Brexit's Effect on Unilever's Workforce: A Semester 2 Report

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PORTFOLIO

INTRODUCTION
This is a short report of the academic skills writing in which the discussion will be made on the
impacts of Brexit on the recruitment and retention of the organization. With the help of this
academic portfolio, the major activities of the organization can be easily identified along with
determining the accomplishments in terms of the services. In this academic portfolio, the focus
is on the recruitment and retention services of Unilever have been undertaken. The report will
also focus on some areas over others which depend on the purpose for creating promotion,
tenure or job search with retention of unskilled employees will be instigated in the study.
Brexit refers as the ‘British exit’ that defines the decision taken by UK on 23 June, 2016
regarding leaving European Union (EU). This was a major political change occurs in the UK
(Clarke et al., 2017). The decision has thrown a huge impact on the operations of various
businesses including their financial and funding activities, international or domestic sales,
retention of staffs and the business growth. The UK had been a great part of EU community and
therefore the decision of leaving it stands as a shocking decision for UK citizens. As a result,
Brexit has to face several political issues due to the rights of UK citizens and EU citizens living in
the UK (Clarke et al., 2017).

IMPACT OF BREXIT ON RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT OF SKILLED STAFF IN UNILEVER
Overview of Unilever and its recruitment
The impact of recruitment from current EU member states has directed on the exceptional skills
and competencies for the business. The role of client Hiring manager and HR functions can help
in securing the talent individual without compromising the position and planning. The
relationship might be deepening with the assistance of the HR functions within the client
organization (Hobolt, 2016).
Unilever is the British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company. This has included the
products such as food and beverages and cleaning agents and personal care products. The
Unilever is the finest organization through which more than 400 brands with turnover 2017 has
been listed. This has provided the products such as Axe, Dove, Omo, Lipton, Lux, Rexona,
Sunsilk and Surf. The food and refreshment and home care and beauty and personal care
products have been managed by the company.
Impact of Brexit on Unilever’s Recruitment process
At Unilever, a talented and skilled workforce is the key for business growth and success. A study
analyzed and portrays that there has been huge shortage of skilled workforce after the decision
of Brexit at Unilever. The skilled labors are highly brought affected due to this political change.
Brexit has its huge impact on the financial and banking system and the skilled staff due to which
Unilever need to think new and effective ideas about hiring and recruiting at the workplace
(Karpinska et al., 2013).

The increase number of older staff may block and stop the entrants of new skilled staff. Alike
with the EU countries, UK also has aged workforce (Wadsworth et al., 2016). In the companies
like Unilever, there is a skilled gap after the decision of Brexit and if it remains in continuity then
the company may leave with a GDP gap. Also, due to Brexit, the productivity sector is having
negative consequences (Karpinska et al., 2013). It has been estimated that if the movement
between UK and EU countries has shortened then it forms difficulty for Unilever to recruit a
skilled staff.
Unilever has protested that it has “nothing to do with Brexit” The decision of Brexit stands as a
talent issue in the entire globe and also brings the dynamics that is happening at Unilever but
still the company has decided to continue its operations at UK (Karpinska et al., 2013).
Figure 1: Impact of Brexit on Unilever's supply chain
Source: (Wadsworth et al., 2016)
It would recommend to Unilever to now make more investment in building skilled and inclusive
workforces (Dhingra et al., 2016). As it is a Dutch firm having direct investments in the UK earns
over €9bn by 2013. Since UK voted to leave EU countries, the people starts looking the jobs
outside the country that turns as an biggest disadvantages for Unilever. The statistics has
analyzed that there is a big rise in the unemployment rate of Unilever which is near about 6.2%
due to recession. Stills, the company have different plans to operate its business in UK by hiring
the skillful staffs in a fundamentally different way (Dhingra et al., 2016).

CONCLUSION
The portfolio has made a deep discussion on the impact of Brexit in the operations of the UK
companies. It has the main focus on the business operations of Unilever and determines the
impacts of Brexit on the recruitment and retention of talented staff at the workplace. In a
nutshell, it can be said that Unilever has not highly affected by the decision of Brexit as it
continues its business operations in UK even after the country voted to leave EU.

REFERENCES
Clarke, H.D., Goodwin, M.J., Goodwin, M. and Whiteley, P., 2017. Brexit. Cambridge University
Press.
Dhingra, S., Ottaviano, G., Sampson, T. and Van Reenen, J., 2016. The impact of Brexit on
foreign investment in the UK. BREXIT 2016, 24, p.2.
Hobolt, S.B., 2016. The Brexit vote: a divided nation, a divided continent. Journal of European
Public Policy, 23(9), pp.1259-1277.
Karpinska, K., Henkens, K. and Schippers, J., 2013. Retention of older workers: Impact of
managers’ age norms and stereotypes. European Sociological Review, 29(6), pp.1323-1335.
Wadsworth, J., Dhingra, S., Ottaviano, G. and Van Reenen, J., 2016. Brexit and the Impact of
Immigration on the UK. Centre for Economic Performance. LSE, pp.34-53.