Key Challenges in Talent Management at Unilever

This report analyzes the key challenges faced by Unilever in talent management and provides recommendations to overcome them. It discusses the aims and objectives of the organization, the importance of talent management, and the challenges faced in retaining skilled employees. The report also includes a performance management plan, a Gantt chart, and a work breakdown structure for completing projects. Additionally, it describes qualitative and quantitative research methods used to achieve the research goals and objectives.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Describe the aims and objectives of organisation..................................................................3
P2 Produce a performance management plan..............................................................................4
P3) Make Gantt chart within time frames and work breakdown structure of stages for
completing the projects................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P4) Describe qualitative and quantitative methods which result as conducting research meeting
to achieving goal and objectives..................................................................................................9
TASK 3 (In PPT)...........................................................................................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P7) Produce reflection in order to effectively attained goal and objectives..............................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................14
Books and Journals:...................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Talent-management is the activity that helps in retaining talented employees in the
organisation so that they can achieve their objectives and goals. It is very important for
organisation that they perform all those activities which help in managing their skilful and
talented employees. One of the toughest tasks that now companies face is to retain their talent
management. It is applicable on all levels of organisation because talent management is required
at every stage (Jindal, Shaikh and Shashank, 2017). If companies cannot retain their skilful
employees then they cannot achieve their objectives and goals. It is identified that firms face
many problems and challenges in respect to talent management. It becomes very difficult task for
organisation. Day to day increase in competition, skilful employees have many chances to switch
into another organisation if they do not feel comfortable. This become the main reason of
company that how they can manage their talented employees because they are the key elements
of their success and growth. In this context, Unilever is undertaken for analysing the key
challenges that are face by organisation in the business world. Unilever is the consumer goods
company which has headquartered in London, UK (Latukha, 2018). This report covers a research
which helps in finding the key challenges in talent management.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1 Describe the aims and objectives of organisation.
This report is conducting a research for identifying and analysing the factors that affect
on talent management of Unilever. Unilever is the large organisation that need to retain their
skilful employees because they want to success and growth in the market. It operates in many
countries that require higher efficiency and talented employees so that they can generate
maximum benefits. For that purpose they need to recruit and retain higher efficient employees.
The challenges that are faced Unilever include employee turnover. As the employees
consistently leave the job and switch the company. Along with that there is requirement of
skilled and talented staff. It is not easy to recruit and select the talented workforce. These are the
ke challenges and obstacles that are faced in managing talent in an organisation. Talent
management is very crucial for organisation to manage as it assist in achievement of goals and

objectives. There are many factors that should be analyse by organisation so that they can take
necessary corrective measures for handling those factors.
Research Title: “The key challenges and obstacles facing different business sectors in
terms of talent management.”
Research Aims: “To study key challenges of talent management that makes it difficult to
retain skilful employees in organisation.”
Research objectives:
 To determine the concept of talent management in organisation.
 To investigate benefits of talent management in the organisation.
 To examine key challenges of talent management in order to retain skilful employees.
 To recommend strategic approaches that helps to overcome key challenges of talent
management.
Literature Review:
According to (Hsieh, Chen and Liu, 2019) Talent management is the important process
which includes attracting and retaining talented and skilful employees in the organisation. It is
crucial for success and growth of organisation. It is the main reason of higher productivity of
employees that continuously perform so that company can achieve their objectives. Talent
management is also concerned with motivational factors which helps employees to perform their
role and responsibilities in an efficient manner. Day to day increase in competition, it becomes
very difficult for organisation that how they can recruit and retain their skilful employees. There
are many factors that effect on talent management process, one of them is competition (Vera-
Barbosa and Blanco-Ariza, 2019). It can be analysed that organisation feel helpless when their
talented employees switch to another company. For resolving theses issue organisation should
take corrective measures in order to retain their employees. Firstly, they should conduct a
research which helps them to analyser the key challenges and then formulate strategies
accordingly for overcoming with these challenges.
P2 Produce a performance management plan.
Performance management plan is the document or roadmap in which all activities are
listed related to the performance. Employees' performance is the important thing that should be
analysed by organisation time to time so that they can make sure about that their employees meet
the standard performance. Plan is very helpful in achievement of goals and objectives that set by

organisation. Unilever is the large organisation that need proper performance management plan
so that they can compare their performance with the standards and find differences. If they found
some differences then they should take necessary correctives actions. So that's why company
should produce a project management plan in which they include Gantt chart, WBS and many
more (Chamorro-Premuzic and et. al., 2017). Unilever has included many activities in their
performance management plans that are mentioned below:
Scope-: Scope is mainly the focus of report and the direction it is going in. This report
will mainly focus on WBS and Gantt chart.
Time-: It is very significant tool for any organisation. It nearly takes 2 to 8 weeks to
complete a proper research report. Completing task in time is very important to get an edge over
competitors.
Activities Expenditure (Pound)
 Analysed the issue £ 5.00
 Construction of plans £ 10.00
 Research evaluation £ 15.00
 Salary of researchers £ 18.00
 Miscellaneous expanses £ 20.00
 Project execution cost £ 25.00
Total £ 93.00
Quality-: Quality is very significant tool taken into consideration while making PMP. To
maintain proper quality PMP includes different tools and practises such as primary and
secondary methods, quantitative, qualitative methods and questionnaire (Dhanabhakyam and
Sowmya, 2018). In reference of Unilever organisation uses different resources to effectively
utilise primary and secondary methods and also to develop effect project management plan.
Communication-: Communication is also very important part of successful
implementation of any methodology. Barrier in communication leads to chaos and havoc thus
ineffective implementation of plan. It case of Unilever it is suggested to uses proper
communication tool such as social media, email, texts etc. It is very necessary for analysing the

result from data that generate through questionnaire. It is identified that communication can be
done through questionnaire with teachers, respondents, and classmates. They gave their answers
from the put up questions in a questionnaire.
Risk-: Risk factor is always certain for any implementation in research project. There are
different numbers of measures which are related to PMP in order to frame research project. It
takes into count various risk comes in between of research projects such as cost, expenses,
authenticity of information etc. careful examination of this risk factors will help them to
eliminate them and then complete the task properly (Ņikadimovs and Ivanchenko T).
Resource-: To complete PMP report it is necessary to use different resources effectively
and efficiently (Mupepi and Mupepi, 2017). PMP reports consist of different resources such as
laptop, mobile etc. Effective uses of these resources are very necessary for reducing chances of
mistake and increasing effectiveness.
These tools are very important it respect of preparing proper PMP research (Jon, 2017).
It includes various factors which are helpful to minimizing risk such as quality, communication,
scope and resources. To effectively utilising tools it is very necessary for members to understand
tools properly and then implement that.
P3) Make Gantt chart within time frames and work breakdown structure of stages for completing
the projects.
Unilever is a big organisation working on large scale and hence different tools and
practises are required by organisation top achieve there targeted goals. Gantt chart and work
breakdown structure play very vital role in performing this task effectively and efficiently. For
managing human resource of organisation and to augment productivity of labour force
organisation try to break works in small pieces as well as try to maintain a proper report of their
activities and time consumed by them (Md Ali, 2019). This task will hover around different
aspects of WBS and Gantt chart and also explain them briefly. Here it will also be understood
how these tools work with the help of different processes and framework implementation. In
case of Unilever, to carry out plan properly and to get result it is necessary to follow the steps
and processes of PMP.
Gantt chart:
Gantt chart is a chart based tool used to understand various activities performed by
organisation in a given time scale. It is a tool which helps in developing and frame plan for

eliminating rooms of mistakes. In Gantt chart the vertical line will show different time scale and
horizontal line shows different activities completed in that time period (Walford-Wright and
Scott-Jackson, 2018). Each activity is shown in the form of bar and the time duration as well the
schedule time to start is mentioned with each bar. Following are the things which can be seen
while reading Gantt chart. Those are what are various activities, start and end time of those
activities, how long the activity last and if there is any overlap in the activities. It is very
common tool used for proper talent management as well as to understand what improvement
company can make while performing different activities (Stegienko, 2017). Gantt chart also
involves making proper timetable for different activities thus provide a smooth pathway for
different activities. In case of Unilever Gantt chart is very important tool used in talent
management and activities management. It help organisation in reducing their work efforts and
also reducing chances of overlapping and mistakes. Also it provides them proper time
management plan work which implementation will help organisation to achieve targeted goals
and objectives.

Work breakdown structure:- As it can be understood from its name work breakdown
structure refers to breaking things into small parts and dimensions so that work can be done and
completed efficiently (Subow, 2019). This type of structure is very helpful in managing project
work and thus chances or rooms of mistake can be eliminated or reduced. Also because of
breaking work in small pieces or dimensions it become easy for individual to clear mind
regarding how to complete a task and thus it reduces individual overall burden. Without any such
type of burden individual can perform with their full capacity and hence increasing overall
productivity and production rate. There are two types of WBS which are deliverable based and
phase based. The only differences in these two phases are of elements which are aligned and
defined in the first stage of work break down structure. In case of Unilever this is very important
structure implemented to shorten working process and to lighten burden on the employees. This
structure also help in smoothing working culture in Unilever and hence reducing work efforts
within the organisation (Alruwaili, 2018). A full proof process and tentative flow of idea is very
necessary for framing effective and efficient work breakdown structure chart. The chart consist

of bunch of steps which is required to understand how and what type of work breakdown
organisation should work on so that all the assigned task can be completed timely. Hence from
above statements and information it can be understood that Work breakdown structure is very
important for any organisation and Unilever effectively use this structure to bring best out of
their employees and get best outcome for organisational growth and development (Szota, 2018).
TASK 2
P4) Describe qualitative and quantitative methods which result as conducting research meeting to
achieving goal and objectives.
To complete this report the methods of collection, analysing and interpretation of data are
mentioned below:
Qualitative approach: It is an approach under which non-numeric data is collected and
analysed. It consists of open ended questions (Bhastary, 2019). The research is based on
qualitative grounds. The methods involved in qualitative research are interviews, observations,
surveys, focus groups, etc. For completion of this research questionnaire consisting of open-
ended questions are asked.
Quantitative approach: Under this research numeric data is being calculated and use of
statistical figures is done to find a solution. To complete this research various tables, charts and
graphical representation are made. This helps to understand and analyse the data in an effective
way.
Data collection methods: There are 2 methods of collection of data naming primary and
secondary (Davoudi, Yaghoubi and Imani, 2018). It is helpful accomplish the desired
objectives that are set in the research. They are explained below:
Primary data: When data is collected by the researcher itself it is called primary method.
The information collected is raw and first hand. To complete this file questionnaire is being
prepared. The result is more reliable as the researcher has collected the data by own.
Secondary data: Secondary data involves use of already published articles journals. It is
important to check the reliability of data. Completion of this research various news editorials
journals articles have been studied. It is analysed that for the purpose of secondary research
literature review is undertaken. Literature review related to the topic is done at the initial part of
the file. As view point of authors that have already done the research will be helpful. Literature

review helps to understand the concept better and gain more insights about the topic. It is
important to do secondary research and in this research it is supported through literature review.
It is important to select right way of collection of data and then analysing it to draw a
reliable conclusion. The view point of employee’s play an important role and help to find the
right solutions about what they actually feel.
Questionnaire
Quantitative Questions
Q1) Do you know the concept of talent-management?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Do you think that talent management is important for organisation?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) Is talent management helps in organisations’ success and growth?
a) Yes
b) No
Q4) Is Unilever knowing the importance of talent management in the business world?
a) Yes
b) No
Q5) Is Unilever can use talent management in their organisations so that they can retain their high
skilful employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q6) Are Unilever facing any challenges in the process of talent management?
a) Yes
b) No
Q7) What are challenges face by organisation in order to talent management in Unilever?
a) Increasing in employees’ turnover ratio.

b) Higher compensation demands.
c) Lack of leadership.
Q8) What are crucial strategic measures that used by Unilever so that they can retain their
talented employees in the organisation?
a) Providing job description.
b) Providing workplace facilities.
c) Make a proper plan for obtaining success.
Q9) What are the necessary things that should be kept by HR manager of Unilever in talent
management scheme?
a) Retain talented and skilful workforce.
b) Increase employee’s performance.
c) Providing training programs.
d) Motivating human resources.
Q10) What are important practices which start by Unilever’s HR manager for making effective
talent management process?
a) Increasing Job satisfaction.
b) Motivation towards achieving goal.
c) Enhance interpersonal capabilities.
Qualitative questions
Q11) What are necessary corrective steps taken by HR manager of Unilever in order to manage
key challenges in the process of talent management?
 Improving leadership style.
 Reducing of employees’ turnover ratio
Q12) What are important strategies which used by Unilever for encouraging their employees to
improve their performance and productivity?
 Performance appraisal tools
 Guiding employees for achieving their goals
Q13) Recommendation

TASK 3 (In PPT)
TASK 4
P7) Produce reflection in order to effectively attained goal and objectives.
I feel privileged that I am given opportunity to complete this research. This research is
based on the challenges faced by Unilever to retain the talented staff. It is important for an
organisation to understand the importance of employees and find ways that help to retain them.
This research helped me to understand the practical implication in an organisation. What is the
importance of employees to organisation and how training and development help to improve
their knowledge and retain them for longer time period . This research helped me to enhance my
analysing skills. It was difficult for me to collect data from various sources. It is important to
collect the data that is authenticated and helps to draw valid conclusion. Various research
methods helped me to gain proper information and then find solution. Along with that Gantt
chart and WBS were used as effective tools that help to successfully complete this research.
There was problem of lack of time but this also increased my knowledge related to research and
will definitely help me in future for conducting further research. I come to know about various
Methods that support research. I also realised that it is important to know the method of research
that will be suitable to find the solution of the aim. Also I came to know that her of universe
place are important role in retaining the employees by supporting them and also by motivating
them. It was also analysed that an organisation to retain employees that to formulate various
strategies. The employees are important part of an organisation and productivity of organisation
depends on the efforts of the employees. I am feeling confident as I am able to successfully
conduct this research. This research helped to study a lot about talent management and the
practices that support the same. The role of HR in an organisation and how the retain employees.
The side of employees was also identified as that also plays a vital role. As there are various
challenges that are faced by Unilever to retain employees for which they formulate strategies that
help them to retain employees for longer period of time. Overall it was a knowledgeable
experience for me that will help in conducting future research.
CONCLUSION
From the above research it can be concluded that it is important to manage business
effectively to achieve the goals and objectives. The research was based on talent management in

relation to Unilever. There are is use of reviews given by authors to grab knowledge about the
topic. There are various methods and tools that help to successfully complete the research.
Questionnaire helped to know the point of view of employees and draw conclusion. The report
also includes use of Gantt chart and WBS.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Davoudi, S. A., Yaghoubi, N. M. and Imani, A., 2018. Designing a Comprehensive Model of
Talent Identification and Replacement of the Higher Education System in Sistan and
Baluchestan Province. Management Researches, 10(38), pp.251-276.
Jindal, P., Shaikh, M. and Shashank, G., 2017. Employee engagement; tool of talent retention:
Study of a pharmaceutical company. SDMIMD Journal of Management, 8(2), pp.7-16.
Hsieh, P. J., Chen, C. C. and Liu, W., 2019. Integrating talent cultivation tools to enact a
knowledge-oriented culture and achieve organizational talent cultivation
strategies. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 17(1), pp.108-124.
Vera-Barbosa, A. and Blanco-Ariza, A. B., 2019. MODEL FOR HUMAN TALENT
MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE-SECTOR SMEs IN BARRANQUILLA,
COLOMBIA. Innovar, 29(74), pp.25-44.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T., and et. al., 2017. The datafication of talent: How technology is
advancing the science of human potential at work. Current Opinion in Behavioral
Sciences, 18, pp.13-16.
Dhanabhakyam, M. and Sowmya, G., 2018. Operationalization of “talent” in indian it industry-
An empirical approach. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 8(12),
pp.370-378.
Ņikadimovs, O. and Ivanchenko, T., Soft skills gap and improving business competitiveness by
managing talent in the hospitality industry.
Jon, T. J., 2017. Channel for decision making-What a Talent Manager Should Do In
Practice. Asian Institute of Knowledge Management, 3(2), pp.6-6.
Md Ali, M. N., 2019. Relationship between talent management practices and employee retention.
Walford-Wright, G. and Scott-Jackson, W., 2018. Talent Rising; people analytics and technology
driving talent acquisition strategy. Strategic HR Review.
Stegienko, N., 2017. Assessment and analysis of talent management strategy on the example of a
logistics service enterprise (Doctoral dissertation, Katedra Procesów Zarządzania).
Subow, I., 2019. Mitarbeiterbindung in Klein-und Mittelunternehmen–Kann Talent Management
diese fördern?.
Lazarus, S., Talent Management–Instrument der Strategie-und Kulturarbeit. Human Resources
Consulting Review, p.25.
Szota, B., 2018. Managing Talent in Government Administration: Empirical Research
Findings. Human Resource Management/Zarzadzanie Zasobami Ludzkimi, 125(6).
Bhastary, M. D., 2019. Pengaruh Talent Management dan Knowledge Management terhadap
Organizational Performance dengan Employee Retention sebagai Variabel
Intervening. Jurnal Manajemen dan Keuangan, 8(3), pp.377-388.
Mupepi, M. G. and Mupepi, S. C., 2017. The Structure of Talent: A Co-Constructed Competency
Perspective. In Effective Talent Management Strategies for Organizational Success (pp. 57-
73). IGI Global.
Latukha, M. O., 2018. Talent development and a firm’s performance: Evidence from Russian
companies. Journal of General Management, 43(2), pp.51-62.

Appendix: Project Logbook

Student Name:
Project title:
Weeks:
Update on
weekly
research/tasks
achieved Points
to consider:
What have you
completed? Did
you fulfil task
requirements?
Are you on
track and
within
deadlines set?
Did you need to
make any
changes to your
project
management
plan?
This project is
based on talent
management.
I tried my best to
fulfil all the
requirements.
I am doing my
work on the basis
of proper strategy
so that every
thing will be
completed on
time.
It is identified that
there is no need of
change.
Any risks
and/or issues
identified?
Points to
consider: Did
you identify
risks/issues
with a lack of
No I was not find
any issue during
the continuation
of this project.
I identified some
risk in this project
that should be
consider in order
to achieve the
target.

skills required
for undertaking
research/tasks?
Did you
identify any
additional
risks/issues that
have an impact
on the project
management
plan?
Problems
encountered
Points to
consider: What
barriers did you
face? How did
you overcome
them?
As the employees
were not sharing
the information it
was a barrier
faced by them.
I assured the
employees that
there personal
information will
not be shared with
any one.
New ideas and
change of
project
direction
By taking review
of the employees
real situation can
be identified and
actions can be
taken.
There is
requirement of
various skills that
will helps the
employees i.e.
analytical skills,
intellectual skills,
etc.