product areas – and are global leaders in seven of them. Brands like Dove, Lux, Pond's and Rexona have made Unilever a global leader in the deodorant and skin care markets – where their sales grew 7.9% in 2010. Lipton's and Brooke Bond, Ben & Jerry's and Heartbrand are among the brands that have made Unilever global leaders in the ice cream and beverage markets – where volume grew 5.9% in 2010. More than 167,000 people work for Unilever; more than 50% of their business is in emerging markets. They have more than 50 years' experience of working in Brazil, China, India and Indonesia.
Unilever believes that a diverse workforce gives all the opportunity to learn from one another, achieve better business performance and connect with the widest range of consumers. They embrace diversity in their workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of gender, nationality, race, creed, disability, style or sexuality. Diversity plays a vital role in ensuring that the company can connect with the widest range of consumers. In 2009, Unilever articulated its new 12-point Compass strategy that incorporates an organization and diverse talent pipeline ready to meet their growth ambitions as one of its key points. Their commitment to diversity is set right at the top of their business with their Global Diversity Board. Established in 2009, the Board comprises senior executives from across the business and is chaired by Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman. With the remit to set direction for the diversity agenda, the Board meets quarterly to review strategy and actions.
Unilever works to embed diversity firmly into the company’s day-to-day business decisions, via their talent management and people processes. Their business units are required to develop specific diversity plans that are aligned to the priorities and needs of their regions and product categories. In 2009, they introduced six enablers to be implemented across their business units. These are to attract, retain and develop diverse talent at Unilever. The units are accountability, by accounting for clear targets and global scorecards for all regions; mentoring by implementing local schemes to support the development of diverse talent; networks – established in each business unit to focus on and support diversity; flexible working programs wherever possible; career planning with a focus on diversity; culture by embedding the importance of diversity and inclusion in leadership programs.
In February 2011, Unilever had six nationalities represented on their Unilever Executive, five nationalities on the Board of Directors, 20 in their top tier management and more than 100 nationalities worldwide. This combination delivers a wealth of experience in developing and emerging markets, countries that are critical to their success.
Women make up more than 75% of Unilever’s consumer base. Their workforce must take account of this; therefore, Unilever has put a particular spotlight on this issue and it forms one of the business goals. Unilever’s goal is to increase the number of women at all levels of the business. They already see good results with some improvements in the number of women in senior positions and overall diversity of future talent.
Unilever’s mentoring relationships provide ongoing feedback and advice on career progression and personal development plans and can play a key role in helping individuals achieve their full potential. Unilever has seen successes in the form of promotions of employees who have participated in the program. Networks provide valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth, building relationships and interacting with role models and mentors for diverse talent. Unilever has made significant progress on building networks in 2010. Several networks are present across the Americas, Western Europe and Asia, Africa and Central & Eastern Europe regions. North America runs five networks including the Hispanic Business Network, African American Business Network, Women’s Interactive Network, Asian Business Council and Global PRIDE. In 2010 new networks were launched in Brazil, UK, Ireland, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and Europe.
Unilever’s aim is to create a working environment supportive of family life. One of the ways they do this is through non-conventional career paths and flexible working arrangements, such as job-sharing, flexible or reduced hours and home working. In some countries such as Italy, their business is developing partnerships with childcare service providers to support parents in their transition back to work. Unilever also supports employees who decide to take a career break, like paternity/maternity leave, which is not seen as a career cancellation but more like a postponement of progression.
To achieve real change in attitudes and approaches to managing diversity within the business, people need to understand why it is important to Unilever’s success. During 2010 they launched a range of initiatives to raise levels of awareness and understanding. In the North American business more than 70% of the business is trained in diversity issues. Diversity awareness sessions were also carried out in India, the UK and Ireland and in the corporate headquarters.
Unilever is one of a growing number of companies giving human resources more power, overhauling departments that, in the past, did little more than handle payroll and benefits forms. The company has cut hundreds of human-resources jobs and outsourced payroll and other tasks to a consulting firm. The cuts improved results by reducing the layers of executives who had to approve a new product or marketing campaign. That has enabled the company to react more quickly to new consumer trends and new demands from supermarkets; however, the cuts put a toll on the employees’ morale. Unilever introduced a 360-degree assessment, where managers' bosses, peers and direct reports all give confidential appraisals of their performance. Unilever is reshaping their organization to support their vision by creating a simpler, more streamlined structure, developing the necessary talent and skills, and embedding a performance culture that rewards success.
A key element of Unilever’s strategy is to get better efficiencies through their global scale. The company needs to get the right balance between becoming more efficient and remaining close to the local nuances of their consumer and employees needs. The strategy builds on the Unilever transformation process. Its aim was to simplify their business structure, speed up decision-making and improve competitiveness. At times the transformation process has meant taking difficult decisions where job losses have been necessary, either as a result of disposals or closures. Unilever needs to communicate regularly to ensure that people understand what is happening and they should make every effort to help them find alternative employment.
Any time there is restructuring within a company the employee morale will be affected. Employees feel as if their jobs may soon be affected and are not sure of their future. The company needs to emphasize why they changes are made; keep the current employees up to date about current changes and possible future changes. This eliminates a lot of questions and helps to prevent morale from decreasing among employees. Morale will drop because of the situation at hand, but if the employees understand why it won’t be as drastic. I recommend that the company announces the losses and needs for restructuring due to these losses. There will be a lot of employees who are not sure about their future. I recommend that the company keep the current employees up to date about the current state of the business. The company should also ask for and provide feedback to questions that may arise from the employees. This will show the employees that the company is concerned about their well being and keep the morale up.
Results from Unilever’s Global People Survey in 2010 were encouraging: 88% of managers believe they are treated with respect and dignity; 71% of managers believe that Unilever has a work environment which values diverse perspectives; 77% of managers feel they are treated fairly regardless of their background.

Works Cited
Cascio, Wayne F. Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
Unilever Global Company Website. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. .