Human Resource Management Strategies for Future Growth: A Case Study of Unilever

This report analyzes the human resource management strategies used by Unilever to ensure future growth and competitiveness. It examines the internal and external factors affecting the company, identifies business needs through gap analysis, discusses people issues, defines HR strategies, assesses HR capability and resource implications, and outlines plans for evaluating HR strategy.

Human resource
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
An analysis of external and internal context..............................................................................1
Identification of Business Needs(gap analysis)..........................................................................2
Identify people issues..................................................................................................................2
Define HR strategies...................................................................................................................4
Assess HR capability and Resource Implications to support/deliver the proposed strategies....4
Plans for evaluation of HR strategy............................................................................................5
A reflective statement.................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a strategic approach that helps businesses in effective
management of people at work place. Management of people at work place helps in the
achievement of organisational goals in competitive environment (Bigdeli, Davoudi, Kamali,
and Entesar Fomani, 2018). Human resource department is responsible for the employees'
benefits in the company and making appropriate strategy that helps in betterment of future goals
and objectives. Human resource strategies assist organisation towards the effective performance
in the market and gain in competitive advantages. This report is based on Unilever, its British
multinational consumer goods company, and its headquarter is in London, United Kingdom. The
objective of this report is to analyse various strategies that human resource department of the
organisation use in order to ensure future growth of the company.
Vision of Unilever: Vision statement of the company shows that company want to be the
leader in the global sustainable business. Company demonstrate how their purpose led, future fit
business model drives superior performance, consistently delivering financial results in the
industry.
Mission of Unilever: Mission of Unilever is to “Add vitality to life, To meet everyday
needs for hygiene, nutrition, and personal care with the brands that helps people to feel good,
look good and get more out of life”
Values of Unilever: Values of the company define how they do business and interact
with customers, colleagues, respect and pioneering. Four core value of company is integrity,
responsibility, respect and pioneering.
An analysis of external and internal context.
In business environment there are various internal and external factors of the business
that have impact on the decision making process (Booyens, Motala, and Ngandu, 2020). Internal
analysis refer to the all the factors that affect business from inside and effect decision making
process. Whereas external analysis of the business refer to all the business environment factors
that have an impact on the decision making process of the company.
Internal analysis:
internal analysis of business refer to all the factors of business that have an impact on the
decision making process. SWOT analysis of business helps the business of Unilever to have
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insight about the it internal factors that have an impact on the growth and profitability of the
business. Strength and weakness of the company refer to the internal factor and opportunity and
threat of the SWOT analysis refer to the external factors that have an impact on the decision
making process of the company.
External analysis:
This analysis of business helps to understand about all the external factors that have an
impact on the profitability of the business and also influence the decision making process (Deyo,
2019). STEEPLE is one of the most prominent models that have been used for the analysis of
external factors of the business. This analysis of Unilever helps to understand about the all the
business environment factors that have influence on the business and its decision making
process.
Identification of Business Needs(gap analysis).
Gap analysis is the process that helps business to compare actual performance with the
expected of desired outcomes of the business. It assist organisation to use all the resources in
effective manner so that actual performance can meet the goal and objectives of the firm. In the
context of Unilever SWOT and STEEPLE analysis helps to understand about the performance of
the company and gap in the desired result (Issac, and Baral, 2018). Unilever wants to become the
number owner leader in the retail industry but due to gap between the workforce management
and use of the resources have an impact on its performance. Desire performance of the company
is to make the brand number one in the market but the company is work on number three. Due to
the lack of proper arrangements of resources in the company they fail to meet their desire
performance. Thus, gap analysis of Unilever helps to understand about the various factors that
have an influence on the decision making process of the company also there are various gaps in
the arrangement of resources that can affect the performance of business in the market.
Identify people issues.
People issues in the organisation can affect the growth and future performance of the
company, develop and retain skilled and talented employee of the company can assist towards
the better future and growth of the business (Jiru, and Tadesse, 2019). In the context of
Unilever, company also face various issues in the management of the people at workplace.
Ineffective practices can reduce the performance and affectivity in the organisation. Below are
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the various human resource themes that can help in the better growth and management of the
company.
Developing agile workforce:
Workforce agility refer to the organisation's ability to move people to support change in
the environment of business. It helps organisation to make effective strategy that helps in better
growth and ensuring that people performance various task in most effective manner so that it can
support the future goals and objectives of the company (Kamoche, 2019). It support the change
management in the organisation in order to fulfil the needs and demand of organisation from the
workforce. In the context of Unilever, company can effectively gain expected performance by
use of agile of workforce within organisation. Human resource department of the organisation
can use this them in order to provide sustainable growth to the business. Human resource
department of the business helps to understand about effective workforce and growth in the
business. Retain talented employees in the organisation is also helps in better growth and
sustainable environment.
Creating a high-performance work culture:
Creating high performance culture can help the organisation to meet the desire goals and
objectives that can helps in better future growth of the business. Effective culture of the
organisation helps in fulfilment of needs and wants of the employees within the workplace. It can
helps to meet all the future objectives of organisation that improve its performance in the market.
Crating high performance culture in the organisation can improve the employee morals and
values in relation to the business objectives (Kooij, and Boon, 2018). In the context of Unilever
high performance culture in the company can enhance the mind-set of the employee working
towards the organisational goals and objectives. It can also assist company's current business
towards the successful achievement of the future objectives of the company.
Ensuring long term reputation and growth of the organisation:
Human resource department ensure that they provide effective performance to the
company in order to achieve goals and objectives in future. They ensure that they provide
sustainable growth in the productivity so that company can enhance its performance in the
market. Effective performance of employees and staff members helps in the long term
advantages for the company. In the context of Unilever, human resource department of the
organisation ensure that they analyse and evaluate the performance of the employee in effective
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manner and provide them guidance about how to performance task in effective manner so that it
can helps to brings better growth and profitability of the business.
Define HR strategies
Human resource strategies refer to the implementation and development of the plan in
order to meet the objectives and goals of the organisation (Machlis, and Tichnell, 2019). Various
human resource strategies helps in the better arrangement of various resources that can provide
effective outcomes to the company. Human resource strategy set direction for the company so
that it can benefit the future goals and objectives of the business. Future goals and objectives of
the company can enhance its profitability and future growth. Change in the current strategy of
business can helps in fulfilment of all the goals and objectives of the brand. In the context of
Unilever, human resource strategies can fulfil the needs and wants of the business from effective
use of human resource in the organisation. Development of strategic performance in the business
can enhance the future growth of the company in the market. Below are various steps that human
resource department of the company can follow in order to achieve expected performance from
the employees.
Training and development:
It is one of the most useful tool that can helps in better growth of the business in the
future market. Human resource department of Unilever can provide appropriate training to the
employees of the organisation in order to make them more productive and enhance their skills
and capabilities (Quinlan, Babin, Carr, and Griffin, 2019). Training program of the business can
help in the effectiveness of the business in order to gain overall goals in the future.
Retention of skilled and talented employees:
Retaining employees that helps in the growth and profitability of the business can helps
in better growth and progress of business. Employee retention for the long term can enhance
their performance so that they can give effective productivity in the business. Enhancement on
the performance of the employee can increase the level of effectiveness in the performance of the
Unilever.
Thus, various human resource practices help the employee in the organisation to give
high quality of work and also it helps organisation to make effective growth in the future.
Effectiveness in the performance of the employee can helps in the future growth and
sustainability in the business.
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Assess HR capability and Resource Implications to support/deliver the proposed strategies.
Implications of various strategies that human resource department make in order to make
effective growth in the market (Riccucci, Naff,and Hamidullah, 2019). Human resource
strategies can improve the effective business and enhancement of the capabilities in the business.
Implementation of various strategies can helps in the future sustainability of the business also it
enhance the market image of the brand. Below are implications of various strategies is explained
in the context of Unilever.
Developing agile workforce: It is one of the best strategies that Unilever can use in
order to get sustainable environment in the market. Human resource department can implement
this strategy by analysing the current situation of the workplace, also they can analyse that
employee is working according to their skills or not. This can help the human resource
department to understand about the need of change in the organisation. Also agile workplace can
be develop by the use of various tools and technique that support the growth of organisation in
the future,
Creating a high-performance work culture:
Evaluation of employee performance and provide them effective out comes can enhance
the performance level in the business. Providing appropriate training to the employees can help
in the development of high performance culture in the organisation. Also providing right
guidance to the employee can also enhance their performance within the workplace. High
performance culture can be developed when employee get right training and motivation from the
leaders.
Ensuring long term reputation and growth of the organisation:
Long term reputation and growth of the organisation can be achieved by the effective
strategies and appropriate use of all the resources (Dong, Peng, Wang, and Dong, 2018..).
Effective workforce management can helps organisation in the better achievement of goals and
objectives. Human resources management of Unilever should ensure that they provide all the
information and knowledge required to the employee so that they can achieve better productivity
and growth within an organisation also can help organisation in better growth. Building brand
image in the market is very important for the company in order to gain competitive advantages.
Human resource department of the organisation can guide employees towards the effective
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management of work and effectiveness in the productivity so that they can help organisation to
achievement long term growth and profitability in the market.
Plans for evaluation of HR strategy.
Effective plan for the evaluation human resource strategy can help the company to gain
future growth and profitability. Effectiveness in the plan can help to ensure future growth and
profitability of the company below is detail implementation of the human resource strategy plan
in order to gain effective outcomes.
Implementation Plan:
Implementation plan is the act of execution plan, method, decision etc. it helps in
successfully achieve all the target and objectives of the company. Implementation plan on the
human resource strategy helps in achievement of goals and objectives in order to provide
business better outcomes in the future.
Objectives Action Measure Target date
Creating an agile
workforce
Providing training to
the organisational staff
members in specific
areas they lack in
(Traeger, and Alfes,
2019).
Training and
development
department
6-12 months
Recruiting skilled and
talented employees in
the organisation with
the required skills
needed to perform
specific job.
Recruitment and
selection department
12 months
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High performance
work culture
Providing employees
online feedback portal
for the improvement in
workplace and
working environment.
Number of feedback
received by the
employees of the
organisation.
3-6 months
Employee and staff
meetings for
improvement in job
training and
requirement in order to
perform jobs.
Communication with
line managers.
6 – 12 months
Growth and long term
reputation
Building healthy
relationship with
colleagues and
improve business
performance.
Numbers of colleagues
attend events
24 months
Creating social media
pages in order to
aware customers and
marketer about the
various strategy.
Number of followers
like the post and pages
3 months.
Thus, implementation plan of human resource strategies helps in the analysing all the aspect that
helps businesses in better out come and future growth in the market.
A reflective statement.
From the above discussion I learned about the importance of the various human resource
strategy that helps businesses in better growth and profitability. Effectiveness in human resource
management of Unilever can enhance the level productivity of the employees and growth in
within the organisation. I also analyse that gap analysis of Unilever helps me to understand about
its current market situation and what company expect to become in the future. Gap analysis also
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eventuate the various issues that organisation face in the business because of ineffectiveness in
the performance of the employees. I also understand that various human resource strategies in
the business can help to solve all the issues people face in the organisation. It can also understand
that company can follow implementation plan of the human resource strategies in order to
generate lead in the business and enhance the level of profitability in future. Various strategies of
human resource department helps business to go for actual performance to the expected
performance in the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it can be conclude that human resource department in
business play vital role by providing effective productivity of the employees. Human resource
department ensure that they manage people in most effective way that can help in the better
growth and profitability of the business. Effective human resource strategy helps in the better
future growth of the business also it can enhance the future business of the organisation.
Employees in the organisation feel motivated when they are getting effective training that helps
in better future of the business and growth in the industry. Implementation plan of the human
resource management helps businesses to make effective strategy that support business growth in
the future and increase level of profitability.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bigdeli, M., Davoudi, R., Kamali, N. and Entesar Fomani, G., 2018. Identifying the dimensions
and components of human resource improvement in education for proposing a conceptual
model. Journal of Research in Human Resources Management, 10(2), pp.73-100.
Booyens, I., Motala, S. and Ngandu, S., 2020. Tourism innovation and sustainability:
implications for skills development in South Africa. In Sustainable Human Resource
Management in Tourism (pp. 77-92). Springer, Cham.
Deyo, F.C., 2019. 2. Human Resource Strategies and Industrial Restructuring in Thailand.
In Industrialization and labor relations (pp. 23-36). Cornell University Press.
Issac, A.C. and Baral, R., 2018. Dissecting knowledge hiding: a note on what it is and what it is
not. Human Resource Management International Digest.
Jiru, A.T. and Tadesse, W.M., 2019. Effects of human resource management practices on
employee turnover intention: A case study of commercial banks in Ethiopia. OPUS: HR
Journal, 10(1), p.1.
Kamoche, K.N., 2019. Sociological paradigms and human resources: An African context.
Routledge.
Kooij, D.T. and Boon, C., 2018. Perceptions of HR practices, person–organisation fit, and
affective commitment: The moderating role of career stage. Human Resource
management journal, 28(1), pp.61-75.
Machlis, G.E. and Tichnell, D.L., 2019. The state of the world's parks: An international
assessment for resource management, policy, and research. Routledge.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western
Cengage.
Riccucci, N.M., Naff, K.C. and Hamidullah, M.F., 2019. Personnel management in government:
Politics and process. Routledge.
Song, M., Peng, J., Wang, J. and Dong, L., 2018. Better resource management: An improved
resource and environmental efficiency evaluation approach that considers undesirable
outputs. Resources, conservation and recycling, 128, pp.197-205.
Traeger, C. and Alfes, K., 2019. High-performance human resource practices and volunteer
engagement: the role of empowerment and organizational identification. Voluntas:
International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 30(5), pp.1022-1035.
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APPENDICES
STEEPLE ANALYSIS
Social factor: society culture and the way of doing the things can always impact the
culture of an organisation in the environment. Always sharing beliefs and the attitudes of the
market population always plays an important role in how the marketers of the Unilever's will get
developed in the terms of their products and services, and also how they can design the
marketing message for the use of personal products industry to the consumers. Here are some
social factors analysis that affect the leadership of Unilever is as following: demographic and
skills level of the population, leisure interest, culture including gender,roles, social convenience.
Technological factor: as technology is changing on the interval of times in the various
industries, in all over the world. Transportation department is a good area to elaborate the point.
Over the last five years, the organisation has been transforming really fast. The Unilever should
not do technological analysis of the organisation but also sometimes technological disruption.
Technological analysis is involving to understand the following impacts- technological impact
on product offering, impact on the cost structure in the personal products firm
Economical factor: this macro environment factors refers- the inflation rate, saving rate
and interest rate and also the economical factor that analyse the appropriate demand and the
appropriate investment in an economy, while in the macro-environment factors such as the
competition laws can impact the competitive advantage of the company. But also there are some
factors that Unilever have to determine and consider in economic factor. That is unemployment
rate, economic growth rate, inflation rate, and interest rate.
Environmental factor: different organisation have different rules of environmental
factor, this can impact the profitability of the organisation in the markets. And also within the
country often the different states also have the different environmental laws and regulations.
Now some of the environmental factors that Unilever's have to consider they are : weather of the
place, climate changes time to time, recycling of the products, and also the management of the
waste in consumer goods sector.
Political factors: political factors always plays an important role in analysing the factor
that can affect the Unilever's long term profit in some certain countries. Unilever is operating
their personal products in more and more companies and also try to explore the company, to
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their different types of the political system risk of the company. Unilever have to analyse closely
the following factors before entering in the market or before doing investment that is as follows:
political establishment and the importance of the personal products in the country's economy,
legal framework for the contract rules, intellectual property right protection.
Ethical factor: Unilever have very strong value and clear policies and terms to make sure
their employees, not only to do things but also do the right things. Unilever core values and
principle is the team effort. Almost the Unilever strengths lies on their shared values of the
peoples in the organisation. That is integrity, respect, responsibility, pioneering.
Unilever is the most popular consumer goods business in the global market. A swot analysis of
the company defines the business strengths that ensure long term success.
 STRENGTH- Unilever have their shop in nearly 190 countries in all over the world, and
also this has a deep and broad image of the brands and a different product range. Unilever
also combines the global thinking with their local execution; it means that they try to
pursue the local strategies to win the heart and mind of the customers.
 WEAKNESSES – the weaknesses that Unilever always faces an extremely competitive
market, where the global companies like nestle are the competitors of Unilever, nestle
and p&g companies also have created a good image in the market. That's why Unilever
sometimes to go off beat to influence their customers,
 OPPORTUNITIES – as the consumers now a days really very health conscious in the
world, so the Unilever can take this as a opportunity and include this opportunity in the
market segment. And also launch the product range that is specially for the targeted
health conscious consumers.
 THREATS – Unilever's is operating a market segment where the local products and also
the product alternatives is present in the market. Although, this has to face threat because
there some upstarts, that can provide more value product in lesser price.
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